Research Methods in Psychology Core Concepts and Skills V.1.0 by Paul C. Price – Test Bank

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Chapter 5

True/False Items

Section 1

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. “Psychometrics” is another name for psychological measurement.

True; Easy

Psychological constructs can be observed directly by looking or

listening.

False; Moderate

The Big Five are a set of personality dimensions that describe human

personality.

True; Easy

“Behavioral measure” is another name for any psychological measure.

False; Moderate

There is a single best conceptual definition of every psychological

construct.

False; Easy

There is a single best way to measure every psychological construct.

False; Easy

The variable sex (male vs. female) is measured at the nominal level.

True; Moderate

Intelligence is measured at the ratio level.

False; Moderate

Section 2

9. Psychologists assume their measures are accurate but cannot

demonstrate that they are.

False; Easy

10.A psychological measure is reliable to the extent that it is consistent.

True; Easy

11.A test-retest correlation of +.50 is generally considered good.

False; Moderate

12.The split-half correlation is a measure of internal consistency.

© Paul C. Price, published by Flat World Knowledge 1True; Moderate

13.A Cronbach’s alpha of .90 would indicate good internal consistency.

True; Moderate

14.A psychological measure is valid to the extent that the scores it

produces are consistent over time.

False; Moderate

15.Face validity is the extent to which a psychological measure appears to

measure the construct of interest.

True; Easy

Section 3

16.The first step in measuring a construct is conceptually defining it.

True; Easy

17.Researchers should create their own measures whenever possible.

False; Easy

18.Psychological measures should have as few items as possible.

False; Moderate

19.“Reactivity” refers to participants’ reactions to being measured.

True; Easy

Multiple-Choice Items

Section 1

20.Measurement is best defined as which of the following?

a. directly comparing one individual to a standard reference individual

b. the assignment of scores to individuals so the scores represent

some characteristic of the individuals

c. the use of an established measuring instrument such as a ruler or

scale to describe an individual

d. an objective method of counting individuals

B; Moderate

21.Which of the following is another name for psychological

measurement?

a. intelligence testing

b. mental examination

c. quantitative psychology

d. psychometrics

© Paul C. Price, published by Flat World Knowledge 2D; Easy

22.Working memory capacity can be measured by doing which of the

following?

a. scanning people’s frontal lobes

b. having people repeat back a string of digits

c. asking people about their earliest childhood memories

d. all of the above

B; Moderate

23.Which of the following is the best example of a construct?

a. depression

b. number of siblings

c. height

d. annual income

A; Easy

24.What is it called when a researcher measures the same construct in

different ways?

a. multiple measurement

b. exploratory research

c. inconsistent assessment

d. converging operations

D; Moderate

25.Which of the following is true of the measurement of stress?

a. Stress cannot be measured because it is not directly observable.

b. Physiological measures provide the best indicator of stress.

c. There are many useful measures of stress.

d. Existing measures of stress are too flawed to be of much use.

C; Moderate

26.Which of the following variables is measured at the ratio level?

a. number of siblings

b. intelligence

c. religion

d. self-esteem

A; Moderate

Section 2

27.A low test-retest correlation would probably not be a concern for a

measure of which of the following?

a. mood

b. intelligence

c. extroversion

© Paul C. Price, published by Flat World Knowledge 3d. conscientiousness

A; Moderate

28.Internal consistency is not relevant for which of the following

measures?

a. the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

b. a rating of one’s happiness on a 1-to-10 scale

c. the Beck Depression Inventory

d. a standard intelligence test

B; Moderate

29.Which of the following is a common measure of internal consistency?

a. test-retest correlation

b. split-half correlation

c. Cohen’s d

d. Cronbach’s alpha

D; Moderate

30.Cronbach’s alpha can be interpreted as which of the following?

a. the mean of all possible test-retest correlations

b. the mean of all possible split-half correlations

c. the mean of all possible inter-rater correlations

d. none of the above

B; Moderate

31.Imagine that a research methods instructor accidentally includes

concepts on an exam that he did not actually cover in the course. This

is a problem with which of the following?

a. the exam’s face validity

b. the exam’s discriminant validity

c. the exam’s criterion validity

d. the exam’s content validity

D; Moderate

Section 3

32.Which of the following is generally true of measures created for use in

scientific research?

a. They can be used without permission.

b. They are described in a published article.

c. They should be properly referenced in any published work.

d. all of the above

D; Easy

33.The Stroop color naming task has been adapted to measure which of

the following?

© Paul C. Price, published by Flat World Knowledge 4a. autism

b. color blindness

c. social anxiety

d. paranoia

C; Moderate

34.Features of a study that indicate to participants how they “ought” to

behave are called _____.

a. demand characteristics

b. behavioral cues

c. hidden commands

d. expectancy effects

A; Moderate

35.After using any psychological measure, it is always good practice to do

which of the following?

a. write a thank you note to the creator of the measure

b. evaluate its reliability and validity based on the new data

c. publish the results in the Mental Measurements Yearbook

d. discuss participants’ responses with them

B; Moderate

Short-Answer Items

Section 1

36.Give two distinct operational definitions for the construct aggression.

Be as specific as you can.

Answers may vary and could include self-report, behavioral, and

physiological measures.

Moderate

37.What do psychological researchers mean by “converging operations?”

Give a hypothetical example.

This refers to measuring the same construct in different ways to see if

the different measures produce similar results. Stress would be a good

example here.

Difficult

Section 2

38.How do the reliability and validity of a measure differ from each other?

Is it possible for a measure to be reliable but not valid? If so, how? Is it

possible for a measure to be valid but not reliable? How?

Reliability is consistency whereas validity is more like accuracy.

Reliability without validity is possible. Some say that validity without

© Paul C. Price, published by Flat World Knowledge 5reliability is not possible on the grounds that if your measurements are

not consistent they cannot be measuring something with any reliability.

On the other hand, a measure of a variable construct like mood could

be valid yet have poor test-retest reliability.

Difficult

39.Imagine that you create a new measure of indecisiveness. Describe a

study you could do to provide evidence for its criterion validity.

Answers may vary. Scores could be correlated with scores on another

measure of indecisiveness. Or scores could be correlated with reaction

times on a task where people have to make a difficult decision. Or

scores could be compared between executives known for their

decisiveness and some other group.

Difficult

Section 3

40.In the context of psychological measurement, what is reactivity?

Illustrate your general definition with a concrete example.

Reactivity is the reaction of the participants to being measured.

Examples may vary. A good example would be participants engaging

in socially desirable responding.

Moderate

© Paul C. Price, published by Flat World Knowledge 6