week 7- rigour and research

Question 1

rigour in research

Answer 1

• more rigour = more generalizable/transferable
• rigour is the quality, believability and trustworthiness of the study findings
• can be determined by validity and reliability of measurement tools

Question 2

validity

Answer 2

measures what is intended to be measured

Question 3

reliability

Answer 3

provides consistent results

Question 4

components of observed scores

Answer 4

true variance (data) and error variance (random or systematic errors)

Question 5

reliability coefficient

Answer 5

• expresses the relationship between the error variance, true variance and observed score
• can range from 0-1 (0= no relationship, 1= perfect relationship)

Question 6

what is a desirable reliability coefficient?

Answer 6

> 0.70 indicates consistency and dependability of measurement tool

Question 7

correlation

Answer 7

• statistical technique used to measure and describe a relationship between two variables
• the correlation coefficient (r) describes the strength and direction of the relationship

Question 8

what is a desirable correlation coefficient?

Answer 8

> (+/-) 0.7

Question 9

components of reliability

Answer 9

stability, consistency and equivalence

Question 10

stability

Answer 10

an instrument is stable when repeated administration of the instrument yields the same results

Question 11

how is stability measured?

Answer 11

test-retest reliability

Question 12

consistency

Answer 12

all tools measure the same concept or characteristic

Question 13

how is consistency measured?

Answer 13

chronbach’s alpha

Question 14

equivalence

Answer 14

consistency or agreement among observers using the same measurement tool or agreement among alternative forms of a tool

Question 15

how is equivalence measured?

Answer 15

interrater reliability

Question 16

test retest reliability

Answer 16

• the stability of the scores of an instrument when it’s administered more than once to the same participants under similar conditions
• score from repeated testing
• comparison expressed as a correlation coefficient (pearson’s r)

Question 17

chronbach’s alpha

Answer 17

• most commonly used test of internal consistency
• each item in the scale is simultaneously compared with the others and a total score is used to analyze the data
• many tools used to measure psychosocial variables and attitudes have a likert-type scale response format, which is suitable for testing internal consistency

Question 18

what is a desirable chronbach’s alpha?

Answer 18

0.8-0.9<

Question 19

interrater reliability

Answer 19

• consistency of observations between two or more observers with the same tool
• used with direct measurements of observed behaviour
• important for minimizing bias
  ie. cohen’s kappa

Question 20

cohen’s kappa

Answer 20

• a coefficient of agreement between two raters
• a cohen’s kappa of 0.8 or better is generally assumed to indicate good interrater reliability

Question 21

components of validity

Answer 21

content validity, criterion validity and construct validity

Question 22

content validity

Answer 22

refers to the degree to which the content of the measure represents the universe of content or the domain of a given behaviour (how well it covers all aspects of a concept)
ie. face validity

Question 23

face validity

Answer 23

• panel of judges indicate their level of agreement with the scope of the items and the extent to which the items reflect the concept under consideration
• relevancy and accuracy

Question 24

criterion-related validity

Answer 24

consists of concurrent and predictive validity

Question 25

concurrent validity

Answer 25

- the degree of correlation of two measures of the same construct administered at the same time - a high correlation coefficient indicates agreement between the two measures

Question 26

predictive validity

Answer 26

- the degree of correlation between the measure of the concept and a future measure of the same concept - because of the passage of time, the correlation coefficients are likely to be lower for predictive validity studies

Question 27

construct validity

Answer 27

how well a tool measures the concept it was intended to measure

Question 28

relationship between reliability and validity

Answer 28

- an instrument that is not reliable cannot be valid - an instrument can be reliable without being valid

Question 29

internal validity

Answer 29

degree to which changes in DV can be attributed to changes in IV

Question 30

external validity

Answer 30

degree to which the study results can be generalized to samples other than the one being investigated

Question 31

statistics

Answer 31

- a branch of mathematics focused on organization, analysis and interpretation of a group of numbers - can provide a probability that you can rule out the play of chance

Question 32

descriptive statistics

Answer 32

- summarize and describe a group of numbers from a research study - allows researchers to arrange data to visually display meaning and help in understanding of characteristics and variables under study - reduce data to manageable proportions

Question 33

inferential statistics

Answer 33

- used to make inferences and draw conclusions based on study data about a larger group - allows researcher to test hypothesis - determines probability that conclusion is true

Question 34

levels of measurement

Answer 34

nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio

Question 35

nominal level of measurement (examples)

Answer 35

sex, relationship status, religion, hair colour, political preferences (names)

Question 36

ordinal level of measurement (examples)

Answer 36

education, size, satisfaction level, SES (ranking between categories

Question 37

interval level of measurement (examples)

Answer 37

body temperature (measurement between intervals, zero means nothing)

Question 38

ratio level of measurement (examples)

Answer 38

weight, height, blood levels, heart rate, age (true zero, can say 10 is twice as old as 5)