PSYC1040 Tutorial 3: Constructs and Variables

If you ranked your lecturers from most to least effective, you would be placing them on a(n) ____________ measurement scale.

• Nominal

• Ordinal

• Interval

• Ratio

Which of the following is NOT measured on a nominal measurement scale?

• Car licence plate numbers

• Telephone numbers

• Basketball players’ uniform numbers

• Number of players on a basketball team

A researcher is investigating the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and academic achievement in high school students. SES is categorized into three groups: low, middle, and high. Academic achievement is measured using ATAR scores.

What scales of measurement are being used for SES and ATAR, and what is a potential issue with these operations?

• SES is nominal; ATAR is ratio.

  Categorizing SES obscures finer differences within each SES group.

• SES is ordinal; ATAR is interval.

  Measuring SES might introduce unnecessary bias into the study.

• SES and ATAR are both ordinal.

  Categorizing SES obscures finer differences within each SES group.

• SES and ATAR are both nominal.

  Measuring SES might introduce unnecessary bias into the study.

A clinical director is examining the effects of different psychotherapies on patient recovery time and satisfaction levels. The therapy types are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Psychodynamic Therapy. Recovery time is measured by the number of therapy sessions until symptom remission. Satisfaction levels are measured with a rating by patients (ranging from “1: Very Unsatisfied” to “5: Very Satisfied”).

What are the scales of measurement for Therapy Type, Recovery Time, and Satisfaction Level, respectively?

• Nominal, Ratio, Ordinal

• Nominal, Interval, Ordinal

• Nominal, Ratio, Ratio

• Ordinal, Interval, Ratio

• Ordinal, Ratio, Interval

A psychologist is analyzing the anxiety scores of 30 patients from a clinical trial. The data is perfectly symmetrically distributed around a peak, and the psychologist wants to calculate a value that accurately reflects the central point of all patients’ anxiety scores, incorporating the influence of every individual score per patient.

Which statistical measure should be used?

• Only the mean

• Only the median

• Only the mode

• The mean and the mode

• All three: mean, median, and mode

A consultant has collected data on the monthly sales figures for a small business over the past two years. They want to visually represent the distribution to see things like the modal monthly sales and how many months show very high or very low sales.

Which graph would be the most appropriate to use?

• Bar chart

• Histogram

• Pie chart

• Line graph

Which of the following statements reflects a mindset that is most likely to lead to reliable and unbiased research findings?

• "Once I’ve formulated a strong theory, I should focus on finding data that supports it.“

• "It’s important to consider alternative explanations, even if they seem less likely.“

• "If the majority of experts agree on something, it's probably true, so further testing isn’t useful.“

• "I should primarily seek out data that confirms my hypothesis to strengthen my argument.“

• "Unusual results can often be ignored because they’re likely errors.”

Read the following Abstract, from a real publication, and determine the study design.

We compared ideal and actual partner preferences in continually-coupled and newly-coupled individuals. Ideal partner preferences were recorded in continually-coupled participants while in the relationship and in single participants before they established a relationship. Results showed that discrepancy between ideal and actual partner evaluations was lower in continually-coupled than in newly-coupled individuals when computing Manhattan distance between them. When comparing ideal partner preferences, continually-coupled individuals rated Warmth/Trustworthiness and Vitality lower than newly-coupled individuals. No difference between continually-coupled and newly-coupled individuals was found in their actual partner evaluations. Our results indicate that relationship status significantly affects ideal partner preferences.

• Independent groups experimental

• Independent groups observational

• Repeated measures experimental

• Repeated measures observational