Chapter 5 Quiz

What is the difference between a ratio scale of measurement and an interval scale of measurement?

A ratio scale of measurement has a zero value that actually means "nothing" or "the absence of something," but an interval scale does not.

Establishing construct validity is most important for which of the following?

An abstract concept

Naomi is studying the effect of popularity on academic success for her research methods project. To do this, she has elementary school students rate how popular each member of their class is. She then uses this information to rank the students on popularity (e.g., John is the most popular, Vanessa is the second-most popular). Which of the following best describes this variable?

An ordinal scale of measurement

According to its conceptual definition, a variable should be related to a particular behavior. If a researcher is able to demonstrate that his measure of the variable is related to the behavior, then he has established which of the following?

Criterion validity

What does it mean that "reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity"?

If a measure is valid, it is also reliable.

Which of the following is NOT an example of physiological measurement?

Number of panic attacks a patient reports

For his research methods class, Felipe plans to watch how students treat other children in their classrooms who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). He will evaluate how positively or negatively the children are treated by their classmates. This is an example of what type of measurement?

Observational measurement

For her research methods class, Serena plans to interview several teachers about their attitude toward teaching children who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This is an example of what type of measurement?

Self-report measurement

A correlation coefficient and a scatterplot both provide which of the following pieces of information?

The strength and direction of the relationship between two measurements

Referring to the question above: which of the following is a quantitative way for Hosea to operationalize problem-solving ability?

The time spent solving a math problem

Hosea is studying the relationship between caffeine consumption and problem-solving ability. Which of the following is a categorical way to operationalize caffeine consumption?

Whether the participant drank a soda in the 24 hours prior to the study

Asking an expert or experts to evaluate a measure is used to establish validity.

face

Lauren, Sarah, and Jennifer are students in Dr. Shaffer's Research Methods class. For a class assignment, they are asked to devise an operational definition for romantic attachment, or love. Lauren decides to ask a group of married couples to report if they are in love with their spouse (1 indicates "Yes, I am in love" and 2 indicates "No, I am not in love"). Sarah decides to watch couples sitting on campus and measure how close they sit together, assuming that people who sit closer together are more in love. Jennifer decides to recruit a group of newlyweds and measure the change in heart rate that occurs between the start of the study (when the person is alone) and the moment they see their spouse walk into the room.Lauren's operational definition is _______; Sarah's operational definition is _______.

categorical; quantitative

If a measurement looks like it is a plausible operationalization of a conceptual variable, then it has:

face validity.