Unit Two Study Guide This guide is intended to help guide you to the information that is likely to appear on the exam While all information on the exam will be covered here not all information covered here will make it to the exam If you can comprehensively answer these questions you will find yourself well prepared for the exam Chapter Five Identifying Good Measurement In addition to the vocabulary presented in Chapter Five bold terms students should be able to comprehensively answer the following 1 What is operationalization and why do we want to operationalize variables Give two examples of variables and their operational definitions Pgs 114 115 Operationalization is the process of turning a concept of interest into a measured or manipulated variable the operational definition of a variable represents a researcher s specific decision about how to measure or manipulate conceptual variable We want to operationalize variables because it helps us measure and or manipulate a variable we re interested in Ex Happiness operationalized research participants asked to respond to 5 items about their life satisfaction using a 7 point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree Ex Intelligence operationalized researchers operationalize intelligence by creating graded intelligence tests that measure a variety of skills like vocabulary reasoning and pattern detection 2 What are the three most common types of measurement What are the benefits and drawbacks of each Pgs 116 118 Self Report operationalizes a variable by recording people s answers to verbal questions about themselves in a questionnaire or interview Pros easy to administer good for quick measure of relationship between variables Cons wording of questions could bias responses Observational operationalizes a variable by recording observable behaviors or physical traces of behaviors Pros directly measures behavior gives researcher an insider view open ended flexible Cons time consuming not generalizable participants may not act in their true nature Physiological operationalizes a variable by recording biological data such as brain activity hormone levels or heart rate and usually requires the use of equipment to amplify record and analyze biological activity Pros Cons 3 Be able to distinguish the two types of measurement scales categorical quantitative Give two examples each Pg 118 Variables can be classified as either categorical or quantitative Categorical group variables into categories Ex sex species Quantitative variables coded with meaningful numbers Ex height weight 4 What are three distinct types of quantitative variables Give 2 examples of each Pgs 118 119 For some statistical purposes researchers may need to further classify a quantitative variable using 3 distinct scales 1 Ordinal scale applies when the numerals of a quantitative variable represent a rank order Ex as two three or four stars we know that 4 star a travel website might classify a set of resorts resorts are better than 3 or 2 star resorts but we do not know how much better they are Ex a operationalize how fast exams are on the exam was turned in meet 2 conditions 1 the there is no true zero a score of 100 and However a score of 0 does Celsius intervals b w Ex questionnaire true zero they happier equal intervals and a income someone for Because ratio scales as Michael professor might use the order in which exams are turned in to students completed the exam This is ordinal data because the fastest bottom of the pile ranked 1 but does not quantify how much faster each compared to the others 2 Interval scale applies to the numerals of a quantitative variable that numerals represent equal intervals distances between levels and 2 score of 0 does not mean nothing Ex IQ tests the distance between a 105 represents the same distance between a score of 110 and 115 not mean a person has no intelligence Ex Temperature in degrees levels are equal but a temperature of 0 does not mean no temperature scales which utilize a 1 to 7 scale Because interval scales do not have a cannot allow us to say things like twice as hot or three times 3 Ratio scale applies when the numerals of a quantitative variable have true zero the value of zero truly means nothing Ex weight and instance could truly be lifting zero weight or have no income do have a true zero we are able to say things like John ran twice as fast 5 What are the three types of reliability discussed in class Give an appropriate situation for utilizing each type of reliability i e when would you use each Pgs 119 121 The reliability of a measure is just what the word suggests whether or not you can rely on a particular score If your measurement is reliable you get a consistent pattern of scores every time Reliability can be assessed in 3 ways 1 Test retest reliability the researcher gets consistent results every time he or she uses the be consistent second time but the should also score operationalization expect to be stable measure Ex Scores generated by people who take an IQ test today should when they take it 1 month later the scores may be higher or lower the pattern should remain consistent those who scored highest on test 1 highest on test 2 Test retest reliability is relevant no matter the mode of it is primarily relevant when researchers are measuring constructs they over time intelligence 2 Interrater reliability when two or more observers come up with the same or very similar findings when consistent results are obtained no matter who measures or relevant for observational measures Ex 2 observers observes most are assigned to record how many times a child smiles in 1 hour on a daycare playground if they both record the same number of smiles we can say that there is interrater reliability 3 Internal reliability when a study participant gives a consistent pattern of answers no matter people take for differently but each who agree with Patterns consistent how the researcher has phrased the question Ex suppose a sample of example Diener s five item well being scale the questions are worded item is intended to be a measure of the same construct Therefore people the first item should also agree with items 2 3 4 and 5 and vice versa across items in this way are said to show internal reliability 6 What type of graph can be used to display information about reliability Pgs 121 122 A scatterplot can be a helpful tool for assessing the agreement between 2 administrations of the same measurement test retest
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