Chapter 2

Question 1

what was Anne Anatasi’s definition of a psychological test?

Answer 1

an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behaviour

Question 2

what is a sample of behaviour?

Answer 2

refers to an individuals performance on a task agreed upon beforehand

Question 3

what were the four main elements of Anne Anatasi’s definition of a psychological test?

Answer 3

• tests are about behaviour of person that can be observable/non-obserable
• test measures a sample of behaviour
• tests should be objective and standardized
• standardized tests produce standardized scores (ex. z scores)

Question 4

what is generalizability theory?

Answer 4

extent to which test results vary

Question 5

what is a sample?

Answer 5

a set of observations/scores/measurements collected

Question 6

are sample of behaviour tests always accurate?

Answer 6

no, not always representative

you could have a bad day, or have extraneous factors

Question 7

how can tests be objective and standardized?

Answer 7

• when questions are equal (either same, taken from bank, or all of equivalent difficulty)
• when tests are scored in a consistent manner

depends on: purpose of test, what it is trying to measure, method of measurement

Question 8

what is a z-score

Answer 8

a number ranging from -3 to +3 which expresses how well you did relative to others

tells who the proportion of entire sample that falls between 2 z scores

Question 9

what would a z score of +3, +1, and 0.5 tell you?

Answer 9

+3 = much better than everyone else in group (99% better)

+1 = higher than most in group (72% better)

0.5 = central part of distribution of scores (where most people score/average)

Question 10

when is a test objective

Answer 10

• when it is not influenced by beliefs of person making test
• when Q’s do not unfairly disadvantage test taker
• when test is free of bias
• depends on what test should measure and how well it does at that

Question 11

what was Lee Cronbach’s definition of a psychological test?

Answer 11

a systematic procedure for comparing the behaviour of 2 people

relinquishes idea of scoring tests in a standardized way

emphasizes that purpose of test is to compare individuals

Question 12

how was the field of psychometrics founded?

Answer 12

1935 - psychometric society founded by Louis Leon Thurstone who wanted to emphasize the mathematical foundations of psychological research

Question 13

define psychometrics

Answer 13

psych field concerned with theory and methods of psychological measurement

Question 14

what are the two main elements of psychometrics?

Answer 14

construction of instruments + procedures for measurement (involves measuring traits, characteristics, symptoms, etc.)

development/refinement of theoretical approaches to measurement (used to evaluate statistical properties of questionnaires, or accuracy of scorers judgements)

Question 15

what is a construct and who came up with it?

Answer 15

idea/concept that a researcher would like to measure

Lee Cronbach and Paul Meehl (1995)

Question 16

what are some of the elements of constructs?

Answer 16

include attributes that character a person (ex. shyness, intelligence, etc.) which are reflected in test scores

are generally unobservable

measuring a construct involves creating a set of measures (operationalized measure)

Question 17

what are nomological networks and who came up with them?

Answer 17

Lee Cronbach and Paul Meehl

specifies what qualities/attributes a construct refers to and how that construct is related o other constructs

also what operations would be used to measure the qualities that define a construct

Question 18

what are the two types of definitions that every construct has?

Answer 18

formal (what it is) and operational definition (how it is measured)

Question 19

what is a leap of faith?

Answer 19

assigning numbers to individuals in a systematic way, according to a rule/convention (imposing a scale)

imposes a relationship upon indicators that may/may not be justifiable

Question 20

what are non-paramedic operations

Answer 20

not leap of faith

stat methods that don’t make assumptions (no number assignment)

Question 21

what are the two main implications of number assignment (leap of faith)

Answer 21

people will be given a score than can be compared

you will get a distribution of scores from the group

Question 22

what is a distribution of scores?

Answer 22

visual representation of number of each score

Question 23

what is central tendency?

Answer 23

central/middle part of a distribution of scores

Question 24

what is the median score?

Answer 24

absolute middle of a group of scores

can be smaller/larger than the mean

easily influenced by extreme scores

Question 25

what is standard deviation

Answer 25

a single number than can describe the degree to which very person in a group tends to deviate/vary/spread out allow you to compare groups of people with a single number

Question 26

what does the ability to compare individuals depend on?

Answer 26

amount of test scores variability there needs to be enough variability in scores to capture the actual degree in variability among test participants for proper comparison variability allows you to see how characteristics are related

Question 27

what is a score

Answer 27

when constructs are represented by numbers

Question 28

what is a variable

Answer 28

what a score is referred to as when used in analysis

Question 29

what are the three main types of variables?

Answer 29

discrete, continuous, and dichotomous

Question 30

what are discrete variables?

Answer 30

difference between one member of group and next is very discernible (ex. 1% and 80%) usually a very small # of subgroups ex. race, year of study

Question 31

what are continuous variables?

Answer 31

differences between one member of group and next are not very discernible (ex. 78% and 79%) many different possible values (ie. 0 to 100% on a test) ex. severity of depression, midterm grade, etc.

Question 32

what are dichotomous variables?

Answer 32

discrete variables that have two levels ex. gender used to be

Question 33

what is the benefit of expanding discrete categories?

Answer 33

allows for examination of differences among individuals that were ignored before ex. measuring gender as only female/male not representative and could be expanded

Question 34

when are continuous variables converted to discrete?

Answer 34

when slight differences (ex. 78 to 79%) are less important than the broader category (B+) or made when the construct being studied is more discrete in nature

Question 35

what is a true score?

Answer 35

most accurate representation of the actual amount of ability/traits/condition/knowledge score you would achieve if conditions were completely ideal very difficult to achieve, but possible

Question 36

what are the two main types of variation?

Answer 36

unsystematic and systematic variation

Question 37

what is unsystematic variation?

Answer 37

variation in test scores that can be attributed to unpredictable and random events affecting individuals taking the test events are considered random because they don't affect everyone can work out in your favor, or harm you ex. guessing answers, being tired

Question 38

what is systematic variation?

Answer 38

variation in scores that can be attributed to differences among individuals (or subgroups of individuals) that are predictable is something that affects everyone, or a large subgroup of people taking the test ex. bad prof, bus not showing up for majority of class

Question 39

is the greatest amount of variation among scores attributed to systematic or unsystematic differences?

Answer 39

systematic differences

Question 40

what would happen in terms of variation if a test was too susceptible to random factors?

Answer 40

there would be too much unsystematic variation scores would not be stable/reliable different results would be yielded every time

Question 41

what would happen in terms of variation if a test was not influenced by random factors

Answer 41

test would produce only systematic variation scores would be very stable/reliable scores would be the same every time

Question 42

what is the main goal of tests in terms of variation?

Answer 42

to produce scores that vary more because of systematic variation rather than unsystematic variation tests that have more unsystematic variation will not be as reliable

Question 43

what is the difficult involved with multiple systematic effects?

Answer 43

difficulty arises when a questionnaire was designed to measure one construct (being influenced by one systematic effect) gets influenced by 2+ systematic effects instead

Question 44

what is systematic bias?

Answer 44

a systematic effect doesn't happen at random puts part of group at disadvantage causes systematic variation in test scores

Question 45

what are the concerns of systematic bias?

Answer 45

measurement concern = because scores no longer determined by what you were intending to measure equity concern = because one group is at a disadvantage

Question 46

what are the 3 sources of variation effects?

Answer 46

systematic effect (of what is being measured systematic bias (that effects individuals in one or more groups) unsystematic random error/bias (error that can affect individuals test scores at any time)