Assessment, Statistics, and Research

Assessment name: Utrecht Gender Dysphoria Scale-Gender Spectrum (UGDS-GS) Scale overview: The revised UGDS-GS is an 18-item instrument using gender-neutral language. Researchers can use this updated measure with a person of any gender identity and expression. Authors : Jenifer K. McGuire and others. See McGuire et al. (2020) below. Response Type: Five-point rating scale of agreement. Scale items-Examples 1. I prefer to behave like my affirmed gender. 2. Every time someone treats me like my assigned sex I fell hurt. Psychometric properties The UGDS-GS was evaluated in three gender groups: cisgender, binary transgender, and nonbinary/genderqueer. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis are included in the article indicating that the current 18-item scale is better than an earlier version. Item means and SDs are in Table 2. Availability : See Table 1 of McGuire et al. (2020) for a list of the 18 items. Author contact: jmcguire@umn.edu References for the scale 1. Mc...

Woman with Bowed Head AI image  Assessment name: Conditional-Unconditional Divine Forgiveness Scale (CUDFS) Scale overview: The author created two three-item measures of conditional and unconditional aspects of divine forgiveness considering items used on previous measures of conditionality in interpersonal forgiveness. Author : Frank D. Fincham Scale items:  There are six items. Three items measure Conditional and three measure Unconditional Divine Forgiveness. Psychometric properties Fincham (2024) reported the results of three studies. A two-factor solution reflecting the two dimensions of conditional (CF) and unconditional (UF) divine forgiveness were supported by factor analyses. In study one, alpha CF = .82 and UF =.73. Tables include means and standard deviations. Tables provide evidence supporting convergent and divergent validity. For example, a measure of Divine Forgiveness was positively correlated with both CF and UF in study one. And neither subscale was signifi...

AI image of a person taking a Polygraph test   Researchers have long investigated the validity and reliability of polygraph tests as tools for detecting deception. These tests work by measuring physiological indicators—such as blood pressure, respiration, and skin conductivity—that are thought to correlate with the emotional arousal often associated with lying. However, a substantial body of research has revealed that these responses are not uniquely linked to deception; they can also be triggered by stress, anxiety, or other emotional states not related to dishonesty (National Research Council, 2003). In controlled laboratory settings, polygraph tests have sometimes demonstrated moderate levels of accuracy, suggesting that under ideal circumstances they might differentiate between truth-telling and lying to some degree better than chance. Nonetheless, when these tests are applied in real-world or forensic settings, their accuracy tends to diminish markedly. Factors such as th...

Understanding Descriptive Statistics:  A Simple Guide for Students When you first step into an introductory statistics class, you’ll meet a set of tools that help you describe data. These are called descriptive statistics, and they’re the foundation for everything else you’ll learn later—whether that’s probability, hypothesis testing, or research methods. Think of descriptive statistics as the “snapshot” tools of data analysis. They help you answer three big questions: 1. Where is the center of my data? 2. How spread out is it? 3. What does the overall shape look like? Let’s walk through the essentials. 1. Measures of Central Tendency: Finding the Center These statistics tell you what’s “typical” in a dataset. Mean – The average. Add up all the values and divide by how many there are. Median – The middle value when the data are sorted. Great when your data have outliers. Mode – The most frequent value. Useful for categories (like favorite ice cream flavors). Why it matters: If y...

Assessment name: Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale- 5-Item (RSS-5) Scale overview: The five-item version of the Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale (RSS-5) is a reliable measure of clinically relevant struggles (divine, interpersonal, moral, doubt, ultimate meaning struggles) in mental health care settings. Authors : Sarah G. Salcone, Julie J. Exline, Kenneth I. Pargament, Joseph M. Currier, Ryon C. McDermott, Don E. Davis, Amanda M. Raines, Yejin Lee Cite this post Sutton, G.W. (2025). Religious and Spiritual Struggles Scale- 5-Item (RSS-5). Assessment, Statistics, and Research .  https://statistics.suttong.com/2025/03/religious-and-spiritual-struggles-scale.html Response Type: Participants rated each item on a scale of occurrence from 1 = Not at all to 5 = A great deal.  Scale items: There are five items–one from each of the five subscales of the long RSS scale.    Example Questioned whether life really matters. Felt as though God had abandon...