Unit Two Exam Study Guide Chapter 5 Challenges associated with operationalizing variables Self report o Advantages o Disadvantages Observational o Advantages o Disadvantages for behavior Physiological o Advantages Participants report on their own behavior or state of mind Popular and easy to use You cannot be sure that a participant is telling you the truth biased subjective when using a self report measure Record observable behaviors or physical traces of behaviors Observing behaviors may not allow you to determine the underlying cause Require the use of equipment to amplify record and analyze biological Record biological data o Disadvantages activity Four scales of measurement Nominal events are assigned to categories Ordinal permits events or scores to be rank ordered o First second third place Like in a race or high school ranking Interval permits rank ordering of events with the assumption of equal intervals between adjacent events o Like temperature or your score on the GRE o No true zero Temperature still exists even when it is 0 degrees A score of 0 doesn t mean no verbal ability Because there is no true zero you can t say things like twice as hot or half as intelligent Ratio permits rank ordering of events like ordinal with the assumption of equal intervals between adjacent events like interval and a true zero point o Physical measurement like intensity of light volume of water speed or action potentials per second o Other measures such as income o Can make ratio comparisons like twice as much or half as much How do you identify whether a continuous variable is measured with an interval or ratio o A continuous variable is measured with an interval scale because there is no true scale zero Reliability Three types of reliability used the measure o Test retest reliability the researcher gets consistent results every time he or she Test inventory is given twice scores from the two tests are compared Greater the similarity higher the reliability A similar procedure Split half technique Test inventory is divided into two halves subtests and administered to the same individuals on different occasions o Not separated by 1st half then 2nd half instead might separate into 2 halves based on even odd numbered items o Inter rater reliability consistent results are obtained no matter who measures or observes Aka interobserver reliability Two or more independent observers should come up with the same or very similar findings Very useful for naturalistic observation crosswalks or ATMs etc Why is this important Children s behavior at preschool or park glancing behavior at One observer may miss or overlook a bit of behavior There may be some disagreement concerning exactly what was seen and how it should be related or categorized o Internal reliability a study participant gives a consistent pattern of answers no matter how the researcher has phrased the question Important for self report measures that contain more than one question to measure the same construct In most ways my life is close to my ideal The conditions of my life are excellent So far I have gotten the important things I want in life If I could live my life over I would change almost nothing I am satisfied with my life How can a scatterplot be used to evaluate reliability o You can see how strong the correlation is Are correlations related to reliability o The correlation coefficient represents the degree of relation between two variables therefore yes Validity Face validity o Is this a plausible measure of the variable in question Life satisfaction as a measure of happiness Head circumference as a measure of intelligence Head circumference as a measure of hat size Speed of problem solving as a measure of intelligence Content validity o Does it capture all parts of a defined construct o A measurement of intelligence with good content validity would have to address all of these Ability to reason Ability to plan Abstract thinking Comprehension of complex ideas Ability to learn quickly Etc Predictive validity and Concurrent validity o Both address how well a measure relates to a specific outcome o Predictive how well the measure predicts an outcome o Concurrent how well the measure correlates with a current outcome o Predictive and concurrent validity provide evidence for construct validity SAT or ACT score to measure construct aptitude for college level work Predictive validity Cortisol levels as measure of stress Concurrent validity Known Groups Evidence o Known groups paradigm do scores on a measure discriminate among a set of groups whose behavior is already well understood Ex Cortisol levels in people who are about to give a speech versus those in the audience o In clinical psychology known groups can be used to validate self report measures Beck Depression Inventory BDI Inventory given to 2 groups clinically depressed and not depressed Convergent and Discriminant Validity o Convergent measure should correlate strongly with other measures of the same construct If a scale is a good measure of depression it should correlate well with other measures of depression o Discriminant measure should not correlate well with measures of other distinct There should not be a correlation with measures of other traits Any other traits Ice cream preference Favorite color First letter of last BDI CES D constructs name NO Need to demonstrate discriminant validity for other traits that might be reasonably mistaken for the trait being measured The measures do not have to be negatively correlated just weakly correlated Chapter 6 Strengths and weaknesses associated with different question formats on surveys Yes No Questions o Respondent answers yes or no to the items Is it possible to believe in both God and evolution Do you approve of the job the president is doing Forced Choice o Aka forces Alternative Questions The respondent must select between two alternative responses Often agree or disagree No opinion or Not sure are not options Is the position of women better or worse than it was ten years ago Should there be more or fewer women in elected positions Multiple Choice alternatives Open Ended o The respondent must select the most suitable response from among several Ex God created humans humans evolved humans evolved and God guided the process Or there could be more than 3 choices o A question is asked to which the respondent must construct his or her own answer o Advantages Information more complete o Disadvantages Participant may not
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