Name: Cristian Ale

Course and Section: BS Psychology 31M1

Subject: Field Methods in Psychology

Answer the following statements.

1.Define the validity of measurement and explain why and how it is measured.

The validity of measurement simply refers to the accuracy of the data the tool can possibly come up with
during the process of assessment. It is inherently necessary for the validity of the measurement tool to be
measured since it would become the determining factor whether the material would be able to accurately
pinpoint the essential data needed to be gathered in order for the assessor to have a valid conclusion
regarding the current state of the variable that is being evaluated. For instance, the validity of a
truthfulness tool would determine whether it would give the assessor an accurate understanding of how
honest the subject is.

The validity of measurement can be measured through analyzing the design of an experiment and the
appropriateness of the items in the tests that are being used in a study. There are two factors being treated
as necessary when it comes to measuring the validity of a measurement. First is the external validity which
measures the degree to which a data from the measurement can be generalized to other settings such as
different set of population, conditions, and context. For example, the external validity of truthfulness test
would give the assessor an idea how capable the data the aforementioned tool would be in terms of being
generalized, if the results they would gather can also represent the degree of honesty of the other
populations. On the other hand, the internal validity of a tool determines whether the measurement
would accurately point out the relationship between the variables. It means that the validity of
measurement would determine whether the changes in the dependent variable was actually due the
intervention of the independent variable.

2. Define the reliability of measurement and explain why and how it is measured.

The reliability of a measurement refers to the consistency of the data the tool can provide. It means that
the data the tool would produce should be able to provide the assessor the consistency enough for them
to be able to determine whether the tool has the enough capability to provide valid set of results at all
times regardless of the time interval.

In terms of its measurement, the reliability of a tool is measured by comparing the results it produces
during multiple attempts. For example, for the assessor to be able to determine the reliability of the
truthfulness test, they would need to compare the degree of accuracy it gives during multiple times of
attempt using the same measurement tool. The reliability of measurement is measured to ensure that
the data a tool will provide would have a high tendency of being in the same level of accuracy with
multiple times of application.
3. Compare and contrast the four scales of measurement and give 1 example of each.

The scale of measurement has two major categories. The first one is the categorical data which represents
the information that is more qualitative in nature, while the second one is the numerical data which
consists of set of data that are being expressed in numerical form. To specify further, under the categorical
data are the first two levels of scales of measurement: the nominal and ordinal. The nominal data refers
to the type of data that uses numbers, however, these numerical figures do not indicate any rank or order.
For example, in a fast food restaurant, they tend to use numbers to differentiate the orders of the
customers from the other, however, most of the time, these numerical figures do not have anything to do
with the order of the food they process, not because they gave you the number seven they would
automatically handle your refreshments right after order number six and before number eight. On the
other hand, the ordinal scale of measurement provides a clear idea regarding the exact order of the
variables in a situation. For example, the numbers in the list of honor students in a school provides clear
information regarding their order. The list implies that the number one spot is for the students who acquire
the highest GPA in the class while the one who has the lowest grade among the honor students would be
listed in the bottom part of the list.

Furthermore, the numerical category offers the third and fourth level of scale of measurement. These
include the interval and ratio. The interval tackles data that has numerical figures that represent order
with the actual understanding of how far they are from each other. For example, the list of the rankings of
the students in a classroom would most likely imply how big the interval is between the variables. This
might indicate that the student listed in the first place and the individual in the lowest ranking would have
a great gap between their GPAs. It could mean that among the 50 students in the class, the highest-ranking
student could have a general average of 99% while the lowest in the system has an average of 75% which
makes the difference between their grades clearly understandable. On the other hand, the ratio scale of
measurement also offers the same set of data, however, unlike its predecessor, it also indicates absolute
value for zero. To specify further, the value of zero in the interval does not imply absolute value, it means
that whenever it uses the zero, it does not imply complete nothingness while the ratio does the exact
opposite. It means that the value of zero in ratio would indicate the absence of something unlike its
predecessor which is not able to do the same thing. For example, the value of zero in Celsius would be
indicated an interval since it does not give us the idea of absolute absence of heat in the area, it only
implies that there is too little heat present in there. While on the other hand, the value of zero in kelvin
means absolute absence of heat in the area provided.