Test Bank Docx Chapter.3 Social Concepts & Measurement - Social Research Methods 1e | Test Bank Bryman by Alan Bryman. DOCX document preview.
Chapter 3: How Do Researchers Identify and Evaluate Social Concepts? Measurement
Test Bank
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 1
1) The process of defining, observing, and recording ideas, experiences, and outcomes of interest is known as what
Page reference: Introduction
a. Concepts
b. Operationalization
c. Measurement
d. Research
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 2
2) Which of the following is not a task of measurement?
Page reference: Introduction
a. To be as accurate as possible
b. To prove a hypothesis
c. To recognize potential ambiguities
d. To understand how mismeasurement impacts results
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 3
3) The ______________ of a study’s findings rests on how appropriately indicators are measured.
Page reference: Introduction
a. Popularity
b. Credibility
c. Applicability
d. Readability
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 4
4) Which of the following is not a reason to pay careful attention to measurement?
Page reference: Why Measure?
a. To describe and determine the relationship between concepts
b. To ensure that we find support for our hypothesis
c. To delineate meaningful differences between people or groups
d. To provide evidence for any differences between people or groups that is discovered
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 5
5) A term that describes the ideas, phenomenon, people, and patterns that researchers are interested in are known as
Page reference: What is a concept?
a. Hypothesis
b. Independent Variable
c. Concept
d. Indicator
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 6
6)
How many concepts were identified in Wingfield’s research?
Page reference: Box 3.1
a. Nine
b. Five
c. Ten
d. None of these
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 7
7) The concepts in Wingfield’s study about the racialized aspects of the glass escalator effect fell all the following categories EXCEPT
Page reference: Box 3.1
a. Time
b. Locations
c. Processes
d. People
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 8
8) In Wingfield’s research, which category of concepts was the most abstract?
Page reference: Box 3.1
a. Locations
b. Processes
c. People
d. All of these
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 9
9) Clarifying or describing a concept meaning is called
Page reference: Conceptualization and Operationalization
a. Operationalization
b. Validity
c. Conceptualization
d. Measurement
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 10
10) Researchers have to specify the process through which they will observe the presence, absence, or degree of a concept’s existence. This is known as
Page reference: Conceptualization and Operationalization
a. Operationalization
b. Validity
c. Conceptualization
d. Measurement
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 11
11) When concepts are more abstract or less understood in a straightforward way, what can researchers turn to when conceptualizing?
Page reference: Conceptualization
a. Most concepts are easy to broadly understand, so they can rely on common sense.
b. The dictionary is the best resource.
c. Researchers can rely on other social scientists for clarity.
d. Researchers can turn to social theory.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 12
12) Kanter (1977) theorized about the experiences of what she termed “tokens,” who are highly visible workers in a field where they are in the numeric minority. What did Williams find when applying this theory in her research about the glass escalator effect?
Page reference: Conceptualization Using Theory and Research
a. Both men and women avoided feminized work.
b. In feminized professions, women advanced in their careers more quickly than men.
c. Men in careers traditionally viewed as a women’s profession were more likely to be promoted.
d. Women in men’s professions were able to maneuver their tokenized status into advantages.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 13
13) Wingfield’s research added complexity to the concept of the glass escalator with the concept _____________.
Page reference: Conceptualization Using Theory and Research
a. Gendered racism
b. Racial stereotypes
c. Glass ceiling
d. Gendered advantage
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 14
14) As a concept is operationalized, it moves from the ____________ to the _______.
Page reference: Operationalization
a. Specific; abstract
b. Dependent variable; independent variable
c. Abstract; specific
d. Actual; theoretical
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 15
15) Something that points to, provides evidence of, or otherwise measures a concept is called a
Page reference: Operationalization
a. Indicator
b. Concept
c. Variable
d. Measure
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 16
16) Which of the following would be the best direct indicator of poverty?
Page reference: Operationalization
a. Declared income below the official poverty line
b. Buying second-hand clothes
c. Renting rather than owning a house
d. Car ownership
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 17
17) Which of the following would be the best indirect indicator of academic success?
Page reference: Operationalization
a. Grade point average
b. ACT test score
c. Attitude towards studying
d. Degree earned
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 18
18) California’s Proposition 45 was criticized by the American Sociological Association primarily because it _____________________.
Page reference: Methods in Motion
a. It would make it more difficult to study how race impacts outcomes, for example in education or employment.
b. Was attempting to amend the state’s constitution.
c. It was a step towards a “colorblind society”
d. It supported the notion that race is not a biological fact.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 19
19) When a single indicator does not capture the complexity of a concept, the researcher might have to
Page reference: Operationalization
a. Reframe their research question
b. Revisit the literature on the topic
c. Simplify the concept
d. Include multiple indicators in the study
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 20
20) Which of the following would not be an indicator of student satisfaction with school?
Page reference: Operationalization
a. Answers to a question about their level of satisfaction with school.
b. The name of their school
c. Asking their satisfaction with their grades
d. Answers to a question about the connections they have to faculty and staff at the school
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 21
21) How did Martinez, Lorvick, and Kral (2014) conceptualize the term “activity space” in their research of injection drug users’ (IDUs’) access to overdose prevention services?
Page reference: Box 3.2
a. Areas where IDUs’ used drugs
b. Local areas where treatment facilities were located
c. Local areas within which people move or travel in the course of their daily activities
d. Space where transportation to treatment facilities could be located
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 22
22) How did Martinez, Lorvick, and Kral (2014) operationalize the concept “activity space”?
Page reference: Box 3.2
a. Local areas within which people move or travel in the course of their daily activities
b. Using GIS data to determine where participants spent their time over a 6 month period.
c. Asking IDUs to log where they spent their time in a 24 hour period.
d. Checking reception logs at treatment centers to see how often IDUs entered these facilities.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 23
23) What are concepts typically referred by in quantitative research?
Page reference: Measurement in quantitative research
a. Concepts
b. Definitions
c. Indicators
d. Variables
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 24
24) The variable that a researcher considers likely to affect another variable is the __________.
Page reference: Measurement in quantitative research
a. Dependent Variable
b. Independent Variable
c. Indicator
d. Concept
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 25
25) The variable that a researcher considers likely to be affected by other aspects of the social world is the __________________.
Page reference: Measurement in quantitative research
a. Dependent Variable
b. Independent Variable
c. Indicator
d. Concept
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 26
26) In the following hypothesis, ____________ is the dependent variable and ____________is the independent variable. Hypothesis: As the number of years of education a woman has increases, the fewer children they are likely to have.
Page reference: Measurement in quantitative research
a. Number of children; gender
b. Years of education; number of children
c. Gender; years of education
d. Number of children; years of education
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 27
27) In the following hypothesis, what is the independent variable and which is the dependent variable? Hypothesis: States with high crime rates also have high poverty rates.
Page reference: Measurement in quantitative research
a. Crime rates are the independent variable and poverty is the dependent variable.
b. Poverty is the independent variable and crime rates are the dependent variable.
c. States are the independent variable and poverty is the dependent variable.
d. It’s too difficult to tell.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 28
28) How did Taylor (2010) operationalize the concept “occupational sex segregation” in her research?
Page reference: Measurement in quantitative research
a. She analyzed the proportion of women in various individual workplaces compared to men.
b. She linked occupations of survey respondents to the number of women who reported being in that occupation in the Current Population survey.
c. She asked a survey question asking how many women worked directly with the respondent in their job.
d. She analyzed national data on gender segregation from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 29
29) When a researcher codes survey data using a numeric scheme, what helps us make sense of what those numbers mean?
Page reference: Levels of Measurement
a. Validity
b. Reliability
c. Levels of measurement
d. Operationalization
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 30
30) When the categories of a measure do not overlap so that each case fits into only one category, it is called
Page reference: Levels of Measurement
a. Mutually exclusive
b. Exhaustive
c. Conceptual
d. Nominal
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 31
31) A measure is __________________ when the categories represent all the possible responses and allow every case to be categorized.
Page reference: Levels of Measurement
a. Mutually exclusive
b. Exhaustive
c. Conceptual
d. Nominal
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 32
32) You are responding to a survey and see the following question. What is problematic about the categories of the question?
How many years have you worked in a full-time position?
- 0
- 2-4
- 4-6
- 6-8
- 8-10
- Over 10
Page reference: Confidentiality and Anonymity
a. The categories are neither mutually exclusive nor exhaustive.
b. The categories are not mutually exclusive.
c. The categories are not exhaustive
d. There is no issue with the categories of this variable.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 33
33) The level of measurement in which the categories are only names without any rank ordering or numerical value is called _____________.
Page reference: Levels of measurement
a. Nominal
b. Ordinal
c. Interval
d. Ratio
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 34
34) The level of measurement in which named categories can be rank ordered is known as
Page reference: Levels of measurement
a. Nominal
b. Ordinal
c. Interval
d. Ratio
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 35
35) With a(n) _________________ level of measurement, the distance between categories is meaningful and consistent, zero categories are arbitrary and it is possible to have a negative value.
Page reference: Levels of measurement
a. Nominal
b. Ordinal
c. Interval
d. Ratio
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 36
36) ___________ is the measurement level in which the distance between categories is meaning and consistent, there is an absolute zero, and it is not possible to have negative values.
Page reference: Levels of measurement
a. Nominal
b. Ordinal
c. Interval
d. Ratio
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 37
37) What is the level of measurement for the following variable:
Education level measured as years of school completed.
Page reference: Levels of measurement
a. Nominal
b. Ordinal
c. Interval
d. Ratio
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 38
38) What is the level of measurement for the following variable:
Education level measured degree earned with the categories: less than high school, high school diploma/GED, some college, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, graduate degree.
Page reference: Levels of measurement
a. Nominal
b. Ordinal
c. Interval
d. Ratio
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 39
39) What is the level of measurement for the following variable:
Educational aptitude measured with a respondent’s IQ score
Page reference: Levels of measurement
a. Nominal
b. Ordinal
c. Interval
d. Ratio
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 40
40) Dr. Scott is interested in studying people’s level of agreement with same sex marriage. He writes a series of statements related to same sex marriage and relationships followed by the categories: strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree. What type of indicator is Dr. Scott using?
Page reference: Levels of measurement
a. Ratio
b. Nominal
c. Ordinal
d. Likert scale
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 41
41) Which of the following is not a principle to remember when creating a Likert scale?
Page reference: Box 3.4
a. Phrase items as statements, not questions.
b. Be sure that all the items relate to the same topic.
c. Phrase items as questions.
d. The items in the scale should be interrelated and use varied phrasing.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 42
42) If the same measure is repeated applied and yields the same results, it is said to be
Page reference: Reliability and Validity
a. Valid
b. Nominal
c. Stable
d. Reliable
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 43
43) One way to test if a measure’s stability is to use the ____________ method.
Page reference: Reliability and Validity
a. Cohort
b. Inter-observer consistency
c. Cronbach’s alpha
d. Test-retest method
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 44
44) Cronbach’s alpha and the split-half method are common tests of what?
Page reference: Reliability and Validity
a. Internal reliability
b. Face validity
c. External validity
d. Internal validity
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 45
45) Zambrana and her team used this technique to ensure reliable coding of their interview data about Mexican American faculty.
Page reference: Reliability and Validity
a. Cronbach’s alpha
b. Inter-observer consistency
c. Split-half method
d. Test-retest method
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 46
46) ________ validity relates to causality, while _______ validity involves whether a study’s findings are applicable to settings outside the research environment.
Page reference: Validity
a. Internal; external
b. External; internal
c. Face; concurrent
d. Concurrent; construct
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 47
47) Dr. McIntosh develops a new measure to study discrimination in the COVID-19 era. To ensure that the measure is an effective indicator, he asks several colleagues with expertise to review the measure. What sort of validity has he established?
Page reference: Validity
a. Concurrent
b. Construct
c. Convergent
d. Face
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 48
48) A researcher asks a respondent how many hours they spend attending church on a survey question. The researcher also directly observes participants to see how much time they spend at church. This is an example of __________ validity.
Page reference: Validity
a. Concurrent
b. Construct
c. Convergent
d. Face
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 49
49) Which of the following is not a reason that there is convergent invalidity when it comes to crime statistics?
Page reference: Box 3.5
a. Some crimes are omitted from surveys used to gather crime statistics.
b. Police officers have discretion about which crimes they will document.
c. Not all crimes are reported to an officer.
d. The FBI and Bureau of Justice Statistics survey the same households but use different questions.
Type: multiple choice question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 50
50) Dr. Merchant wants to know if college students who are more connected to peers are more likely to stay at the institution. He believes that students who are more connected to their peers will stay on campus more often on weekends than those who are less connected. If he finds that students who stay on campus on weekends have more friends and stay in college, it is likely that his measure has _____________ validity.
Page reference: Validity
a. Concurrent
b. Construct
c. Convergent
d. Face
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 1
1) Measurement reflects a commitment to defining complex and ambiguous phenomenon
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 2
2) The credibility of the study’s findings rests on the appropriateness of its measurement strategies.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 3
3) Social researchers cannot clearly measure abstract concepts.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 4
4) Measurement allows researchers to describe the relationship between concepts.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 5
5) A general or abstract idea that describes observations and ideas about some aspect of the social world is known as a concept.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 6
6) Winfield’s conceptualization of the glass escalator focused on the categories of people (men and minority men) and locations.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 7
7) Conceptualization and operationalization are basically the same thing.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 8
8) Referring to theory is a way to conceptualize abstract terms.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 9
9) If you were operationalizing political attitude, a person’s political affiliation could be used as an indicator.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 10
10) As a researcher operationalizes a concept, it moves from the specific to the abstract.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 11
11) The Proposition 54 ballot initiative in California was problematic because it favored explicitly asking about race in matters related to education and employment.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 12
12) Generally, it is the case that one indicator is sufficient when conceptualizing and operationalizing variables
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
13) An operationalized definition of advancement and upward mobility in career could be “entry into better-paying, higher status positions.”
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 14
14) Martinez, Lorvick, and Kral (2014) conceptualized the term “activity spaces” in order to understand how much access intravenous drug users have to health care.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 15
15) An independent variable is a behaviour, characteristic, or condition that is affected by other aspects of the social world.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 16
16) Measurements should be mutually exclusive and exhaustive in quantitative research.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 17
17) If a measure is exhaustive, that means that the measurement categories do not overlap, such that each case fits into only one response category.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 18
18) Gender identity, measured as woman, man, and nonbinary, is an example of an ordinal level variable.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 19
19) When a measure is reliable, that means that accurately measures the concept being measured.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 20
20) When concepts are related to each other empirically in a way predicted by theory, this is known as construct validity.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 21
21) The test-retest method is a common test for internal validity.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 22
22) An example of concurrent validity is comparing the results of crime surveys over the same period of time to see if they find the same trends.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 23
23) If a measure appears to reasonably reflect the content of the concept, it would have face validity.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 24
24) The more artificial and controlled the research setting is, the more likely the research will have external validity.
a. True
b. False
Type: true-false
Title: Chapter 3 Question 25
25) The findings in Zambrana et al.’s 2017 study of Mexican American faculty had issues with reliability because there was disagreement about how to code the interview data.
a. True
b. False
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 1
1) How do researchers contend with ambiguity and complexity in the social world? Why is this important?
Feedback: Researchers have to create clear measures of complex and ambiguous concepts. This is important because the way that a researcher measures a concept impacts the integrity of the study, as well as how the study will proceed.
Section reference: Introduction/Overview
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 2
2) In what ways are multiple indicators of a concept preferable to a single indicator? Provide an example of a concept that would benefit from multiple indicators and brainstorm different indicators that could be used to measure it.
Feedback: One indicator cannot capture the complexity of abstract concepts and may provide misinformation or inaccurate results related to the phenomenon being studied.
Section reference: Operationalization
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 3
3) What are the three main reasons that measurement is needed and important?
Feedback: Measurement helps researchers describe and determine relationships between concepts, delineate meaningful differences between people, and provides a consistent device for gauging distinctions.
Section reference: Why Measure?
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 4
4) Choose an abstract social variable that is interesting to you (for example, life satisfaction.) Then conceptualize and operationalize the variable using the steps in Figure 3.1. Be specific about how you would measure the absence or presence of the variable in a research study.
Feedback: Answers vary but should include an abstract conceptual definition and then move to a specific operationalized indicator.
Section reference: Operationalization
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 5
5) In your own words, explain the difference between mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories. Create an example of a variable and its categories that meet both of these criteria.
Feedback: Mutually exclusive means that the categories do not overlap. Exhaustive means each case can fit into a possible category.
Section reference: Operationalization
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 6
6) Explain the importance of theory in the way Wingfield conceptualized and operationalized the variables in her study.
Feedback: She broadened our understanding of how the glass escalator works for men by taking into account how this impacted men of colour. She looked to past research to guide her and also contributed to our understanding of this phenomenon.
Section reference: Conceptualization Using Theory and Research
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 7
7) Social scientists are interested in understanding and studying poverty. What are some indicators that researchers could use to operationalize poverty?
Feedback: Answers vary
Section reference: Operationalization
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 8
8) Explain in your own words terms independent and dependent variable. How is it possible that a single concept could be either of these? Provide an example.
Feedback: Dependent variable is the variable influenced or impacted by another variable. Independent variable impacts or causes change in the dependent variable. Depending on the research question, an abstract concept could be impacted by another variable or cause change in a variable.
Section reference: Measurement in Quantitative Research
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 9
9) Why does Sumerau advocate that social scientist rethink the way that they measure gender and sexuality? What suggestions do they make for researchers to accomplish this? Are there other demographic variables that you think could be more exhaustive on forms that you’ve seen? Explain.
Feedback: Current measures do not reflect the fluidity or the breadth of categories that people identify with and tend to rely on binary measures.
Section reference: Box 3.3
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 10
10) Describe the nominal, ordinal, and interval-ratio levels of measurement. Choose a single variable and then describe how you could measure it at all three levels.
Feedback: See definitions.
Section reference: Levels of Measurement
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 11
11) What is a Likert scale? Why are the useful in social research? Describe a few principles recommended for creating a Likert scale.
Feedback: Respondents are asked their degree of agreement with a series of attitude statements to create a multiple-indicator measure. Helps us measure people’s attitudes. Principles include: phrasing items as statements, items must relate to the same object and be inter-related.
Section reference: Levels of Measurement and Box 3.4
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 12
12) In your own words, explain the difference between and the importance of reliability and validity.
Feedback: Reliability is the degree to which a concept is stable or consist. Validity is how accurately an indicator measures the concept in question, as well as the integrity of a study’s conclusions. They are important because they impact the credibility of the study’s findings.
Section reference: Reliability and Validity
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 13
13) What is the difference between internal and external validity?
Feedback: Internal validity has to do with causation. External validity involves whether a study’s findings are applicable in settings outside the research environment.
Section reference: Reliability and Validity
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 14
14) What are the main sources of statistics on crime? Why are crime statistics an example of convergent invalidity? What is your reaction to this inconsistency?
Feedback: They come from different sources, they may not include the same crimes in different surveys, people may not report crime
Section reference: Box 3.5
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 15
15) Discuss the following: “Whereas validity presupposes reliability, reliability does not presuppose validity.”
Feedback: You could consistently get invalid results if the indicator or concept is not measuring what is intended.
Section reference: Reliability and Validity
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 16
16
What was the ASA’s response to California’s Proposition 54? What was the intention of this proposition? What are the risks of not collecting racial data?
Feedback: The intention was to have a color-blind approach to official government activities, however the ASA points out that failing to measure race and ethnicity means that we would not be able to study the impact of race on things like employment and education.
Section reference: Methods in Motion
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 17
17) Describe the ways that researchers can test the internal and external validity of their research.
Feedback: Face validity, concurrent validity, construct validity, and convergent validity.
Section reference: Reliability and Validity
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 18
18) How can a researcher test the reliability of a measure?
Feedback: Stability over time, looking at the internal reliability of a measure, and having inter-observer consistency.
Section reference: Reliability and Validity
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 19
19) Why does Becker describe the measurement process as ideally being a dialogue? What does he mean by this? Provide an example based on a study mentioned in the chapter.
Feedback: Dialogue keeps researchers thinking regularly and repeatedly about their goals, decisions, and outcomes. Did we do what we aimed to? Why or why not?
Section reference: Reliability and Validity
Type: essay/short answer question
Title: Chapter 3 Question 20
20) Imagine you want to study the factors that impact a student’s decision to transfer to a different university. Think of a criterion related to this decision and then construct a hypothesis. How would you know if you achieved concurrent validity with this measure?
Feedback: Answers vary but could resemble the example given in the section on concurrent validity.
Section reference: Concurrent validity