ch 3: Defining and measuring variables

Question 1

variable

Answer 1

characteristic or condition that changes or has different values for different individuals

Question 2

constructs or hypothetical constructs

Answer 2

hypothetical attributes or mechanisms that help explain and predict behaviour in a theory (eg. motivation)

Question 3

theory

Answer 3

set of statements about the mechanisms underlying a particular behaviour; generates predictions

Question 4

operational definition

Answer 4

procedure for indirectly measuring and defining a variable that cannot be observed or measured directly; specifies a measurement procedure (a set of operations) for measuring an external, observable behaviour and uses the resulting measurements as a definition and a measurement of the hypothetical construct; measures and defines construct

Question 5

operationalizing a construct

Answer 5

process of creating an operation definition for a construct (clustering behaviours associated with concept as a measurement of it and defining it)

Question 6

example of a construct; operational def

Answer 6

intelligence; IQ test

Question 7

limitations of operational definitions (

Answer 7

(1) not a one-to-one relationship between the variable that is being measured and the actual measurements produced by operation defs, (2) can leave out important components of a construct (tip: include multiple procedures for measuring same variable) and (3) may contain extra components that are not part of the construct being measured

Question 8

criteria for evaluation the quality of any measurement procedure (2)

Answer 8

(1) validity and (2) reliability

Question 9

validity

Answer 9

whether a measurement procedure is actually measuring what it claims to be measuring

Question 10

types of validity (6)

Answer 10

(1) face, (2) concurrent, (3) predictive, (4) construct, (5) convergent, and (6) divergent

Question 11

face validity

Answer 11

least scientific; based on superficial appearance or face value of a measurement procedure

Question 12

concurrent validity

Answer 12

comparing to established procedure

Question 13

predictive validity

Answer 13

accurately predict behaviour

Question 14

construct validity

Answer 14

a variable behaves in exactly the same way as the variable itself (comparing to past research)

Question 15

convergent validity

Answer 15

different methods for measuring the same construct have related scored

Question 16

divergent validity

Answer 16

measuring two different constructs and having scores NOT relate

Question 17

reliability

Answer 17

stability or consistency of a measurement

Question 18

measured score = _____ + _____

Answer 18

true score; error

Question 19

sources of error (3)

Answer 19

(1) observer, (2) environmental, and (3) participant

Question 20

types of reliability (4)

Answer 20

(1) test-retest, (2) parallel-forms, (3) inter-rater, and (4) split-half

Question 21

split-half reliability

Answer 21

slitting the items on a questionnaire or test in half, computing a separate score for each half and then calculating the degree of consistency between the two scores for a group of participants

Question 22

accuracy

Answer 22

degree to with the measurement conforms to the established standard

Question 23

scale of measurment

Answer 23

set of categories that measurements are classifying individuals into

Question 24

types of measurement scales (4)

Answer 24

(1) nominal, (2) ordinal, (3) ratio, and (4) interval

Question 25

nominal scale

Answer 25

quality not quantity (eg. hair color)

Question 26

ordinal scale

Answer 26

ordered series without equal intervals; rank; can tell direction of difference but not magnitude (eg. t-shirt size)

Question 27

interval scale

Answer 27

sequential with each interval being the same, no absolute zero (eg. celcius)

Question 28

ratio scale

Answer 28

sequential with each interval being the same, WITH absolute zero (eg. weight)

Question 29

modalities of measurement (3)

Answer 29

(1) self-report, (2) physiological and (3) behavioural

Question 30

advantage of self-report

Answer 30

most direct way to assess a construct

Question 31

advantage of physiological measures

Answer 31

objective

Question 32

disadvantage of physiological measures

Answer 32

is it measuring the construct? expensive!

Question 33

ceiling effect

Answer 33

when the range is restricted at the high end

Question 34

floor effect

Answer 34

clustering at the low end of the scale; restricted range

Question 35

range effect

Answer 35

ceiling and floor effects

Question 36

artifact

Answer 36

nonnatural feature accidentally introduced into something being observed (ie. external factor); can threaten validity and maybe reliability

Question 37

common artifacts (2)

Answer 37

(1) experimenter bias and (2) participant reactivity

Question 38

reactivity

Answer 38

participants modifying behaviour in response to being a participant in a study or knowledge that they are being measured

Question 39

subject role (behaviours) (4)

Answer 39

(1) good subject role, (2) negativistic subject role, (3) apprehensive subject role, and (4) faithful subject