Exam 4: Conceptualization and Measurement

Internal consistency is related to which reliability method?

The question "How often within the past 2 weeks did you consume five or more drinks containing alcohol in a row?" refers to a study's ______ for the concept of binge drinking.

Which of the following is a question that could be used to create a dichotomous variable?

Interval and ratio level of measurements differ because of the presence of an absolute, or fixed, zero point.

Imagine you have series of similar questions that measure the same concept. What could you use to average or sum the responses of each question?

Given what you know about interitem reliability, which of the following may be a useful way to measure an important concept in order to compute this type of reliability?

An ordinal level of measurement is not able to permit "greater than" and "less than" distinctions.

A researcher that carefully crafted her response options to make sure that she captured the full range of possibilities made sure her measure achieved content validity.

A study on self-reported alcohol use had consistent results when asking the same college students the same questions at different time periods. However, it has been found that many college students who drink heavily do not report their alcohol use truthfully. As a result, the measures used to gauge self-reported alcohol use was reliable, but not valid. Which type of reliability method was used to obtain the consistency of the measures?

Single questions can be designed with or without explicit response choices.

Define what researchers mean by reliability. Then define the four possible methods for achieving it.

Indexes are useful when measuring complex concepts that have multiple dimensions.

All of the following are considered benefits to using fixed-choice questions EXCEPT ______.

Consider the concept of "problem drinking." Imagine that the researcher defined it as having four (female) or five (male) or more drinks in a row during one drinking episode. What are some potential problems you can foresee in terms of the validity of such a measure for the concept of problem drinking? What are some ways that you could test the reliability of such a measure?

One researcher wanted to find out whether changing the order of her response choices in an index or modifying the question wording in minor ways would result in differences in how the same respondents answered those questions. Which type of reliability method is she using?

A researcher observes a grade school cafeteria for signs of bullying behavior on multiple days. If her observations captured the same degree of bullying on every Friday, which type of reliability method has been achieved?

Asking a question such as "What is meant by substance abuse in this research project?" is related to the concern of ______.

Interitem reliability cannot be computed if only one question is used to measure a concept.

During a study utilizing systematic social observation on police interaction with the public, which of the following would NOT be part of such a method?

Researchers use government data to examine phenomena such as crime rates. When trying to compare crime rates across communities, it would be important to focus on context. Which of the following is NOT listed in your book as a potential contextual factor that needs to be considered when it comes to comparing crime rates across communities?