Chapter 13—Measurement TRUE/FALSE Measurement is the process of describing some property of a phenomenon, usually by assigning numbers, in a reliable and valid way ANS: T PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 293 In measurement, whenever a number is used to assign a value to an observation, the researcher must assign this number according to some predetermined rule ANS: T PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 293 All measurement, particularly in the social sciences, contains error ANS: T PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 295 A scale can be thought of as a generalized idea that represents something of meaning ANS: F This is a concept Scales measure concepts PTS: REF: p 295 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking Correspondence analysis is the process of identifying scale devices that correspond to properties of a concept involved in a research process ANS: F This is called operationalization PTS: REF: p 295 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking A construct is a term used for concepts that are measured with single variables ANS: F Constructs are measured with multiple variables PTS: REF: p 296 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking How we define a construct will affect the way we measure it ANS: T PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 296 An ordinal scale is the simplest type of measurement scale ANS: F A nominal scale is the most elementary level of measurement © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part PTS: REF: p 297 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking The most sophisticated form of data analysis for a nominal scale is the average of the scores ANS: F Nominal scale properties mean the numbering system simply identifies things, so mathematical functions like averaging should not be performed PTS: REF: p 297 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 10 A measurement scale in which respondents are asked to rank items based on their preferences is called a nominal scale ANS: F This is an ordinal scale PTS: REF: p 298 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 11 The Fahrenheit temperature scale is an example of a ratio scale ANS: F It is an example of an interval scale PTS: REF: p 300 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 12 Interval scales represent the absolute meaning of the numbers on the scale ANS: F Ratio scales this Interval scales capture information about differences in quantities of a concept, though PTS: REF: p 300 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 13 In ratio scales, the location of the zero point is arbitrary ANS: F Ratio scales have an absolute zero This is what distinguishes a ratio scale from an interval scale because zero in a ratio scale has meaning in that it represents an absence of some concept PTS: REF: p 300 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 14 "Money" is an example of a ratio scale ANS: T PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 300 15 Mathematical operations cannot be performed with numbers from nominal scales ANS: F While it is true that mathematical operations can be performed with numbers from nominal scales, the result may not have a great deal of meaning PTS: REF: p 301 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part 16 Concrete measures are those that take on only one of a finite number of values ANS: F These are discrete measures PTS: REF: p 301 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 17 Continuous measures are those assigning values anywhere along some scale range in a place that corresponds to the intensity of some concept ANS: T PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 302 18 Interval scales are considered continuous when three or more categories are used ANS: F They are considered continuous when five or more categories are used PTS: REF: p 303 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 19 An attribute is a single characteristic or fundamental feature of an object, person, situation, or issue ANS: T PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 303 20 Inverse coding means the researcher treats the value for a response oppositely from the other items ANS: F This is called reverse coding PTS: REF: p 304 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 21 The three major criteria for evaluating measurements are reliability, validity, and sensitivity ANS: T PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 305 22 A measuring instrument is valid when the results can be repeated at subsequent measurements of the concept ANS: F This is reliability Validity refers to the extent to which a score truthfully represents a concept PTS: REF: pp 305-306 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 23 Coefficient beta is the most commonly applied estimate of a composite scale’s reliability ANS: F Coefficient alpha is most commonly used PTS: REF: p 306 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part 24 Content validity is the ability of a measure to correlate with other standard measures of similar constructs or established criteria ANS: F This is criterion validity PTS: REF: pp 307-308 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 25 Discriminant validity is another way of expressing internal consistency ANS: F This is convergent validity Discriminant validity represents how unique or distinct is a measure PTS: REF: p 308 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking MULTIPLE CHOICE _ is the process of describing some property of a phenomenon, usually by assigning numbers, in a reliable and valid way a Research b Analysis c Validation d Measurement ANS: D PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 393 Age, gender, brand loyalty, and corporate culture are all examples of: a concepts b scales c ratios d codes ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 295 Researchers measure concepts through a process known as: a summation b operationalization c assessment d matching ANS: B PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 295 Which of the following provides correspondence rules that indicate that a certain value corresponds to some true value of a concept? a operations b reliability c sensitivity d scale ANS: D PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 295 © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part 5 Which of the following refers to concepts measured with multiple variables? a operation b construct c concept d scale ANS: B PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 296 In an observation study, when "shopping time in a supermarket" is defined as: "Using a stopwatch, start the stopwatch the moment the customer enters the store and stop the stopwatch as soon as the customer is handed a receipt by the checkout clerk," this is best described as an example of a(n): a nominal scale b equivalent-form scale c operational definition d test-retest method ANS: C PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: pp 295-296 Scales that assign a value to an object for identification or classification purposes are called _ scales a ordinal b nominal c interval d ratio ANS: B PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 297 Coding household income into "Above $100,000," "Between $50,000 and $100,000," and "Below $50,000" is an example of a(n) _ scale a interval b test-retest c criterion d nominal ANS: D PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 297 Which type of scale is, at the most, a ranking scale? a ratio b interval c nominal d ordinal ANS: D PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 298 10 When respondents are asked to place local shopping malls so that their first choice is 1, their second choice is 2, and so forth, this is best-described as an example of a(n) _ scale a ordinal b ratio c interval © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part d nominal ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 298 11 A scale which arranges brands in an ordered sequence in which there is an equal interval between each point on the scale is an example of a(n) _ scale a interval b ratio c nominal d ordinal ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 299 12 The Fahrenheit temperature scale is best described as an example of a(n) _ scale a ratio b nominal c interval d ordinal ANS: C PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 300 13 Which type of scale represents the highest form of measurement? a nominal scale b ordinal c ratio d interval ANS: C PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 300 14 How much a person weighs is best described as an example of a(n) _ scale a ordinal b interval c ratio d nominal ANS: C PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 300 15 Which of the following is a defining characteristic in determining between ratio and interval scales? a number of items b absolute zero c number of intervals d nominal values ANS: B PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 300 16 All of the following can be measured using ratio scales EXCEPT: a gender b income c temperature d weight © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 300 17 Measures that can take on only one of a finite number of values are called: a discrete measures b neutral measures c limited measures d continuous measures ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 301 18 Which of the following is a discrete measure? a nominal scales b sensitive scales c ratio scales d all of the above ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 301 19 Measures that reflect the intensity of a concept by assigning values that can take on any value along some scale range are called: a discrete measures b continuous measures c absolute measures d valid measures ANS: B PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 302 20 A(n) _ is a single characteristic or fundamental feature of an object, person, situation, or issue a concept b variable c attribute d construct ANS: C PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 303 21 Carla is using education, income, and occupation to develop a measure of social class What type of measure for social class is she developing? a index measure b valid measure c reliable measure d concurrent measure ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 303 22 Which type of measure assigns a value to an observation based on a mathematical derivation of multiple measures? a conglomerate measure b derivative measure c summated measure © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part d composite measure ANS: D PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 303 23 A researcher is measuring consumers’ attitudes toward product placement in movies using five attitude items She created a scale by simply summing the response to each item making up the composite measure This composite measure is called a(n): a derived scale b additive scale c summated scale d primary scale ANS: C PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 303 24 Which of the following means that the value assigned for a response is treated oppositely from the other items in a scale? a reverse coding b indexing c alpha coding d convergence ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 304 25 Which of the following is an indicator of a measure’s internal consistency? a reliability b validity c coefficient beta d sensitivity ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 305 26 When a researcher measures the reliability of an instrument by comparing the results of the oddnumbered questions with the results of the even-numbered questions, this is an example of _ reliability a test-retest b split-half c equivalent-forms d criterion ANS: B PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 306 27 The most commonly applied estimate of a composite scale’s reliability is: a coefficient alpha b coefficient beta c criterion coefficient d an index coefficient ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 306 © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part 28 A researcher who administers the same scale to the same respondents at two separate times to test for stability is using which method of assessing the scale’s reliability? a coefficient alpha b split-half method c test-retest method d before/after method ANS: C PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 306 29 The ability of a measuring instrument to measure what it is supposed to measure is the basic purpose of _ a reliability b validity c sensitivity d indexing ANS: B PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 307 30 When a group of experts agrees that a measuring instrument measures what it is intended to measure, we say that the instrument has _ validity a face b criterion c test-retest d equivalent-forms ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 307 31 Which type of validity addresses the question, “Does my measure correlate with measures of similar concepts or known quantities?” a face validity b reliability validity c criterion validity d discriminant validity ANS: C PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 308 32 Which of the following is a component of construct validity? a face validity b discriminant validity c convergent validity d all of the above ANS: D PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 308 33 When a two-point scale (e.g agree/disagree) is expanded to include five categories (e.g strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree), we say that the _ of the scale has been increased a sensitivity b reliability c predictive validity © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part d criterion validity ANS: A PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking REF: p 309 COMPLETION A generalized idea that represents something of meaning is called a(n) ANS: concept PTS: REF: p 295 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking The process involving identifying scales that correspond to properties of a concept is called ANS: operationalization PTS: REF: p 295 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking Scales provide rules that indicate that a certain value on a scale corresponds to some true value of a concept ANS: correspondence PTS: REF: p 295 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking A scale in which letters (e.g A,B,C) are assigned to objects to serve as identification labels for the objects is called a(n) scale ANS: nominal PTS: REF: p 297 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking A scale which arranges objects in order according to their relative magnitude to one another is called a(n) scale ANS: ordinal PTS: REF: p 298 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking A scale which arranges objects so that they are equally-distant from one another is called a(n) scale ANS: interval PTS: REF: p 299 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking A scale has an absolute zero point ANS: ratio PTS: REF: p 300 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part 8 Measures that take on only one of a finite number of values are called measures ANS: discrete PTS: REF: p 301 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking Measures that assign values anywhere along some scale range in a place that corresponds to the intensity of some concept are called measures ANS: continuous PTS: REF: p 302 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 10 means that the value assigned for a response is treated oppositely from the other items ANS: Reverse coding PTS: REF: p 304 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 11 The degree to which a measurement instrument yields consistent results is called the of the instrument ANS: reliability PTS: REF: p 305 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 12 The ability of a measuring instrument to measure what it is supposed to measure is called its ANS: validity PTS: REF: p 307 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 13 A scale that logically appears to reflect what was intended to be measured possesses validity ANS: face PTS: REF: p 307 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 14 validity represents the uniqueness or distinctiveness of a measure ANS: Discriminant PTS: REF: p 308 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking 15 The ability of a scale to measure the variability of a concept is called that scale’s ANS: sensitivity © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part PTS: REF: p 309 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking ESSAY Compare and contrast the four different levels of scale measurement ANS: The four levels or types of scale measurement are: (1) Nominal scale - represents the most elementary level of measurement It assigns a value to an object for identification or classification purposes The value can be a number, but does not have to be, because no quantities are being represented (2) Ordinal scale - ranking scales allowing things to be arranged based on how much of some concepts they possess They have nominal properties, but they also allow things to be arranged based on how much of some concept they possess (3) Interval scale - has both nominal and ordinal properties, but also captures information about differences in quantities of a concept Unlike ordinal scales, it captures relative quantities in the form of distances between observations (4) Ratio scale - represents the highest form of measurement in that is has all the properties of an interval scale with the additional attribute representing absolute quantities Interval scales represent only relative meaning whereas ratio scales represent absolute meaning Therefore, zero has meaning in that it represents an absence of some concept PTS: REF: pp 296-301 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication Explain how indexes or composite measures are formed ANS: Multi-item instruments for measuring a construct are either called index measures or composite measures An index measure assigns a value based on how characteristic an observation is of the thing being measured Indexes often are formed by putting several variables together For example, a social class index is based on three weighted variables: income, occupation, and education With an index, the different attributes may not be strongly correlated with each other Composite measures also assign a value based on a mathematical derivation of multiple variables For most practical applications, composite measures and indexes are computed in the same way However, composite measures are distinguished from index measures in that the composite’s indicators should be both theoretically and statistically related to each other PTS: REF: p 303 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication List the three criteria for good measurement ANS: Reliability, validity, and sensitivity PTS: REF: p 305 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication Explain what reliability is and discuss how it is assessed ANS: © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part Reliability is an indicator of a measure’s internal consistency A measure is reliable when different attempts at measuring something converge on the same result When a measuring process provides reproducible results, the measuring instrument is reliable Internal consistency is a term used to represent a measure’s homogeneity and can be measured by correlating scores on subsets of items making up a scale The split-half method of checking reliability is performed by taking half the items from a scale (e.g., odd-numbered items) and checking them against the results from the other half (even-numbered items) The two scale halves should correlate highly Coefficient alpha is the most commonly applied estimate of a composite scale’s reliability by computing the average of all possible split-half reliabilities from a multiple-item scale This coefficient demonstrates whether or not the different items converge and ranges from to 1, with values between 0.80 and 0.96 considered to have very good reliability The test-retest method of determining reliability involves administering the same scale or measure on the same respondents at two separate times to test for stability PTS: REF: pp 305-306 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication Name and describe the components of construct validity ANS: Construct validity exists when a measure reliably measures and truthfully represents a unique concept It consists of several components: (1) Face validity - refers to a scale’s content logically appearing to reflect what was intended to be measured (2) Content validity - the degree that a measure covers the breadth of the domain of interest (3) Convergent validity - another way of expressing internal consistency Highly reliable scales contain convergent validity (4) Criterion validity - addresses the question, “Does my measure correlate with measures of similar concepts or known quantities?” (5) Discriminant validity - represents how unique or distinct is a measure PTS: REF: pp 307-308 NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking| AACSB: Communication © 2010 Cengage Learning All Rights Reserved May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part ... respondents at two separate times to test for stability is using which method of assessing the scale’s reliability? a coefficient alpha b split-half method c test- retest method d before/after method... very good reliability The test- retest method of determining reliability involves administering the same scale or measure on the same respondents at two separate times to test for stability PTS:... questions with the results of the even-numbered questions, this is an example of _ reliability a test- retest b split-half c equivalent-forms d criterion ANS: B PTS: NAT: AACSB: Reflective Thinking