Week 4: Psychological Measurement

Question 1

Assignment of scores to individuals so that the scores represent some characteristics of individuals:

Answer 1

Measurement

Question 2

What is a psychological measurement called?

Answer 2

Psychometrics

Question 3

Psychological variable that represents an individual’s mental state of experience, often not directly observable:

Answer 3

Psychological Construct

Question 4

What are personality traits, emotional states, attitudes and abilities?

Answer 4

Psychological constructs

Question 5

Why are psychological constructs not observable?

Answer 5

• Represent general tendencies, not true 100% of the time.

- Often involve internal process which are unseen

Question 6

What are the big five personality dimensions? OCEAN

Answer 6

1. Openness to experience
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

Question 7

Describes behaviours and internal processes that make up a psychological construct, along with how it relates to other variables:

Answer 7

Conceptual definition

Question 8

Are conceptual definitions concrete?

Answer 8

No. They are proposed, tested empirically and revised as necessary by researchers

Question 9

Definition of a variable in terms of precisely how it is to be measured:

Answer 9

Operational definition

Question 10

What are the three categories of operational definition?

Answer 10

1. Self report
2. Behavioural measures
3. Physiological measures (eg. heart rate)

Question 11

Can constructs have multiple operational definitions?

Answer 11

Yes

Question 12

When psychologists use multiple operational definitions of the same construct - either within a study or across studies:

Answer 12

Converging operations

Question 13

When converging operational definitions produce same pattern of results:

Answer 13

Good evidence the construct is being measured effectively and is useful

Question 14

What are the four levels of measurement?

Answer 14

• Nominal
• Ordinal
• Internal
• Ration

Question 15

Measurement level for categorical variables with no order and assigning scores to a category:

Answer 15

Nominal level

Question 16

Measurement level for lowest level of measurement:

Answer 16

Nominal level

Question 17

What kind of measurement level is martial status?

Answer 17

Nominal level

Question 18

Measurement level that assigns scores in rank order:

Answer 18

Ordinal level

Question 19

Measurement level that is ordered:

Answer 19

Ordinal level

Question 20

What is the issue with ordinal level of measurement?

Answer 20

Difference between scores not necessarily equal

Question 21

Rankings of runners as first, second third etc is what kind of measurement level?

Answer 21

Ordinal level

Question 22

Measurement level where scores on the numerical scale are even throughout but has no zero point:

Answer 22

Interval level

Question 23

IQ test scores and Fahrenheit are what kind of measurement level?

Answer 23

Interval level

Question 24

Measurement level which has a zero point on a numerical scale:

Answer 24

Ratio level

Question 25

Measurement level which covers height or weight?

Answer 25

Ratio level

Question 26

What refers to the consistency of a measure?

Answer 26

Reliability

Question 27

What are the three types of consistency?

Answer 27

- Overtime (test-retest reliability) - Across items (internal consistency) - Across different researchers (inter-rater reliability)

Question 28

What measure of consistency goes over time?

Answer 28

Test-retest reliability

Question 29

What kind of consistency goes across items?

Answer 29

Internal consistency

Question 30

What kind of consistency goes across different researchers?

Answer 30

Inter-rater reliability

Question 31

When the scores are consistent across time, the construct has:

Answer 31

Test-retest reliability

Question 32

What test-retest correlation score indicates good reliability?

Answer 32

+.80 or more

Question 33

Trest-retrest reliability is measured using:

Answer 33

Correlation between two scores sets

Question 34

Internal consistency is measured using:

Answer 34

- Split-half correlation | - Cronbach's alpha

Question 35

Consistency of people's responses across the items on a multi-item measure:

Answer 35

Internal consistency

Question 36

Splitting test items into two and examining the relationship between two sets of scores in order to assess the internal consistency of a measure :

Answer 36

Split-half correlation

Question 37

What split-half correlation score indicates good internal consistency?

Answer 37

+.80 or more

Question 38

The later developed statistic that measures the internal consistency among items in a measure:

Answer 38

Cronbach's alpha

Question 39

Mean of all possible split-half correlations for a set of items:

Answer 39

Cronbach's alpha

Question 40

What Cronbach's alpha value indicates good internal consistency?

Answer 40

+.80 or more

Question 41

Extent to which different observers are consistent in their judgements:

Answer 41

Interrater reliability

Question 42

How is interrater reliability accessed?

Answer 42

- Cronbach's alpha for quantitative | - Cohen's K for categorical

Question 43

The extent to which the scores from a measure represent the variable the way they are intended to:

Answer 43

Validity

Question 44

A measure can be _________ but have no ________

Answer 44

A measure can be reliable but have no validity

Question 45

What are the three types of validity:

Answer 45

- Face validity - Content validity - Criterion validity

Question 46

Extent to which a measurement method appears superficially to measure the construct of interest?

Answer 46

Face validity

Question 47

What is the weakest evidence of validity?

Answer 47

Face validity

Question 48

Extent to which a measure covers the construct of interest:

Answer 48

Content validity

Question 49

Is content validity assessed quantitatively?

Answer 49

No

Question 50

Assed by checking the measurement method against the conceptual definition of the construct:

Answer 50

Content validity

Question 51

Extent to which people's scores on a measure are correlated with other variables (criterion) that one would expect them to be correlated with:

Answer 51

Criterion validity

Question 52

Scores on a measure of text anxiety should be negatively correlated with performance in school tests:

Answer 52

Criterion validity

Question 53

A variable that theoretically should be correlated with the construct being measured:

Answer 53

Criterion

Question 54

Form of criterion validity where the criterion is measured at the same time as the construct:

Answer 54

Concurrent validity

Question 55

Form of validity where the criterion is measured at some point in the future after the construct has been measured:

Answer 55

Predictive validity

Question 56

Form of validity whereby new measures are correlated with existing established measures of the same construct:

Answer 56

Convergent validity

Question 57

Extent to which scores on a measure of a construct are not correlated with a measure of other conceptually distinct constructs, and thus discriminate between them:

Answer 57

Discriminant validity

Question 58

People's scores on a measure of self-esteem should not be very highly correlated with their mood:

Answer 58

Discriminant validity

Question 59

What is the four-step measurement process?

Answer 59

1. Conceptually define the construct 2. Operationally define the construct 3. Implement the measure 4. Evaluate the measure

Question 60

What are the two ways a construct can be operationally defined?

Answer 60

1. Use existing measure: | 2. Create own measure: only if no existing measure exists

Question 61

Participants responding in a way that is appropriate but not true when taking the test:

Answer 61

Socially desirable responding

Question 62

Subtle cues that reveal how the researcher expects participants to respond to measure:

Answer 62

Demand characteristics

Question 63

How to minimise false answers on a measure:

Answer 63

- Make procedure clear and brief - Guaranteed anonymity - Have a blind helper administer test - Standardise all interactions