Assessment, Statistics, and Research

  Regression to the mean is a statistical concept based on evidence that a sample of data representing extreme values from the population mean will likely be close to the mean the next time a sample is taken. In psychological testing, people who obtain extreme scores on a test tend to obtain scores closer to the mean on a second testing. That is, high scorers tend to earn lower scores and low scorers tend to earn higher scores. The term, Regression to the Mean is sometimes referred to as RTM. The concept appears in a paper by British scientist Sir Francis Galton (1886). Notes I originally published this post in the Sutton (2024) location referred to in references. This is a copy of that post. I created the image in Microsoft designer. References Galton, F. (1886). Regression towards mediocrity in hereditary stature.  The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland , 15, 246-263. Sutton, G. W. (2024, January 5). Regression to the mean.  Psychology Concepts and

  Assessment name:   A/B God Scale Scale overview: The A/B God Scale measures God representations with two scales, which assess an Authoritarian (A) and a Benevolent (B) representation of God. Authors: Kathryn A. Johnson et al. Response Type: The participants rate adjectives on a 7-point scale of agreement.   Scale items: There are 18 items, nine each for the A and B scales. Examples of Adjectives A Authoritarian God    Controlling   Strict   Punishing B Benevolent God   Gracious   Forgiving   Compassionate Psychometric properties From Johnson et al. (2015): The two-scale structure was supported by the results of Principal Components Analysis. In study 1, alpha values were above .90 for scales A and B. See the four studies for additional data supporting strong internal consistency. The authors also report test-retest values and validity data. Big 5 correlations A God was significantly negatively correlated with Agreeableness. B God was significantly correla

  Invariance Testing in Psychology Invariance testing is a statistical technique to assist researchers in determining the degree of comparability of a measure, which has been used with different groups. When a measure has been modified, translated, or used with people in various cultures, invariance testing can help determine if the same construct is being measured by the changes to the original measure and how people in different groups may understand the items. Invariance testing is important to ensure a measure functions in the same way (measures the same concept) in different groups. Hypothetical Example : A 16-item measure of forgiveness may have been originally written in American English and tested with college samples. The items are translated into four different languages and administered in ten different locations. One thing a researcher can do is examine the psychometric properties in the different samples. They may also consider correlations with other measures.  Anot

  Assessment name:   Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) Scale overview: The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) is a 14-item self-report assessment of three categories of a couple relationships (Consensus, Satisfaction, Cohesion). Authors: Dean M. Busby and others (see Busby et al., 1995) Response Type: The items are rated on a 5- or 6-point scale. High scores represent greater stability and relationship satisfaction. Scale items (Example) Most persons have disagreements in their relationships. Please indicate below the approximate extent of agreement or disagreement between you and your partner for each item on the following list.     1 Religious matters    2. Demonstrations of affection ******    9. Do you ever regret that you married (or lived together)?     Psychometric properties The authors report alpha .90. The RDAS was moderately correlated with the Marital Adjustment Test (.68) and highly correlated with the original Dyadic Adjustment Scale

  Relaxation 2023 Created with Bing AI Assessment name:   Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) Scale overview: The Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) is a 26 item self-report rating scale revealing compassionate responses towards oneself in six categories. Author: Kristin Neff Response Type: the scale uses a five point rating scale of frequency where 1 = Almost Never and 5 = Almost Always Scale items There are 26 items, which are associated with six subscales (see below). Some items are reverse scored. 1. I’m disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies. 2. When I’m feeling down I tend to obsess and fixate on everything that’s wrong. 3. When things are going badly for me, I see the difficulties as part of life that everyone goes through. 4. When I think about my inadequacies, it tends to make me feel more separate and cut off from the rest of the world. 5. I try to be loving towards myself when I’m feeling emotional pain. 6. When I fail at something importa

    Assessment Instrument:   Electronically Activated Recorder (EAR) The EAR is a scientific instrument for recording short snippets of ambient sounds (e.g., 30 sec every 12.5 min). Participants activate an app or wear a device while the recorder creates audio files. Inventor: The EAR was developed by psychological scientist Matthais Mehl. DATA : The raw data are acoustic files. Data Analyses: Researchers can listen to the data or read a transcript to search for targeted data. For example, a researcher could search for evidence of humility or anger. Researchers could use a coding strategy to identify multiple target sounds, words, or phrases. The data could be analyzed for social environmental data using the Social Environment Coding of Sound Inventory (SECSI; Mehl & Pennebaker, 2003). Researchers can submit the data for qualitative or quantitative text analysis. Examples of participant EAR data (See Tackman & Mehl, 2003.) 1. Location of the person (e.g.,

  Introduction to a Basic Study This post provides information about one way to evaluate a workshop or seminar. I will illustrate the process using a hypothetical example of forgiveness. Suppose you wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of a workshop on forgiveness.  You hypothesize that the group participating in the workshop would be more forgiving toward an offender than the group not receiving the forgiveness workshop. Get approval from your company, university, or other research review board. They usually have forms listing the information you need to provide. Recruit participants for your workshop. Obtain consent for the study. Select   a forgiveness program Select a survey to measure progress in forgiveness. Create two groups of people.     Group 1 gets the workshop now.     Group 2 gets the workshop later and will serve as a control group. Randomly assign volunteers to one of the two groups. Deliver the workshop. Assess the participants' progress by having people in both gro