Chapter 5: Identifying Good Measurement

Flashcards covering key concepts from Chapter 5 on identifying good measurement in research.

Reliability

The consistency of measurement scores across time and context.

Validity

The extent to which a measurement tool measures what it is intended to measure.

Self-report measure

A method of gathering data by having participants provide information about themselves.

Observational measure

A method of gathering data by observing and recording behavior.

Physiological measure

A type of measure that captures biological data, such as heart rate or brain activity.

Ordinal scale

A scale of measurement where numerals represent rank order but intervals between values are not equal.

Interval scale

A scale of measurement in which intervals between values are meaningful and equal, but there is no true zero.

Ratio scale

A scale of measurement that possesses equal intervals and a true zero point, indicating absence of the variable.

Test-retest reliability

A measure of reliability obtained by administering the same test twice over a period of time.

Interrater reliability

A measure of reliability used to assess the degree to which different raters give consistent estimates.

Internal reliability

A measure of reliability that assesses the consistency of results across items within a test.

Cronbach’s alpha

A statistic used to quantify internal reliability, reflecting how closely related a set of items are.

Face validity

A subjective assessment of whether a measure appears to measure what it intends to measure.

Content validity

The degree to which a measure covers the entire domain of the construct being measured.

Criterion validity

The extent to which a measure correlates with an outcome or behavior that it should be related to.

Convergent validity

The degree to which two measures of constructs that are theoretically related are actually related.

Discriminant validity

The degree to which a measure does not correlate with other measures that it should not be related to.