Validity & Measurement
The ability to accurately measure what you intend to measure
What is validity?
A mental image that summarizes a set of similar observations, feelings, or ideas.
What is a concept?
The variable represented by X that is used to explain or predict changes in another variable.
What is the independent variable?
This level of measurement uses categories that vary in quality or kind but not amount. Examples include race, religion, and case disposition.
What is nominal?
A rating scale that asks respondents to indicate agreement, such as from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
What is a Likert scale?
The process of turning abstract concepts into measurable variables.
What is operationalization?
The process of specifying what we mean by a term or defining a concept.
What is conceptualization?
The variable represented by Y that is measured as the outcome.
What is the dependent variable?
This level of measurement allows categories to be ranked, but the exact difference between categories cannot be determined.
What is ordinal?
A question is considered this when its answer choices do not overlap, so a response fits only one category.
What does mutually exclusive mean?
This type of validity occurs when a measure appears to measure the concept of interest.
What is face validity?
A characteristic that describes people, objects, or places and takes on multiple values.
What is a variable?
According to Deterrence Theory, the more certain, severe, and swift a punishment is, the more likely it is to deter future offending. This is an example of what?
What is a hypothesis?
This level of measurement has equal units but does not have an absolute or true zero point.
What is interval?
This means all possible measures or categories must be included.
What does exhaustive mean?
This type of validity measures whether an instrument is related to a variety of other measures as predicted by a theory or previous research.
What is construct validity?
A characteristic that describes people, objects, or places and takes on only one value.
What is a constant?
As study time increases, exam scores tend to increase. This describes what type of relationship?
What is a positive relationship?
This level of measurement has equal units and an absolute zero point.
What is ratio?
A researcher compares self-reported alcohol consumption with blood alcohol concentration (BAC) from the same time period. What type of validity is being assessed?
What is criterion validity?
This type of validity occurs when scores on one measure can be compared to a more direct or well-established measure.
What is criterion validity?
The process of using multiple methods to more clearly define and measure a concept.
What is triangulation?
In a graph, this type of relationship is shown when the points generally slope downward from left to right.
What is a negative relationship?
A researcher measures prison security using minimum, medium, and maximum categories. What level of measurement is this?
What is ordinal?
Researchers use this type of validity when no clear criterion exists and examine whether variables are logically related to other measures as predicted by theory.
What is construct validity?