Deck 4: Conceptualization and Measurement

Question 1

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

A) conceptualization
B) measurement
C) validity
D) reliability

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT true about the term concept?

A) Many concepts are used in everyday discourse without consistent definition.
B) Definitions of concepts can be the object of intense debate.
C) The meanings of concepts may change over time.
D) They always have a correct way of being defined.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In ______ research, conceptualization is an important part of the process used to make sense of related observations, and in ______ conceptualization helps translate portions of an abstract theory into testable hypotheses involving specific variables.

A) deductive; inductive
B) inductive; deductive
C) quantitative; qualitative

Answer 3

B

Question 4

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.

A) indicator
B) conceptualization
C) operationalization
D) operational definition

Question 5

Operationalization is the process describing how a concept is connected to the way it is measured, and the ______ of a variable is the way it is measured.

A) indicator
B) conceptualization
C) functional definition
D) operational definition

Question 6

In your book, one scholar identified two different dimensions of her concept poverty. Which of the following dimensions of poverty was measured by comparing family income to the poverty threshold?

A) relative poverty
B) absolute poverty
C) subjective poverty
D) comparative poverty

Question 7

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

A) Easy to compute and analyze with statistics
B) Ambiguity is reduced.
C) Makes answering easier for respondents
D) May not accurately represent what respondents are thinking

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT an aspect of open-ended questions?

A) questions not previously used in surveys
B) questions without explicit response choices
C) questions based on preformulated hypotheses
D) questions asked of new groups

Question 9

Imagine we are want to ask whether or not respondents ever drank alcohol. Which of the following response choices below would be considered exhaustive?

A) Never drank alcohol; drank alcohol at least once in your lifetime
B) Drank alcohol once in lifetime, but not in past year
C) Drank alcohol in the past year, but not the past month
D) Never drank alcohol

Question 10

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?

A) legal standards
B) measurement procedures
C) perceptions of the crime rate
D) enforcement practices

Question 11

Physical trace evidence, archives, and contrived observations are all unobtrusive measures because they ______.

A) allow researchers to collect data about individuals without their direct knowledge or participation
B) allow researchers to more easily analyze data
C) are typically collected by the government and therefore are more valid than other measures
D) allow respondents to provide information that researchers' desire

Question 12

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?

A) observing police-citizen interactions
B) riding in police squad cars
C) interviewing police officers while they are on duty
D) recording features of observations on a form

Question 13

Which of the following is an example of a question that represents a nominal level of measurement?

A) What is your gender?
B) How many days did you drink alcohol in the past 30 days?
C) How wrong is antisocial behavior?

Question 14

Asking the number of days someone convicted of a felony was sentenced to prison represents which level of measurement?

A) nominal
B) ordinal
C) interval
D) ratio

Question 15

One important distinction between ordinal measures and interval measures is that interval measures ______.

A) do not have a fixed zero point
B) can be put into indexes
C) the change between each value is equal
D) are mutually exclusive and exhaustive

Question 16

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

A) Did you use an illegal drug last year?
B) What is the likelihood you would use an illegal drug?
C) How much do you agree that drugs should be illegal?
D) How old are you?

Question 17

What is one similarity between ordinal and nominal levels of measurement?

A) Both arespecific in order of cases.
B) Both allow for a study of greater-than and less-than distinctions.
C) Both are continuous measures.
D) Both are discrete measures.

Question 18

Age could be asked as discrete categories (e.g., 12-17, 18-20, 21-25, 26 and older), or it could be asked as a ______ measure (e.g., How old are you?).

A) nominal
B) continuous
C) categorical
D) fixed

Question 19

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?

A) a index or scale
B) a categorical variable
C) a dichotomous variable
D) a set of discrete variables

Question 20

A measure of blood-alcohol concentration or a urine test could serve as the ______ for validating a self-report measure of drinking, as long as the questions we ask about drinking refer to the same time period.

A) Face
B) Construct
C) Content
D) Criterion

Question 21

Which of the following refers to the validation approach of construct validity?

A) asking parents or friends about a respondent's substance use to verify their self-reported substance use
B) a researcher asking opinions of experts or reviewing the literature to identify different aspects of a concept
C) showing that a measure on childhood abuse is related to other measures specified by theory
D) a question asking how many drinks a person has consumed in the past week to gain information on drinking patterns

Question 22

Dr. Williams solicited the opinions of experts and review literature that identifies the different aspects of the concept of substance abuse. Dr. Williams was working to establish which type of validity?

A) face
B) construct
C) content
D) criterion

Question 23

Asking age and providing the answer choices-under age 12, 12-15, 15-17, 17-20, 20-25, 25 and older-is not considered to be ______.

A) mutually exclusive
B) exhaustive
C) reliable

Question 24

Which of the following is a reliability measure commonly used to measure interitem reliability?

A) intercoder reliability
B) cronbach's alpha
C) interobserver reliability
D) criterion measure

Question 25

Imagine you took a survey on your math ability at one time point and then the same survey at a later date. If your math ability was the same between Time 1 and Time 2, and nothing substantial happened during that time (i.e., you got a tutor), which type of reliability for the measure of math ability was achieved?

A) interobserver reliability
B) interitem reliability
C) test-retest reliability
D) intraobserver reliability

Question 26

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?

A) create a multi-item index or scale
B) ask multiple people the same question
C) if asking kids about substance use, also ask their parents about what they have observed
D) ask respondents if they think the measure is reliable

Question 27

In deductive research, the process of conceptualization ______.

A) obtains similar measures by different observers that rate the same persons, events, or places.
B) is when two coders examine the same data
C) translates an abstract theory into testable hypotheses using specific variables
D) refers to the process of specifying the rules of what will indicate the value of a variable

Question 28

Which of the following is true about reliability and validity?

A) Reliability and validity are the same concept.
B) Reliability and validity are mutually exclusive.
C) A measure can be either reliable or valid.
D) If we hope to measure validity, we need to assess reliability.

Question 29

The variable "frequency of binge drinking," measured by the question "How many times in the past 30 days did you consume five drinks in on setting?" should be categorized under which level of measurement?

A) nominal
B) dichotomy
C) ratio
D) ordinal

Question 30

The interitem method is a method used to measure which of the following?

A) validity
B) precision
C) reliability
D) generalizability

Question 31

A researcher is measuring the reliability of a substance abuse questionnaire that he created. In order to test the reliability of this questionnaire, he gathers a sample of individuals and randomly divides them into two groups. He administers the questionnaire to both groups and then compares the two groups' responses. If scores for both groups are similar, he can say that he has a reliable measure of substance abuse. What method is he using to measure reliability?

A) test-retest
B) interobserver
C) interrater
D) split-halves

Question 32

Which of the following refers to the process of evaluating the reliability and validity of measures about individuals?

A) internal validity
B) external validity
C) ecometrics
D) psychometrics

Question 33

In examining the measure of binge drinking, a researcher found that two groups of college students answered the questions in a consistent way. However, the researchers found that most college students did not answer truthfully. As such, this measure of binge drinking was ______ but not ______.

A) reliable; valid
B) valid; reliable
C) true; consistent
D) testable; reliable

Question 34

A researcher created an index of substance abuse based on previous research to make sure that she captured all variables associated with the concept of substance abuse. Having multiple items allowed her to cover the entire concept. Which type of validity did she address?

A) face
B) construct
C) content
D) criterion

Question 35

Internal consistency is related to which reliability method?

A) test-retest
B) interitem
C) interrater
D) split-halves

Question 36

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?

A) test-retest
B) interitem
C) interrater
D) split-halves

Question 37

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?

A) intercoder reliability
B) intraobserver reliability
C) interobserver reliability
D) interitem reliability

Question 38

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) test-retest
B) alternate-forms
C) split-halves
D) interitem

Question 39

______ refers to the process of evaluating the reliability and validity of measures about individuals, whereas the process ______ refers to organizations, neighborhoods, or collective units.

A) Psychometrics; ecometrics
B) Ecometrics; psychometrics
C) Internal validity; external validity
D) Internal reliability; external reliability

Question 40

The process of specifying what we mean by a term is called conceptualization.

Question 41

Operationalization refers to the set of rules and operations used to find the value of cases on a variable.

Question 42

Subconcepts are also known as dimensions.

Question 43

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

Question 44

Close-ended or fixed-choice questions align with quantitative research because these types of questions rely on response choices that are preformulated.

Question 45

An open-ended question can be beneficial if we cannot anticipate the range of answer choices.

Question 46

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

Question 47

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

Question 48

Interval and ratio levels involve continuous measures.

Question 49

The change between each unit in an interval-level measure is considered equal.

Question 50

The distinction between criterion and construct validation is always clear.

Question 51

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.

Question 52

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

Question 53

A reliable measure is not always a valid measure.

Question 54

Reliability is the same thing as consistency.

Question 55

An index can increase both reliability and validity.

Question 56

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

Question 57

Ratings given by an observer, rather than ratings given by subjects themselves, is what differentiates between test-retest reliability and intraobserver reliability.

Question 58

Say that you wanted to know about perceptions of crime on campus compared to perceptions of crime on other campuses. Suggest a fixed-choice question that you would ask, including the answer choices, and then suggest an open-ended question. Provide at least two benefits to using each of the different types of questions, and also one challenge for each.

Question 59

What does it mean for a fixed-choice question to be both mutually exclusive and exhaustive? Then provide an example of a question, with response choices.

Question 60

Criterion validity can be established when the scores obtained on one measure can be accurately compared to those obtained with a more direct or already validated measure of the same phenomenon. Provide two examples of additional measure that you feel could be used to valid findings on self-reported criminal activity.

Question 61

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

Question 62

First provide a definition of an index or scale. Your book discussed ways in which indexes can be used in the development of research questions and their measurements. Identify at least two reasons why a multi-item index would be useful to improve validity and two reasons why it would useful to improve reliability.

Question 63

Think about what you learned in Chapter 4 about indexes that were used to capture the concept of substance abuse. What are some types of questions or indicators that would be most important to include in an index in order to measure the concept of substance abuse? Then think about if you just asked one of your questions or included only one indicator in your study. Which type of validity measure would you be unable to achieve by using just one question to capture substance abuse? Which type of reliability method would you be unable to use by using just one question to capture substance abuse?

Question 64

According to your text, which validation method provides the strongest evidence of measurement validity? Define this type of validation method. Then, using the example of a study that measures self-reports of committing theft, what are some challenges to obtaining this type of validity?

Question 65

Explain at least one similarity and one difference between intraobserver and interobserver reliability. Then describe why interobserver reliability may greatly increase our confidence in a measure.

Question 66

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?

Question 67

Imagine you are a researcher that wants to study substance abuse. First of all, you need to decide what you mean by the term substance abuse. For example, describe which substances would be included in your definition and what do you mean by abuse (e.g., number of days of using substances, only when using multiple substances at once). What kinds of questions would you ask and what is your operational definition?

Question 68

Imagine you created a survey to examine binge drinking on your campus. You asked respondents directly if they engaged in binge drinking. Once you started analyzing the results you realized what you were attempting to measure was not reflected in the question you asked. Which type of validity was not achieved in your study and why? Why is achieving this validity important? What question could you ask instead and what would rules would you use to say that a person engaged in binge drinking?

Question 69

Define the four levels of measurement listed in your textbook. Then provide an example of each.

Question 70

Define face validity and content validity. Provide an example of how we can develop questions or procedures that would address each type of validity. Then highlight at least one disadvantage and advantage for each type of validity.

Question 71

Define construct validity and criterion validity. Provide an example of how we can develop questions or procedures that would address each type of validity. Then highlight at least one disadvantage and advantage for each type of validity. Also provide a brief statement as to how these types of validity are related.