Question 1

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

Accepted Answer

A)  The time spent solving a math problem 
B)  The type of puzzle solved (Sudoku puzzle or a crossword puzzle) 
C)  Whether participants used insight or trial-and-error techniques to solve the problem 
D)  The report of a teacher about whether a student is a good or bad problem solver 
E)  All of the above are quantitative ways of operationalizing caffeine consumption

Question 2

Which of the following is true of the difference between predictive validity and concurrent validity?

Accepted Answer

A)  Predictive validity is supported when a measure predicts a future outcome rather than a current outcome. 
B)  Concurrent validity is tested using a correlation coefficient rather than a scatterplot. 
C)  Predictive validity is tested with Cronbach's alpha rather than kappa. 
D)  Concurrent validity is tested after predictive validity is established. 
E)  All of the above are differences between predictive validity and concurrent validity.

Question 3

RESEARCH STUDY 5.2
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions and it takes 20 minutes to complete.
-Refer to Research Study 5.2 above to answer the following question. Dr.Sheffield gives his measure to his supervisor,who is also an expert in pathological gambling.His supervisor says that his measure appears to test all the components of pathological gambling,including feeling restless when attempting to stop gambling,jeopardizing jobs in order to keep gambling,and using gambling to escape from problems and a bad mood.Given this information,Dr.Sheffield's measure has evidence of which of the following?

Accepted Answer

A)  Face validity 
B)  Content validity 
C)  Predictive validity 
D)  Concurrent validity 
E)  Discriminant validity

Question 4

Felipe plans to watch how positively or negatively teachers treat children in their classrooms who have ADHD for his research methods class.This is an example of what type of measurement?

Accepted Answer

A)  Self-report measurement 
B)  Observational measurement 
C)  Physiological measurement 
D)  Archival measurement 
E)  All of the above are variables

Question 5

An educational psychologist is testing the discriminant validity of a new measure of numerical learning difficulties.He gives his measure to a group of students along with another measure of verbal learning difficulties,which he predicts should not be strongly related to numerical learning difficulties.Which of the following correlations would the psychologist hope to find in order to establish discriminant validity?

Accepted Answer

A)  r = 1.0 
B)  r = -1.0 
C)  r = 0.83 
D)  r = -0.18 
E)  Any of the above would be acceptable

Question 6

RESEARCH STUDY 5.3:
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.
-Refer to Research Study 5.3 above to answer the following question.
For each student described above,indicate whether the operational definition of her variable is categorical or quantitative.If a student's operational variable is categorical,explain whether it could or could not be made quantitative.

Accepted Answer

The answer of RESEARCH STUDY 5.3:
Lauren, Sarah, and Jennifer are...

Question 7

Another word for discriminant validity is ___________ validity.

Accepted Answer

A)  Convergent 
B)  Asymmetrical 
C)  Predictive 
D)  Multiple 
E)  None of the above

Question 8

RESEARCH STUDY 5.3:
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.
-Refer to Research Study 5.3 above to answer the following question.
For each student described above,indicate whether the operational definition of her variable is self-reported,observational,or physiological.

Accepted Answer

The answer of RESEARCH STUDY 5.3:
Lauren, Sarah, and Jennifer are...

Question 9

Imagine that you are trying to measure people's stress.Provide an example of measuring stress using a self-report measure,a physiological measure,and a behavioral measure.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Imagine that you are trying to measure...

Question 10

How many subcategories of quantitative variables exist?

Accepted Answer

A)  Two 
B)  Three 
C)  Four 
D)  Five 
E)  Six

Question 11

Imagine that you are trying to measure people's stress.Create a quantitative definition of stress that is ordinal,interval,and ratio.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Imagine that you are trying to measure...

Question 12

RESEARCH STUDY 5.1
Dr. Valencia is considering conducting a study examining whether narcissistic people have poorer social interactions than those who are not narcissistic. One of her first tasks is to determine which of her participants are narcissistic and which are not. She decides to use the scale created by a colleague, the Mayo scale. Question 1 reads, "I tend not to think about other people as much as myself." Question 2 reads, "I do not have a high opinion of myself." Question 3 reads, "I think other people think I am really special."
-Refer to Research Study 5.1 above to answer the following question. Before using the measure in her study,Dr.Valencia analyzes the data she gets from her students.She looks for the relationship between each of the individual questions.She sees that participants who agree with Question 1 also agree with Question 3 and disagree with Question 2.This is a test of which of the following?

Accepted Answer

A)  Interrater reliability 
B)  Internal reliability 
C)  Test-retest reliability 
D)  Construct reliability 
E)  None of the above

Question 13

RESEARCH STUDY 5.4
Dr. Li is interested in creating a measurement of religiosity. According to the dictionary, religiosity is "the quality of being religious; piety; devoutness." He creates a measure comprising 10 statements. People respond to each statement using the following scale (1 = strongly disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 5 = strongly agree). Some of the statements are below.
Statement 1: "I believe in a religion."
Statement 2: "Part of who I am stems from my religious beliefs."
Statement 3: "I believe that religion is unnecessary."
-Refer to Research Study 5.4 above to answer the following question.
Given the above situation,explain the difference between predictive validity,convergent validity,and discriminant validity.Why is each one important?

Accepted Answer

The answer of RESEARCH STUDY 5.4
Dr. Li is interested in...

Question 14

RESEARCH STUDY 5.2
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions and it takes 20 minutes to complete.
-Refer to Research Study 5.2 above to answer the following question. To test his measure,Dr.Sheffield gives his measure to a group of people in GA and another group in AA.He finds that people in the GA group have higher scores on his new measure than people in the AA group.This procedure is known as a:

Accepted Answer

A)  Test-retest paradigm 
B)  Known-groups paradigm 
C)  Prediction paradigm 
D)  Group evaluation paradigm 
E)  None of the above

Question 15

Why are convergent and discriminant validity often evaluated together?

Accepted Answer

A)  Because both terms mean the same thing 
B)  Because both involve collecting information from a lot of psychological measures of theoretical interest 
C)  Because both must be established before examining predictive and concurrent validity 
D)  Because both require the use of scatterplots 
E)  Because both have to be determined by a panel of experts

Question 16

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

Accepted Answer

A)  Self-report measurement 
B)  Observational measurement 
C)  Physiological measurement 
D)  Archival measurement 
E)  All of the above are variables

Question 17

Dr.Sarolli is planning on measuring literacy (defined as the ability to read and write written text in one's native language).He decides he wants to create a quantitative operational definition.Create an ordinal,interval,and ratio way to measure literacy.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Dr.Sarolli is planning on measuring literacy (defined...

Question 18

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

Accepted Answer

A)  A ratio scale of measurement has a zero value that actually means "nothing" or "the absence of something," but an interval scale does not. 
B)  An interval scale of measurement is a type of measurement used for categorical measurements, but a ratio scale is used for quantitative measurements. 
C)  An interval scale has equal intervals, but a ratio scale does not. 
D)  A ratio scale of measurement cannot be used to compare people's scores, but interval scales can (e.g., Phillip is twice as fast). 
E)  There is no difference between the two scales of measurement.

Question 19

RESEARCH STUDY 5.2
Dr. Sheffield is a clinical psychologist who specializes in treating pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is defined as being unable to resist impulses to gamble. Bothered by not having a good measure that he can give to clients to determine whether they are suffering from this condition, he creates a new measure of pathological gambling. The measure has 15 questions and it takes 20 minutes to complete.
-Refer to Research Study 5.2 above to answer the following question. Dr.Sheffield has now decided that he wants to test his measure on some university students (who some estimates say have a 6% prevalence rate of compulsive gambling).He has a group of 100 university students complete his measure.He also has them complete two other measures (one that measures addictive behavior in general and one that measures general attitudes toward gambling).He finds that his new measure is positively associated with each of these other measures.This procedure has provided evidence for the _______________ of Dr.Sheffield's measure.

Accepted Answer

A)  Content validity 
B)  Predictive validity 
C)  Convergent validity 
D)  Concurrent validity 
E)  Discriminant validity

Question 20

Which of the following is possible?

Accepted Answer

A)  A measure is neither reliable nor valid. 
B)  A measure is both valid and reliable. 
C)  A measure is reliable but not very valid. 
D)  Only a and b are possible. 
E)  All of the above are possible.

Exam 5: Identifying Good Measurement