Assessment, Statistics, and Research

    According to the just world hypothesis , “people have a need to believe that their environment is a just and orderly place where people usually get what they deserve (Lerner & Miller, 1978, p. 1030).” Beliefs about a just world may be measured with the Global Belief in a Just World Scale (Lipkus, 1991). The scale has 7-items, which participants rate on a 6-point basis: 1 = strong disagreement and 6 = strong disagreement about the applicability of an item to oneself. Permission According to PsycTESTS, contact the publisher and corresponding author. Author contact as of 21 December 2020 https://scholars.duke.edu/person/isaac.lipkus Sample items 1. I feel that people get what they are entitled to have. 7. I basically feel that the world is a fair place.   References Lerner, M. J., & Miller, D. T. (1978). Just world research and the attribution process: Looking back and ahead.  Psychological Bulletin ,  85 (5), 1030–1051.  ...

  Mental health professionals have recognized the importance of religion and spirituality to wellbeing. I have seen intake forms that ignore spirituality or ask only about a person’s religious identity or if they would like a visit from a chaplain or clergy during a hospitalization. Clinicians can reasonably ask how to explore the importance of spirituality to treatment without being overly intrusive or disrespectful when a patient does not volunteer relevant information. David Hodge (2013) offers four screening questions based on his review of the literature (p. 98). I offer a paraphrase of Hodge’s suggestions and suggest consulting his chapter, which I found in my university library (see reference below). Each question is tied to a one-word therapeutic purpose. 1. Importance How important is spiritual or religious faith to you? 2. Affiliation Do you attend religious services? Do you participate in any groups that would be considered religious or spiritual? 3. Resour...

Photo for illustration purposes only “If Jesus is God, how could he create the world if he wasn’t born yet.”                      —Girl, age 7 It will be a while until this 7-year-old passes through the stage of concrete operations and begins to pull apart various mental constructs in a serious fashion. Along the way she’ll pick up many metaphors, including those that unravel men’s thinking about God hundreds of years ago. And all sorts of other metaphors. Americans are known for being religious and in particular, for being Christian; however, as is commonly said, the devil is in the details . In this post, I look at religious survey items to make a point about being careful when writing and interpreting survey items containing concepts with a range of meaning. ********* God- Who is God? Gallup keeps tabs on Americans’ views on God. In an interesting article, Hrynowski ( 2019 ...

  The Dispositional Contempt Scale (DCS) developed by Schriber et al. (2017) included 10-items measuring contempt on a 5-point rating scale. Instructions The authors provided the following instructions on the downloaded form. Below are a series of statements that may or may not relate to you. Please read each statement carefully, considering each one by one, and indicate the extent to which each describes you by using the response options. There are no right or wrong answers. Please answer honestly, as we are interested in how you actually think, feel, and behave. Items 1. I tend to disregard people who fall short of my standards. 2. I often lose respect for others. 3. Feeling disdain for others comes naturally to me. 4. I tend to accept people regardless of their flaws. 5. I would never try to make someone feel worthless. 6. I often feel like others are wasting my time. 7. I hardly ever think others are inferior to me. 8. All in all, I am repelled by other...

  Line Scale of Closeness (LSC) The Line Scale of Closeness (LSC) is a simple measure that can be used in clinical or research settings. In a clinical setting, psychotherapists and clients can explore any barriers to closeness and discuss how the level of closeness has changed over time. The LSC may also be used to identify progress toward counseling goals. To compare changes over time or differences between groups, use a standardized line length such as 7-inches or 18-cm.  On each end of the line, identify the client or participant and on the opposite end of the line, identify the person who is the subject of feeling close to or distant from. Ask the client or participant to place an X on the line to indicate how close they feel toward the other person. Example   Example        ______________________________________________________________ Self Other   Scoring Place a ruler on the scale and record the sc...

  Pentecostal worship from Bing free to use Trice and Bjorck (2006b) conducted a survey of Pentecostals to determine their views on the causes and cures of depression. Their set of 25 treatment (i.e., cure) items is available for researchers. There are 25 “cure” or treatment items in their survey. These items are divided into categories, which are reported below along with alpha values found in their article (Trice & Bjork, 2006b). Spiritual discipline (.60) Faith practices (.63) Rest (.76) Support (.61) Health (.57) Psychology/psychiatry (.72) Neurology (.62) Instructions Prior to completing the survey, participants are given the following definition of depression: "Depression is a disorder of mood (e.g., feelings, emotions) characterized by sadness and dejection, decreased motivation and interest in life, negative thoughts, and such physical symptoms as sleep disturbance, loss of appetite, and fatigue. Moreover, these characteristics last at least 2 wee...