Psychology Commons^™

Measuring Employability Among College Students: A Validity Study, Megan Rodgers

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The practice of assessment in higher education is often focused on measuring outcomes of student success. However, the potential for a student to obtain a job (i.e., their employability) after graduation is often not directly measured. This reality is unfortunate given the competitive job market and rising cost of an education. One scale, the Employability Skills Inventory (ESI) has been identified as a potential assessment instrument that purports to measure skills necessary for employment in most occupations. Before deciding to use any scale for a particular purpose, one must establish that the scale is both reliable and valid. The focus …

An Examination Of Two Methods Of Measuring Inconsistency, Rizwan Ahmed Khan

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Previous research has provided evidence for the notion that there are varying levels of inconsistency between individuals when responding to questionnaires with multiple response items. Specifically, there are individual differences in how consistently persons respond to items from the same dimension in a questionnaire (Reddock, Biderman & Nguyen, 2011). Currently, there is not a consensus on how inconsistency should be measured. In the present study inconsistency of responses to the IPIP Big Five questionnaire was measured. Two response formats permitting measurement of inconsistency were compared - a frequency-based format (FB) vs. a traditional Likert scale format. Furthermore, in an effort …

Assessment Of Alexithymia : Pychometric Properties Of The Psychological Treatment Inventory-Alexithymia Scale (Pti-As), Alessio Gori, Marco Giannini, Giulia Palmieri, Roberta Salvini, David Schuldberg

Psychology Faculty Publications

The aim of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of a new measure of alexithymia, the Psychological Treatment Inventory-Alexithymia Scale (PTI-AS).

Assessing Creativity With Self-Report Scales : A Review And Empirical Evaluation, Paul J. Silvia, Benjamin Wigert, Roni Reiter-Palmon, James C. Kaufman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This article reviews recent developments in the assessment of creativity using self-report scales. We focus on four new and promising scales: the Creative Achievement Questionnaire, the Biographical Inventory of Creative Behaviors, the revised Creative Behavior Inventory, and the Creative Domain Questionnaire. For each scale, we review evidence for reliability, validity, and structure, and we discuss important methodological features for users to consider. We then present new analyses of each scale based on a large, diverse sample. We evaluate each scale's item-level and scale-level psychometric features, using both classical test theory and item response theory, and we examine how the scales …

Consumer Xenocentrism And Consumer Cosmopolitanism: The De-Velopment And Validation Of Scales Of Constructs Influencing Attitudes Towards Foreign Product Consumption, Steven James Lawrence

Wayne State University Dissertations

Like many other attributes, consumers exhibit varying degrees of preference with regard to foreign and domestic products. Some consumers have preferences for domestic products while other, seemingly similar, consumers prefer the foreign counterpart. Product quality differences aside, we aim to investigate the attitudinal constructs behind the varying preferences among consumers as they relate to foreign and domestic products.

The author created two new scales for the measurement of the consumer xenocentrism and consumer cosmopolitanism constructs. The consumer xenocentrism scale is intended to measure consumers' favorable orientations to products from outside their membership group. The consumer cosmopolitanism scale is designed to …

A Positive Trait Item Response Model, Joseph F. Lucke

Joseph Lucke

All current models from item response theory (IRT) assume the latent trait follows a standard normal distribution. While this assumption is appropriate for traits such as ability or attitude, it creates both conceptual and technical problems traits such as addiction (alcohol, drugs, gambling). The distribution of an addiction trait is better assumed to be anchored at zero (no addiction) and positively skewed. A small change to the usual IRT model yields a class of positive-trait item response models (PTIRMs). I discuss PTIRMs and present one model in detail, including item characteristic curves and item information curves. I present an example …

An Item Response Theory And Factor Analytic Examination Of Two Prominent Maximizing Tendency Scales, Justin M. Weinhardt, Brendan J. Morse, Janna Chimeli, Jamie Fisher

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study examines the construct validity of the Maximization Scale (MS; Schwartz et al., 2002) and the Maximization Tendency Scale (MTS; Diab et al., 2008) as well as the nomological net of the maximizing construct. We find that both scales of maximizing suffer psychometrically, especially in their proposed dimensionality. Using confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory (IRT) we identify and remove three problematic items from the MTS and six problematic items from the MS. Additionally, we find that the MS appears to be measuring difficulty and restlessness with the search for the best alternative, whereas the MTS is …

Bully/Victim Power Inventory: Measuring The Power Imbalance In The Bully/Victim Relationship, Marybeth Plonkey-Lehto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The empirical study of the power imbalance in the bully/victim relationship has impeded research synthesis, and the need for a quantitative measure of this key component has been well established in the literature. Lack of differentiation between victimization with and without power imbalance has been cited as a possible cause for imprecise measurement. Increased precision in bully victimization measurement is needed to accurately inform research investigating psychosocial health, treatment and positive outcomes, in addition to prevention and intervention programs. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation was the initial development and validation of the Bully/Victim Power Inventory aimed at differentiating perceived …

Age And Premorbid Intelligence Suppress Complaint-Performance Congruency In Raw Score Measures Of Memory, Matthew Merema, Craig Speelman, Elizabeth Kaczmarek, Jonathan Foster

Research outputs 2012

Background: We aimed to examine the role of age and premorbid intelligence (IQ) in suppressing the relationship between subjective memory complaints (SMCs) and raw score memory performance. Methods: We used a community sample of older adults aged 66"90 years (N = 121) to test whether the inclusion of age and a premorbid IQ measure in multiple regression analyses increased semipartial correlations of raw score memory performance in predicting SMCs. Rank contrast correlations were also carried out to observe how age and premorbid IQ are related to complaint"performance congruency. Measures utilized in the study included the Memory Functioning Questionnaire (for SMCs), …

The National Survey Of Student Engagement As A Predictor Of Academic Success, Paul Michael Fursman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Student engagement measures have been shown to be excellent predictors of desirable educational outcomes, and in some cases, these measures are being used as a means of institutional accountability. The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) is one of the most widely used measures of student engagement. In this study, I examine the relationship between NSSE subscale scores and measures of student academic success. I also examine the extent to which pre-college ability and ethnicity moderate the relationship between engagement scores and academic outcomes. Results indicate that the benchmark academic challenge was a significant predictor of freshmen GPA and the …

An Introduction To Item Response Theory For Health Behavior Researchers, Russell Warne

Russell T Warne

OBJECTIVE:

To introduce item response theory (IRT) to health behavior researchers by contrasting it with classical test theory and providing an example of IRT in health behavior.

METHOD:

Demonstrate IRT by fitting the 2PL model to substance-use survey data from the Adolescent Health Risk Behavior questionnaire (n=1343 adolescents).

RESULTS:

An IRT 2PL model can produce viable substance use scores that differentiate different levels of substance use, resulting in improved precision and specificity at the respondent level.

CONCLUSION:

IRT is a viable option for health researchers who want to produce high-quality scores for unidimensional constructs. The results from our example-although not …

Positive Trait Item Response Models, Joseph F. Lucke

Joseph Lucke

A new item response model is proposed for which the trait is positive. Three such models, the loglogistic, the log-normal, and the Weibull, are presented along with their item information curves. The data of seven addiction items from the DSM-IV from a study on alcohol addiction is analyzed by these three models using Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. The item characteristic curves and item information curves are presented for all three models. The person scores for four item response patterns are presented for the log-logistic model.