research methods exam 2 Flashcards
self report measurement
type of measurement
-participants provide information about themselves through a survey, questionnaire, interviews or even diaries giving responses to pre-set questions
Ex: Likert scale
observational/behavioral measurement
type of measurement
-researcher observes & records some behavior
Ex: kids in class, rats in lab
physiological measurement
type of measurement
-recording any of a wide variety of physiological processes
Ex: heart rate, pulse, blood pressure, eye tracker
categorical variable
scale of measurement
-countable number of distinct groups based on a characteristic
-cannot be ordered or measured numerically
Ex: ordinal
quantitative variable
scale of measurement
-represents data in numerical form and these numbers have meaning attached
Ex: ratio, interval
ordinal measurement
scale of measurement
-represents categories and groups with a ranking order
-first, second, third
-unequal distance between categories
-no true zero
Ex: education levels, stages of disease, sports ranking, grades (A-F)
interval measurement
scale of measurement
-numbers ordered on a scale
-intervals between data points are consistent and meaningful
-no true zero
Ex: temperature, IQ, standardized test scores
ratio measurement
scale of measurement
-data on a scale with a true zero
-equal intervals
Ex: height, weight, age, time, distance, test score (0-100), exam (number of correct answers)
face and content validity
-does it look like a good measure?
-both face and content validity are subjective ways to assess validity
face: it looks like what you want to measure
content: the measure contains all the parts that your theory says it should contain
criterion validity
-does the measure correlate with key behaviors?
-correlational evidence for criterion validity
Ex: NCLEX correlates with being a good nurse
Ex: SAT doesn’t have good criterion validity - it is not directly tied to good/bad results or success in school
convergent & discriminant (divergent) validity
-does the pattern make sense?
convergent: test of the extent to which a self-report measure correlates with other measures of a theoretically similar construct
discriminant: test of the extent to which a self-report measure does not
correlate strongly with measures of theoretically dissimilar constructs
test-retest
consistent scores every time the measure is used
interrater reliability
consistent scores no matter who does the measuring
internal reliability
internal consistency; participants provide a consistent pattern of responses, regardless of how the researcher has phrased the question
open ended survey question
-allows respondents to answer any way they like
more detail, but more time
forced choice survey question
-forces people to choose yes/no or pick the best of 2 or more options
less time, clear answer, but less detail
Likert scale survey question
a rating scale containing multiple response options anchored by the specific terms including term “(dis)agree” (strongly agree-strongly disagree)
Likert-type scale
basically the same as Likert, but not using the term “(dis)agree”
-can be likeliness, satisfaction, importance
semantic differential format survey question
response scale whose numbers are anchored at both ends with contrasting adjectives
Ex: horrible 1 2 3 4 5 fantastic
wording questions
-more variations in question wording than type of question
leading questions - questions/wording to avoid
-wording encourages one response more than others
-weak construct validity
keywords: “do you agree?”, “wasn’t the…
?”