Chapter 12 Identifying good measurement

For Chapter 5 in Beth’s book, we would like you to complete these two “Learning actively” activities from the book:

  • Educational psychologists use teacher ratings of classroom shyness (on a nine-point scale, where 1 = “not at all shy in class” and 9 = “very shy in class”) to measure children’s temperament. Indicate which kinds of reliability would need to be evaluated. Then, draw a scatterplot indicating that the measure has good reliability and another one indicating the measure has poor reliability. (Pay special attention to how you label the axes of your scatterplots.)
  • Consider how you might validate the nine-point classroom shyness rating example in Question 1.
    • First, what behaviours might be relevant for establishing this rating’s criterion validity? Draw a scatterplot showing the results of a study in which the classroom shyness rating has good criterion validity (be careful how you label the axes).
    • Second, come up with ways to evaluate the convergent and discriminant validity of this rating system. What traits should correlate strongly with shyness? What traits should correlate only weakly or not at all? Explain why you chose those traits. Draw a scatterplot showing the results of a study in which the shyness rating has good convergent or discriminant validity (be careful how you label the axes).

You can complete these activities on your own, as a pair or as a small group. If more than one person contributed, please add the names of everyone who contributed to the document you submit. Please submit your answers as a Word (.docx) document under the “Quizzes and Assignments” section on Moodle. Please take pictures of your drawings and insert these into your Word document.

The assignment submission link is labelled “Learning Actively, Chapter 5”. The deadline for submission is Monday, 31 October, noon. This assignment will not contribute to your overall mark. Formative assignments not submitted by the deadline incur no penalty. We will provide you with model answers after the deadline.