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Prep Sheet. Psychological Measurement

Before you begin:

1. Download this file onto a secure drive (i.e., one that won’t crash).
2. Save the file according to your LastName.FirstName_Prep.Measurement.
Complete assignment:
3. Read all instructions atop each section or item as you go.
4. Type your answers into colored spaces provided.

Answer the following items based on the content of chapter 4, “Psychological Measurement”, from
your textbook Research Methods in Psychology:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/psychmethods4e/part/psychological-measurement/.

1. Compare conceptual definitions to operational definitions.

Give an example of each one using the same construct.

2. Describe three types of measures used in research.

Now think of a way you could use EACH type of measure for your class project. Describe them.

3. Is it okay for researchers to use multiple measures for their constructs?

Why or why not? Explain.

4. Identify each type of measurement scale described in this chapter.

(These may not seem important, but being able to differentiate these scales affects your ability to
analyze findings, especially statistically, in appropriate ways.)

5. Revisit the potential measures you described for your project in Item #2. What measurement scale is
most relevant for each of the measures you described? Explain your choice in writing here and be
able to explain it to your partner.

6. Based on Exercise #2 at the end of 4.1, complete the following:

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Create an operational definition for jealousy.

Identify a self-report, behavioral, and physiological measure you could use for jealousy.
Based on your measures, what measurement scale is most relevant for each measure?

7. The following items were taken from the 3rd edition of your textbook. It read:

Practice: For each of the following variables, decide which level of

measurement is being used.

a) A university instructor measures the time it takes her students to finish an

exam by looking through the stack of exams at the end. She assigns the one
on the bottom a score of 1, the one on top of that a 2, and so on.
b) A researcher accesses her participants’ medical records and counts the
number of times they have seen a doctor in the past year.
c) Participants in a research study are asked whether they are right-handed or
left-handed.

8. Compare/contrast validity and reliability. How are they different?

Which one is harder to determine? Which one is measured/reported more often by researchers? Why?

[Note: If you cannot find the answer verbatim in the textbook, think about the material and develop an answer.
There is a logic to the answers. You also can consult other sources.]

9. Describe how a professor might compute test-retest reliability for a set of students in a course she is
teaching.

10. The measures/types of validity covered in this chapter have to do with construct validity, which is
different from the internal validity and external validity you covered last week.

Describe below and discuss with your partner how to distinguish these types of validity.
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11. Which type of construct validity is the easiest, but least reliable, measure of validity?
Why?

12. Identify at least one type of validity measure that requires another standard of comparison for its
determination/calculation. (In other words, if you wanted to compute this measure of construct validity,
you would need another standard.)

13. Which two measures of validity are the opposite of each other? (In other words, they are opposite ways
of measuring construct validity.)

14. What are the advantages of using existing measures in your research (rather than creating your own,
new measures)? [HINT: This may apply especially to survey research, which you likely will do in
Research Methods 2… so take note of this!]

15. Going back to the construct addressed in Item #6: jealousy.

Find an empirical article that tested/measured jealousy in some way.

Provide a reference entry (and link, if possible) for the article.

Describe their measurement of jealousy.
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After you finish:

1. Save your work (by clicking Save since you have the file already named).
2. Pay attention to where your document/work is saved.
3. Upload the document into the proper submission folder.

See you in class!