Assessment, Statistics, and Research

Can you measure love? Robert Sternberg thinks so. Early clinical perspectives on love can be found in the works of Freud and Maslow. But scientific approaches have looked at the many dimensions of love in the last few decades. One popular theory is the Triangular Theory of Love presented by Robert J. Sternberg . As the name implies, there are three constructs in this theory of interpersonal love: Intimacy, passion, and commitment/decision (see Sternberg, 1986, for an explanation). Sternberg referred to each with a "temperature" rating from hot to cool--see the parentheses below. Intimacy refers to lovers’ emotional investment in their relationship (feeling close, connected, bonded, a measure of "warmth"). Passion refers to lovers’ motivational involvement in their relationship (romance, attraction, sex, a measure of "hot"). Commitment/decision refer to lovers’ thoughts about their relationship in terms of decision (I lo

Parents sometimes feel inadequate to parent. Although many enjoy parenting and delight in their children, few can deny that parenting is often a challenge. Some feel unprepared. Some enjoy their children but feel frustrated. Some feel they are less capable than other parents. The Parenting Sense of Competence scale (PSOC) consists of 17 or 16 items depending on the version. The items are rated on a scale of 1 to 6 with anchors of 1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree. Authors: Gibaud-Wallston & Wandersman (1978) Internal consistency estimates of reliability range from the mid .70s to .80s in previous studies. Research suggests that the items can be grouped into two subscales: Satisfaction with Parenting and Efficacy. Early wording of some scale items used only the word “mother,” but these items have been revised by other researchers to refer to either mother or father (e.g., see Ohan, Leung, & Johnston, 2000). Scoring: Several items are re

Following a painful experience like those reported by women in the “me too” movement, many may work to forgive their offender to free themselves from the ongoing internal struggle caused by rehearsing the event and nursing anger. Forgiveness, of course, should not be construed as excusing, pardoning, or tolerating abuse. Neither should survivors' forgiveness of their offenders reduce the responsibility of government and business leaders to act justly and provide safeguards against future offenses. When people begin to work on forgiveness toward offenders for particularly horrific offenses like rape and murder, they may find strong emotions like anger and the desire for revenge make it seem impossible to overcome. Ev Worthington (Virginia Commonwealth University) and his colleagues have published two measures of forgiveness that divide forgiveness into two parts: Emotional and Decisional. This makes sense to me as a clinician, a scientist, and a person who, like many,

Educators, School Administrators, Mental Health workers, and parents ought to be aware of teacher stress because of the critical role teachers play all societies. High levels of stress may lead to burnout. There are several measures of teacher stress, which can help you assess and monitor stress levels. One popular measure is the Teacher Stress Inventory (TSI) revised by Schutz and Long in 1988 .  The scale uses a 5-point Likert-type scale to rate stressful situations in seven categories (an item example in parentheses): Role ambiguity (I am unclear on what the scope and responsibilities of my job are) Role stress (I find that I have extra work beyond what should be normally expected of me) Organizational management (My administrative head does not ask my opinion on decisions that directly affect me) Job satisfaction (All in all, I would say that am I am not satisfied with my job) Life satisfaction (My life is currently quite lonely) Task stress (I

News photo unrelated to people mentioned in the post Transformational leadership is a popular style of leadership with evidence that transformational leaders influence work teams. Transformational leaders have been identified as those with a charismatic personality who inspire others with a clear vision for the future. They communicate well and serve as role models as they inspire confidence and increase motivation. Here's a quote from Edwards et al., 2010 Burns (1978)[18] first conceptualized transformational leaders as those who mobilize their efforts to reform organizations, in part by raising followers’ consciousness beyond personal interests to be more in line with organizational goals and vision. Interactive and highly participatory encounters among all members of a team are key ingredients. Through these interactions, visions emerge, consensus is built, plans are discussed, and potential roadblocks are explored, increasing buy-in and accountability among team member

Scale Name: Trait Forgiveness Scale (TFS) There are several questionnaires that can help individuals, clinicians, and researchers discover levels of forgiveness. As you might suspect, the different measures reflect different ideas about forgiveness. In this post I will look at trait forgiveness rather than state forgiveness. I am using trait in a psychological sense to mean a disposition or tendency—a behavior pattern that we might consider a part of someone’s personality. Psychological scientists sometimes refer to trait forgiveness as dispositional forgiveness or  forgivingness . Trait forgiveness stands in contrast to a particular state of forgiveness. For example, a person may think about a specific offender and a specific event and respond to questions on a “state” scale to indicate their current progress in forgiving the offender. We should also keep in mind that most older forgiveness scales focused on victims forgiving another person rather than forgiving