Chapter 3

Sonya is developing a new measure of social anxiety and demonstrates its validity by showing its relationship to a well-established measure of social anxiety. Sonya is assessing _____ validity.

concurrent

A hypothetical attribute or mechanism that helps explain and predict behavior is a:

construct

Sherree studies altruism and uses a measure of altruism that has been shown to relate to altruistic behavior consistent with expectations. Sherree's measure of altruism can be said to have good ____ validity.

construct

The simplest and least scientific type of validity is ____ validity.

face

Which type of validity refers to whether the measurement looks as though it actually measures what it is intended to measure?

face

Identify the external behavior in the following scenario: Teaching elderly individuals to use memory strategies alters their information processing and improves performance on memory tests.

improving performance on memory tests

Holly is developing an assessment of disordered eating. Part of Holly's assessment of disordered eating involves having trained individuals observe and score the behavior of individuals who may have disordered eating. Holly trains two individuals and has them both observe and score the same videos of individuals selecting and consuming food. Holly is assessing ____ reliability.

inter-rater

Where, in a research paper, are you most likely to find a description of the operational definition used by the investigators?

method

Identify the construct in the following scenario: In a study of adolescents with schizophrenia, providing modest rewards was found to increase motivation and improve personal hygiene.

motivation

Peter's job is to watch videos of children interacting with other children and estimate the physical distances between the children. If Peter is simply not good at estimating distances, ____ error will be introduced.

observer

Which of the following is a procedure for measuring a variable that cannot be observed or measured directly?

operational definition

Don sometimes wonders why he keeps doing research with adolescents because it often seems as though they pay very little attention when completing the rating scales involved in his work. Don is concerned that their inattention will introduce ____ error.

participant

Shawnda is studying the psychological stress related to weather extremes by measuring salivary cortisol levels to assess the amount of stress in her participants. Salivary cortisol is best described as ____ measure of weather-related stress.

physiological

Identify the external stimulus in the following scenario: In an evaluation of methods for improving studying, providing reminder text messages was found to increase awareness of study methods and increase studying time.

reminder text message

Shawnda is studying the psychological stress related to weather extremes. She has created a survey asking her research participants to rate their own stress levels at specific times of the day. This is best described as ____ measure of weather-related stress.

self-report

Holly is developing an assessment of disordered eating. She asks the same group of individuals to complete her instrument on two separate occasions. Holly is assessing ____ reliability.

test-retest

A ____ is a set of statements about the mechanisms underlying a behavior.

theory