1. What are the major instruments of measurement? Instruments are methods of measurement. Some examples are: (1) measures of ability (tests), (2) measures of personality, (3) attitude scales (opinionaires), (4) interest inventories (measure of likes and dislikes in certain activities), (5) rating scale, (6) sociometric techniques (involve studying social distance between people and groups and also measures interaction between people and groups), (7) questionaires, and (8) observations. Some of these can be interchangeable, so the researcher must try to be as specific as possible.

2. What are the different types of tests? Tests are a measure of ability. The categories are: (1) achievement tests, (2) intelligence tests, and (3) aptitude tests. Achievement tests measure specific performance and let the subject demonstrate how much of the material they have learned. The types of achievement tests are: (a) standardized tests (Iowa test, basic skills, and normalized across the country) versus teacher or researcher made tests (tested on material presented in class), (b) norm reference tests (grades on how well everyone everyone else did at the same time or on a standardized basis, subjects are compared to the other people in the test area) versus criterion reference tests (these are more individualized and show how much knowledge the subject has). The argument over norm reference testing is that it is demeaning, and the argument over the criterion reference testing is how does the researcher know what criteria to use. Intelligence tests measure general performance, but the question is over whether or not the research is tapping into the subject’s knowledge or merely enriching one’s potential. The intelligence test is a type of achievement test. The aptitude tests try to predict future performance, similar to the musical aptitude test given to 2nd graders.

3. How do personality inventories and projective tests differ? Types of measure of personality tests are: (1) personality inventories and (2) projective tests. Sample statements are, "I would rather spend a night out than stay at home alone" or "I believe this person is out to get me." These tests show differences in personality. Personality inventories are (1) paper and pencil tests, (2) statements to which subject agrees or disagrees, (3) economical in terms of time and money, and (4) objective standardized tests (MMPI, CPI, EPPS). Projective tests: (1) consist of ambiguous/unstructured stimuli. The subject is given that kind of information and then projects his or her problems onto the stimuli. Examples are open-ended statements like, "Today, I feel like I could just ……." The test can be an ambiguous scene where the person tells the story. Those given the tests are trained technicians, the tests tend to be expensive in terms of time and money, and the tests tend to be subjective.

4. What are the different scales for measuring attitudes? Attitude scales make statements like, "I think the United States should spend more on education and less on defense" or "I think the president is doing a good job." Types on attitude scales are: (1) Likert scale (summated rating scale – a series of summated statements that go from strongly disagree to strongly agree, where the score is determined by summarizing the responses and there is a need for item analysis (study questions with smaller group beforehand to make sure the questions hang well together), (2) Thurstone scale (equally appearing intervals – Have a bunch of statements about a subject, and have experts sort the statements into a number (11) of categories. Then, have the experts find the best representative statement from each of the 11 categories. The instrument will be the list of the best statements from each of the 11 categories. The subjects will circle the ones agreed to, and the grade will be based on the average value of the circled answers), (3) Guttman scale (cumulative technique that measures one specific attitude. An item is placed on a continuum from which the subjects choose. They will agree with all before and disagree with all after their choice as can be seen in the following example: it would be acceptable to me for a communist to (a) live in the United States, (b) live in my state, (c) live in my city, (d) live in my neighborhood, (e) live next door, (f) be my friend, (g) be a close friend, and (h) marry my child.), and (4) Semantic Differential Scale (ideas have a denotation and a connotation (such as justice) , and subjects choose from a set of solutions.

5. What is the purpose of interest inventories? Sample statements of this instrument are, "I would prefer flex hours to set hours" or "I would rather sell my own items than have someone sell them for me." Types of interest inventories are: (1) paper and pencil (Strong-Campbell, VISA) and (2) computerized (DISCOVERY).

				Tom of Bethany

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Lesson 17. Instrumentation (Part II)

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