Assessment, Statistics, and Research

An 8-item version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale is available. The 30-item BIS is a commonly used measure of impulsiveness. The original scale has undergone a number of revisions. In 2013, Lynne Steinberg and her team evaluated an 11-item version.  Based on the evidence, an 8-item version was developed. The 8-item version is knows as BIS-Brief Each item is rated on a 4-point scale as follows. 1 = rarely/never 2 = occasionally 3 = often 4 = almost always/always Items The items ask the participants about thinking, planning, and self-control. The items  may be used for education and research. purposes. The PsycTESTS entry included the following permissions statement. Test content may be reproduced and used for non-commercial research and educational purposes without seeking written permission. Distribution must be controlled, meaning only to the participants engaged in the research or enrolled in the educational activity. Any other type of reproduction...

Two scales examine couples' perspectives on the role of God in their marriages. The Sacred Marriage scales are the work of Mahoney, Pargament, and DeMaris (2009). The first scale looks at the role of God in their marriage. There are 10-items. Couples are advised that they substitute another word for God as may be applicable to their spirituality. Examples and a reference are included below. Revised Manifestation of God in Marriage      Following are the instructions Directions: Some of the following questions use the word "God." Different people use different terms for God, such as "Higher Power," "Divine Spirit," "Spiritual Force," "Holy Spirit," "Yahweh," "Allah,", "Buddha”, or “Goddess.” Please feel free to substitute your own word for God when answering any of the questions that follow. Also, some people do not believe in God. If this is the case for you, please feel free to choose the "s...

Two 10-item scales assess the degree to which couples view marital sexuality from a spiritual perspective. Both scales published by Hernandez, Mahoney, and Pargament (2011) are rated on the same 7-point scale. The wording is clearly aimed at married couples. Although they use the word God , note that in a similar scale focused on children from some of the same authors, participants are instructed to think of their own deity. Revised Manifestation of God in Marital Sexuality Two sample items:      1) God played a role in my decision to have a sexual relationship with my spouse.      2) Our sexual relationship speaks to the presence of God. Revised Sacred Qualities of Marital Sexuality Two sample items:      1) Being sexually intimate with my spouse feels like a deeply spiritual experience.      2) Our sexual relationship seems like a miracle to me. Scoring There are 10-items in the scale. Participants...

Two scales measure perspectives on the sacredness of parenting (Murray-Swank et al., 2006) and two others look at spirituality and pregnancy (Mahoney et al., 2009).  The authors advise researchers that they may change the word "baby" to other child age labels depending on the age of the children in their study. Thus, researchers may use labels of "toddler," "child," or "teen" in place of "baby." Spirituality Although the authors use the word God , the instructions invite participants to use their own word for the deity. Following is a copy of the instructions. Notice the different term for the scale's name. Revised Manifestation of God in Parenting Directions: Some of the following questions use the word "God." Different people use different terms for God, such as "Higher Power," "Divine Spirit," "Spiritual Force," "Holy Spirit," "Yahweh," "Allah,", ...

The reason counselor's tests are not reliable is that reliability is a property of scores not tests.  This isn't a matter of semantics. Think about it this way. Give all the students in one school an achievement test. The test items don't change so they appear stable, consistent, and reliable. However, when publishers report reliability values, they calculate the reliability statistics based on scores. Scores vary from one administration to another. If you ever took a test twice and got a different score, you know what I mean. Individuals change from day to day. And we change from year to year. Also, even a representative sample of students for a nation can be different each year. Everytime we calculate a reliability statistic, the statistic is slightly different. Reliability values vary with the sample. Reliability values also vary with the method used for calculation. You can get high reliability values using  coefficient alpha  with scores from a one-tim...

Taya Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University has made the Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale (GASP) available online. Here’s what Dr. Cohen said about the scale in 2011. I’ll include a link to the full scale below. The Guilt and Shame Proneness scale (GASP) measures individual differences in the propensity to experience guilt and shame across a range of personal transgressions. The GASP contains four four ‐ item subscales: Guilt ‐ Negative ‐ Behavior ‐ Evaluation (Guilt ‐ NBE), Guilt ‐ Repair, Shame ‐ Negative ‐ Self ‐ Evaluation (Shame ‐ NSE), and Shame ‐ Withdraw. Each item on the GASP is rated on a 7-point scale from 1 = very unlikely to 7 = very likely. Here’s an example of an item from the GASP scale. _____ 1. After realizing you have received too much change at a store, you decide to keep it because the salesclerk doesn't notice. What is the likelihood that you would feel uncomfortable about keeping the money? Information about reliability, validity, a...

Psychologists assess shame as one of a few measures of self-conscious emotions. In addition to shame, the list includes embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, and pride. As with many measures of person characteristics, there are measures of traits or dispositions and measures of states.  State shame is a temporary emotion such as a state of shame following a specific act that has been made public. Trait shame is a durable condition, which means a person experiences shame for a period of time in multiple settings. The classic measure of shame is the TOSCA (Test of Self-Conscious Affect. The TOSCA, developed by June P. Tangney , is now in its third edition and includes versions for adolescents (TOSCA-A) and children (TOSCA-C; Tangney & Dearing, 2002). People taking the TOSCA read a scenario and provide a response.  The TOSCA-3 is a 16-item scale. The responses reflect different ways to respond to a situation, which yield six dimensions of shame:  1. shame-...