Concept Review Research in Psych, 7e: Study Guide, Chapter 4 4-1
After you finish reading and studying each main section of the chapter, print out this document and answer the following questions to test your comprehension.
What to Measure – Varieties of Behavior o What are two different ways in which researchers develop measures for constructs?
o The “gravity” study is a good example of how operational definitions can be used to bring seemingly unmeasurable constructs into the lab. Explain.
o Describe how reaction time can be used to measure visual imagery.
o Historically, how was the reaction time method first used?
Evaluating Measures o How can you tell when a measure is reliable?
o What is content validity and how does it differ from what is sometimes called face validity?
o What is meant by criterion validity?
o What is construct validity and how does it relate to convergent and discriminant validity?
o Measures can be reliable without being valid, but if a measure is valid, you can assume that it is also reliable. Explain (hint: phrenology example).
Scales of Measurement o Give an example to show that you understand nominal scales of measurement.
o Give an example to show that you understand ordinal scales of measurement.
o What is the difference between an interval and a ratio scale of measurement?
Statistical Analysis o Distinguish between samples and populations.
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o Distinguish between descriptive and inferential statistics.
o Distinguish between the mean, median, and mode.
o When is it better to use a median rather than the mean?
o What are three different measures of variability?
o What is an interquartile range and when is it used?
o When reporting a set of scores, why is it important to report not just the mean, but also the standard deviation, or some other measure of variability?
o Distinguish between an actual and a hypothetical frequency distribution. What is the importance of the latter?
o When creating a graph, why is it important to be careful about the labeling of the Y-axis?
o Describe how testing the null hypothesis is similar to testing the guilt of someone in a courtroom.
o Describe what is meant by the phrase “rejecting the null hypothesis.”
o What is a Type I error? Give an example.
o What is a Type II error? Give an example.
o Explain why a failure to reject the null hypothesis can sometimes be an important outcome.
o What question is answered by an effect size analysis?
o Describe what is meant by a confidence interval.
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o What is power and what factors influence it?
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