What is an operational definition? Give an example. Why is it hard to capture in full the essence of an abstract theoretical concept with a measure? Why is it harder when you measure managerial competence than when you measure rate of speech?
Describe the four different scale types (nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio). Explain the frequent use of interval scale data in the social and behavioral sciences.
Where should you start your search for a measure? How do PsycTESTS and HaPI differ? What do you learn from reading about the permissions for a scale? What kinds of tests typically have qualifications for use? If a fee is charged for a scale, what other avenues might you pursue before paying the fee?
Define internal consistency in your own words. Is there one set Cronbach’s alpha value for all research purposes? If not, what circumstances require the highest alpha? List the steps you would take to run a reliability analysis on SPSS.
Give an example of how you would establish content validity. What does it mean to say a measure has face validity? Why is a measure that has demonstrated predictive validity more powerful than a measure with concurrent validity? In your own words, explain what a nomological network is.
What is socially desirable responding? Name two approaches to dealing with this threat to internal validity.
How do the questions shape the answers, according to Schwarz (1999)? Explain why Schwarz recommended using open-ended response formats. How can a researcher demonstrate social sensitivity in the way questions are asked? Why would you choose to use an even number of response anchors? How can the stem of a question “lead the witness”?
List a recommendation from Dillman (Dillman et al., 2014) for the order of items in a survey. Where should demographic items be located in a survey?
List two advantages of using online survey software such as Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey. List one disadvantage. What is the advantage of having participants fill out a survey link in your presence rather than simply sending them the link to fill out on their own time? What is the point of “bolding” the stem of a question and labeling each question? Why is it important to label all of your variables in the online survey software? Does the participant see these variable labels? Once you download your data from the online survey software into a statistical program such as SPSS, what else might you need to do if you have different conditions?
