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psychometrics > quiz 1 > Flashcards

quiz 1 Flashcards

1
Q

what is psychometric theory

A

The science concerned with evaluating the attributes of psychological tests

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2
Q

what is a psychological test

A

A systematic procedure for comparing the behavior of two or more people or the behavior of the same person at two different points in time.

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3
Q

some characteristics of tests

A
  • Collected under standardized conditions
  • Designed to measure a trait or construct of interest
    o Constructs are not tangible, they can be inferred (e.g. intelligence)
  • Scored or evaluated according to systematic procedures
  • Usually renders quantitative data (not always)
  • Evaluated against norms
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4
Q

what is a construct

A

An abstraction that we cannot directly see, feel, or touch – such as intelligence – but we can infer its presence from the individual’s behavior (i.e., test performance)

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5
Q

what is standardization

A
  • Sample of behavior is collected under controlled conditions
  • When you give these tests, it will tell you what to ask, you do not have to commit questions to memory, ask things the way the manual tells you to ask it (minimizes error)
  • Specified by specific directions for administration that must be followed for each examinee without variation
  • Ensures that extraneous sources of error are minimized
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6
Q

what are norms

A
  • An examinee’s performance is evaluated against a set of norms
  • The test or scale has been administered to a large, representative sample of individuals
  • Allows us to ascertain what is typical or atypical performance
  • norms are updated overtime
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7
Q

advantages of psychological testing

A
  • Less subject to clinician bias than non-standardized observations (interview)
  • Empirical basis for reliability (consistency) and validity (accuracy with which a test measures a trait or makes a diagnosis)
  • Validity is comparable to that of medical tests (Meyer et al 2001)
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8
Q

what are all of the components of psychological assessment (there are 4, not just the test itself)

A

psychological testing, interview and observations, history, and informant data

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9
Q

explain the four components of the psychological testing pyramid

A

1) Items
- Most small discrete thing, any individual question or task that is on the test

2) Scales
- Collections of items
- Ex. Aspects of personality across different domains (depression, manic behavior, etc.)
- Adding up all the items that are about a different domain is a scale

3) Tests
- Collection of scales, taking all of the scales and putting them all together in a test format

4) Test Batteries
- Refers to the idea that you will rarely ever give one test, if you want to know what is going on with someone psychologically you will give them multiple tests, different tests to find common themes among all of the tests
- Different tests put together to look for common themes
- Some test batteries have already been created, others you can make up yourself

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10
Q

what are the three major types of tests psychologists give out

A

cognitive functioning, personality, and interests attitudes and values

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11
Q

what are the three kinds of cognitive functioning tests

A

1) Intelligence (global ability)
- Get a sense of what a person’s intelligence quotient is, what is a person capable of
2) Achievement
- What is a person actually achieving
3) Aptitude
- Do not worry about this, similar to IQ, but is more narrow of a concept, tends to be more specific to the workplace environment

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12
Q

what are the two kinds of personality tests

A

1) Self-Report (objective)
- Person taking the test is telling the test-giver what they think

2) Performance-Based (projective)
- Person does not necessarily know what they are communicating through their answer, know what they are drawing or writing but do not know what is significant about what they are doing

If you are doing a test battery, you should have a combination of both of these kinds of tests

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13
Q

what is a norm referenced psychological test

A
  • evaluated against a set of norms collected from a particular population.
  • Whatever score the person produces on the test, says where their score stands in relation to everyone else
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14
Q

what is a criterion referenced psychological test

A

evaluated against a predetermined set of criteria

-Example: a grade in any academic course where the school says less than a 75% is academic probation

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15
Q

what is a speed test

A
  • items are easy
  • Score based on number completed within a specified time
  • Will still be marked wrong, but more interested in how quickly someone can navigate the task

Examples:

  • Solving a page of simple addition problems
  • Pressing a button as many times as possible within 30 seconds
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16
Q

what is a power test

A
  • Items vary in difficulty
  • Score based on number of items answered correctly

Examples:

  • Academic achievement
  • Intellectual ability
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17
Q

measurement vs. statistics

A

Measurement = a process by which numbers are assigned to observations
-THIS COURSE IS ABOUT MEASUREMENT

Statistics = procedures used to analyze the data generated by measurement (you have to have things measured to do statistics)

  • Descriptive
  • Inferential
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18
Q

what are the four levels of measurement

A

nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio

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19
Q

explain nominal measurement

A
  • Classification into two or more distinct groups
  • YES/NO
  • MALE/FEMALE
  • RACIAL/ETHNIC IDENTIFICATION

Important: Groups are presumed to be equal
-Simplistic form of measurement, put things into categories (level of precision is not very high with nominal numbers)

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20
Q

explain ordinal measurement

A
  • Slightly more precise level of measurement, a ranking system is operating
  • Ranks
    ex. GRADE IN SCHOOL
  • What grade level you are in
  • CLASS RANK

Important: Ranks need not be equally spaced (we do not have precision to know how far of a rank, how far apart things are from one another) ex. One person who has one month left of 6th grade vs someone who just started 6th grade
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

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21
Q

explain interval measurement

A

Numerical scale with each point of the scale separated by an equal interval (more useful and precise), most numbers we will be working with will be interval data

  • GPA
  • Temperature on Fahrenheit scale
  • Scores on an IQ test
  • Scores on an MMPI-2 scale

Interval numbers will be able to tell you where someone is in comparison to other people their age

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22
Q

explain ratio measurement

A

An “absolute zero” exists

ex. LENGTH
- TEMPERATURE ON THE KELVIN SCALE
- 0 degrees kelvin means there is no thermal energy at all and you would freeze and die, Fahrenheit 0 degrees is possible but it does not mean there is no thermal energy
- TIME
- NUMBER OF ITEMS COMPLETED

rare in psychological measurement

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23
Q

general summary of the four measurement types

A
  • Nominal (categories)
  • Ordinal (ranks)
  • Interval (scores)
  • Ratio (meaningful absolute zero exists)
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24
Q

what are the 3 item formats in psychological tests

A

1) Free Response
- Projective Tests
- Some WAIS-IV subtests
- Essay tests

2) Dichotomous
- True/False
- Is it A or B?

3) Polytomous (Polychotomous)
- Multiple Choice

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25
Q

what is a likert scale

A

I am confident that I will achieve my life goals

  • Strongly agree
  • Agree
  • Neutral
  • Disagree
  • Strongly disagree
26
Q

explain q-sort questions

A
  • Fixed set of items
  • Fixed set of categories
  • Number of items per category specified in advance
  • Possible distributions
  • (Nearly) normal
  • Rectangular
  • Something where 6 categories 50 items and can only put 5 cards in each category, make sure there is X amount of responses per category
  • Produces a more normal distribution, impossible to put all 60 cards in one category
27
Q

what are the two kinds of item scoring

A

binary : right/wrong

non-binary: items receive range of scores

28
Q

what is a raw score

A

total number of points earned on something

29
Q

what is frequency distribution

A

Table that gives the number of people who obtained each possible raw score

30
Q

what is a histogram

A

If you flip a frequency distribution horizontal you have a histogram (visual image

31
Q

what is a frequency polygon

A

Draw the lines/peaks of the histogram

32
Q

what is a central tendency distribution

A

averages, the score that most people obtain, things cluster around the mean

33
Q

what is variability

A

Dispersion, in what ways are the scores dispersed from the mean and from each other

34
Q

what is skewness

A

Refers to the idea that a lot of people are getting not so great grades, not a normal distribution, peak of the curve (tail) is stronger one way or another

35
Q

what is kurtosis

A

Flatness or peakedness

36
Q

mean, median, mode, range

A

Mean = average

Median = score that falls exactly in the middle

Mode = the most common score
-It is possible to have more than one mode

Range = (lowest, highest)

  • PROBLEM: Subject to outliers
  • Not necessarily optimal, you can have a lot of scores that cluster towards the center of the distribution and the range does not necessarily give you an accurate portrayal of what’s going on
37
Q

what is standard deviation

A
  • Average amount by which a score deviates from the mean

- Gives us a higher level of precision than the range

38
Q

what is the expression under square root in standard deviation equation

A

variance, standard deviation is the square root of variance

39
Q

how do you get sample variance and what is it

A

For the sample variance, we divide by N-1 to get an unbiased estimate of the population variance

40
Q

how to find standard deviation in words

A

Square root of the average of all squared deviations from the mean

Procedure

  1. Subtract the mean from each individual score
  2. Square each of these differences
  3. Add them together
  4. Divide by N
  5. Take the square root of this mean
41
Q

what are the two kinds of skewness

A

1) Positive Skew = longer tail on right
2) Negative Skew = longer tail on left
“The tail tells the tale” (Wherever the tail is pointing, left is negative, right is positive)

42
Q

explain positive skew

A
  • Most scores pile up at LOW end and fewer scores at HIGH end
  • Test has an INADEQUATE FLOOR
  • i.e., it is too DIFFICULT for the test-takers so can’t differentiate among people at the LOW end of the ability scale
  • Solution: Replace harder items with easier items
43
Q

explain negative skew

A
  • Most scores pile up at HIGH end and fewer scores at LOW end
  • Test has an INADEQUATE CEILING
  • i.e., it is too EASY for the test-takers so can’t differentiate among people at the HIGH end of the ability scale
  • Solution: Replace easier items with harder items
44
Q

skewness and measures of central tendency

A

Positive skew
-Mode < Median < Mean

Negative skew
-Mean < Median < Mode

45
Q

what are the two kinds of kurtosis

A

1) Platykurtic = flat (like a “plate” = platy-)

2) Leptokurtic = peaked

46
Q

what is modality

A
  • Distributions can have more than one mode Multimodal

- Example of a bimodal distribution (2 modes)

47
Q

explain important properties of normal distribution

A
  • Mean = Median = Mode
  • Symmetrical around the mean
  • Asymptotic tails (approach but never reach zero)
  • distribution allows us to know (with precision how far certain scores are from the mean)
48
Q

what does one standard deviation, two standard deviations, and three standard deviations away from the mean include (in normal distribution)

A

One standard deviation each way from the mean in each direction includes 68% of all people who took the test

  • Two standard deviations away in each direction included 95%
  • three standards deviations away is 99&
49
Q

explain the percentiles

A

“You scored higher than 84% of people who took this test”

.5th, 2.5th, 16th, 50th, 84th, 97.5th, 99.5th

50
Q

what are the two kinds of norms

A

developmental and within-group

51
Q

what are the two kinds of developmental norms

A

age-equivalent scores (mental age) and grade-equivalent scores

52
Q

explain age-equivalent scores

A
  • Based on the average raw score of individuals of different age groups in the standardization sample
  • If an examinee gets a raw score of 25, and the mean raw score for 10 year olds is 25, then the examinee’s mental age is 10.
  • Months are determined by interpolation.
    ex. If mean for age 10 is 25 and mean for age 11 is 35, then an examinee who scores 30 would receive a Mental Age of 10 years, 6 months (halfway between 10 and 11).
53
Q

explain grade-equivalent scores

A
  • Based on the average raw score of individuals in the standardization sample who are in a particular school grade
  • If an examinee gets a raw score of 25, and the mean raw score for those in grade 5 is 25, then the examinee’s grade-equivalent score is 5.
  • Months are determined by interpolation.
    ex. If mean for grade 5 is 25 and mean for grade 6 is 35, then an examinee who scores 30 would receive a GE of 5.5, halfway between 25 and 35.
54
Q

explain what developmental norms are telling you

A
  • If a 4th grade child gets a GE score of 7.4 in Arithmetic it does not mean that she has mastered 7th grade arithmetic
  • It means that the 4th grade child is well above average compared to other 4th graders
  • You scored that well, relative to other fourth graders
  • The child’s raw score was equal to children in 4th month of 7th grade – but the child could have obtained that raw score by answering all the easier items correctly without necessarily answering correctly items at the 5th, 6th, or 7th grade level
  • Some tests are adapted depending on age, but other ones are the same across the board
  • How well you perform is based on the norms for people of different ages and how well they are doing on the test
55
Q

explain correct and incorrect developmental norms interpretation

A

Developmental Norms Correct Interpretation
For a 4th grader who obtains a GE of 7.4 in Arithmetic:
This student’s raw score on the test was comparable to the average score obtained by a group of students in the 4th month of 7th grade. This means that the student scored well above average for a 4th grader.

Developmental Norms Incorrect Interpretation
For a 4th grader who obtains a GE of 7.4 in Arithmetic:
This 4th grade student is ready for a 7th-grade Math class.

56
Q

what are the four types of within group norms (comparing examinee directly against peers)

A
  • Percentile Rank
  • Z-Scores
  • T-Scores
  • Standard Scores
57
Q

what are percentiles

A

-Percentage of the sample that obtained scores that were equal to or lower than the score obtained by the examinee

58
Q

how to do a percentile calculation

A

Can be obtained from the frequency distribution (see p. 10) by….
-calculating the CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY for each score

Cumulative Frequency = number of people who obtained a raw score equal to or lower than (≤) a given raw score
-dividing that cumulative frequency by the number of scores (N)
Ex. (referring to frequency distribution on p.10 N=100)

59
Q

what is a caution we need to have about percentile ranks

A

-Distance between two adjacent percentile ranks is not equal across the scale

Percentiles are on an ORDINAL (not interval) scale
-Lose a level of precision when using percentiles

60
Q

what is a z-score

A
  • How far away from the mean the raw score lies measured in units of standard deviation.
  • When you see these, think standard deviation, because that is what this is telling you, how many standard deviations away a number is from the mean
  • Z-Scores do not go past 3
61
Q

what do the different z scores mean (0, 1, -1)

A
  • z = 0 corresponds to a score exactly at the mean
  • z = +1.00 corresponds to a score that is one standard deviation above the mean
  • z = -1.00 corresponds to a score that is one standard deviation below the mean
62
Q

how do you calculate z-scores

A
  1. Subtract the Mean (M) from the raw score
  2. Divide this difference by the standard deviation (s)

the sign is very important

psychometrics (12 decks)

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