Term
|
Definition
| Whether a questionnaire produces the same or similar responses with multiple administrations of the same or similar instrument. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A method of assessing the reliability of a questionnaire by administering repeatedly the same or parallel form of a test. |
|
|
Term
| Parallel-Forms Reliability |
|
Definition
| Establishing the reliability of a questionnaire by administering parallel (alternate) forms of the questionnaire repeatedly. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A method of assessing reliability of a questionnaire using a single administration of the instrument. The questionnaire is split into two parts, and the responses from the two parts are correlated. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Agreement of a measurement with a known standard. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The extent to which a measuring instrument measures what it was designed to measure. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| How well a test appears to measure (judging by its contents) what it was designed to measure. Example: A measure of mathematical ability would have ___________ if it contained math problems. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Validity of a test established by judging how adequately the test samples behavior representative of the universe of behaviors the test was designed to sample. |
|
|
Term
| Criterion-Related Validity |
|
Definition
| The ability of a measure to produce results similar to those provided by other, established measures of the same variable. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The validity of a test established by showing that its results can be used to infer an individual's value on some other, accepted test administered at the same time. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The ability of a measure to predict some future behavior. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Validity that applies when a test is designed to measure a "construct" or variable "constructed" to describe or explain behavior on the basis of theory (for example, intelligence). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A measurement scale that involves categorizing cases into two or more distinct categories. This scale yields the least information. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A measurement scale in which cases are ordered along some dimension (for example, large, medium, or small). The distances between scale values are unknown. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A measurement scale in which the spacing between values along the scale is known. The zero point of this scale is arbitrary. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Highest Scale of measurement; it has all of the characteristics of an interval scale plus an absolute scale. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A problem in which a variable being observed reaches an upper limit (ceiling effect) or lower limit (floor effect). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A measure of a subject's activity in a situation; for example, the number of times a rat presses a lever (frequency of responding). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A measure of a bodily function of subjects in a study (for example, heart rate). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A measure that requires participants to report on their past, present, and future behavior. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A qualitative measurement technique that involves establishing evaluative categories and sorting items into those categories. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Cues inadvertently provided by the researcher or research context concerning the purpose of a study or the behavior expected from participants. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Unintended cues in an experiment that suggest to the participants how they are expected to behave. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When the behavior of the researcher influences the results of a study. This stems from two sources: expectancy effects and uneven treatment of subjects across treatments. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When a researcher's preconceived ideas about how subjects should behave are subtly communicated to subjects and, in turn, affect the subjects' behavior. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The person testing subjects in a study is kept unaware of the hypotheses being tested. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Neither the participants in a study not the person carrying out the study know at the time of testing which treatment the participant is receiving. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Measures included in an experiment to test the effectiveness of the independent variables. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| All possible individuals making up a group of interest in a study. For example, all U.S. women constitute a __________. A small proportion of the __________ is selected in a study. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A relatively small number of individuals drawn from a population for inclusion in a study. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Applying a finding beyond the limited situation in which it was observed. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A sample drawn from the population such that every member of the population has an equal opportunity to be included in the sample. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A specialized sample of subjects used in a study who are not randomly chosen from a population. |
|
|
Term
| Institutional Review Board (IRB) |
|
Definition
| A committee that screens proposals for research using human participants for adherence to ethical standards. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Bias in the sample that results from using volunteer participants exclusively. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A research technique in which participants are misinformed about the true nature and purpose of a study. ________ is ethical if the researcher can demonstrate that important results cannot be obtained in any other way. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Alternative to deceptive research that involves having participants act as though they had been exposed to a certain treatment. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A session, conducted after an experimental session, in which participants are informed of any deception used and the reasons for the deception. |
|
|
Term
| Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) |
|
Definition
| A committee that screens proposals for research using animal subjects and monitors institutional animal-care facilities to ensure compliance with all local, state, and federal laws governing animal care and use. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The general and specific classes of behavior to be observed in an observational study. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The degree of which multiple observers agree in their classification. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A popular statistic used to assess interrater reliability. It compares the observed proportion of agreement to the proportion of agreement that would be expected if agreement occurred purely by chance. |
|
|
Term
| Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (rI) |
|
Definition
| A measure of agreement between observers that can be used when your observations are scaled on an interval or ratio scale or measurement. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Data in which the values of a variable differ in kind (quality)rather than in amount. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Observational research technique in which subjects are observed in their natural environments. The observers remain unobtrusive so that they do not interfere with the natural behaviors of the subjects being observed. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A non-quantitative technique used to study and describe the functioning of cultures through a study of social interactions and expressions between people and groups. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| An observational research technique in which a researcher insinuates him- or herself into a group to be studied. |
|
|
Term
| Nonparticipant Observation |
|
Definition
| An observational research technique in which the observer attends group functions and records observations without participating in the groups activities. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A non-experimental research technique involving identifying and measuring interpersonal relationships within a group. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A graphical representation of the pattern of friendship choices. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A non-experimental research technique in which an individual case is studied intensively to uncover its history (for example, a patient in therapy). |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A non-experimental research strategy in which you make use of existing records as your basic source of data. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A non-experimental research technique that is used to analyze a written or spoken record for the occurrence of specific categories of events. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A statistics-based method of reviewing literature in a field that involves comparing or combining the results of related studies. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Questionnaire item that allows the subject to fill in a response rather than selecting a response from provided alternatives. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Questionnaire item that provides participants with response alternatives from which the participant selects an answer. |
|
|
Term
| Partially Open-Ended Item |
|
Definition
| Questionnaire item that provides participants with response categories but includes an "other" response category with a space for participants to define the category. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Method of administering a survey that involves mailing questionnaires to participants. Nonresponse bias may be a problem. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A problem with survey research, caused by some participants not retuning a questionnaire, resulting in a biased sample. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Survey conducted on the Internet, typically by having participants fill out a Web-based questionnaire. Such surveys are subject to potential respondent bias as only those having access to the Internet can respond. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Method of conducting a survey that involves calling participants on the telephone and asking them questions from a prepared questionnaire. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Method of administering a questionnaire that involves face-to-face interaction with the participant. Two types are the structured and unstructured interview. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A sample of subjects in which the characteristics of the population are adequately represented. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A sample that is not representative of the population it is supposed to represent. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A sample technique in which every member of a population has a equal chance of being selected for a sample and in which the sampling is done on a purely random basis. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A sampling technique designed to ensure a representative sample that involves dividing the population into segments (strata) and randomly sampling from each stratum. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A variation of stratified sampling in which the proportion of subjects sampled from each stratum is matched to the proportion of subjects in each stratum in the population. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A sampling technique in which every 'k'th element is sampled after a randomly determined start. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A sampling technique in which naturally occurring groups (such as students in an elementary school class) are randomly selected for inclusion in a sample. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| A variant of cluster sampling in which naturally occurring groups of subjects are identified and randomly sampled. Individual subjects are then randomly sampled from the groups chosen. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The deviation between the characteristics of a sample and a population. |
|
|
