Assessment, Statistics, and Research

  S cale name: Belief in Good Luck (BIGL) Scale overview: The scale presents 12-items, which are rated based on degree of agreement. The authors wanted to reliably assess irrational beliefs about luck and examine the beliefs in relationship to expectations of success. Early psychometric properties support the scale as a useful assessment of luck. Authors: Peter R. Darke and Jonathan L. Freedman   Response Type: 4-point agree-disagree scale Subscales: None Sample items b) Some people are consistently lucky, and others are unlucky. o) Luck is nothing more than random chance. (reverse scored) Reliability: Factor analysis yielded one factor. Items were selected from the original list based on factor loadings. Alpha   values were .85 in studies 1 and 3; .78 in study 2. Validity: The article includes correlation values with other measures. Total BIGL score was significantly positively correlated with the chance subscale of the Locus of Control scale. Availability:

  The concept of average intelligence is sometimes difficult to appreciate because the two words, average and intelligence, are sometimes not defined. Average   To psychologists and counselors who administer tests of intelligence, a person who scores at the 50th Percentile has average intelligence as defined by the number of correct answers to test tasks compared to others in their age group. Many tests set the middle score at 100 thus, 100 = average intelligence on many tests. All test scores vary from time to time so, a person may earn more or less points on another day. This fluctuation is estimated and can range for example by plus or minus 3-5 IQ points depending on the test and age group.  If you retake the test in a month or so, you may score better because of the “practice effect”—you’ve seen the items recently so you will probably do better. There is an average range so examiners will not focus on the obtained score but consider a broader range. For example, some may consider

  Scale name: Spiritual Abuse Questionnaire (SAQ) Scale overview: The  Spiritual Abuse Questionnaire (SAQ)  is a 17-item self-report questionnaire that uses a 4-point Likert Type response format to measure two dimensions of abuse: Power-based affective wounding and Conditionality. Author: Kathryn Hope Keller   Response Type: 4-point Likert type. The choices are: Strongly disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly agree. Subscales and Sample Items: There are two subscales. 1. Power-based Affective Wounding : “At times, I was scolded by my leader and made to feel ashamed and helpless” and “I now feel cynical about church/religious groups.”   2. Conditionality: “I believed I could be totally surrendered to God if I did everything perfectly according to the church/group’s instructions,” and “I believed God would punish me if I didn’t do what my church/group encouraged me to do.” Reliability: Alpha for the 17-item scale was .95 (Keller, 2016). The study sample was 271