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Chapter 15
Developing and Testing Self-Report Scales
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Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Question
Tell whether the following statement is true or false:
Scale development begins with a sound conceptualization of the construct (the latent variable) to be measured, excluding its dimensionality.
Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Answer
False
Scale development begins with a sound conceptualization of the construct (the latent variable) to be measured, including its dimensionality.
Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Conceptualizing the Construct
- Scale development begins with a sound conceptualization of the construct (the latent trait) to be measured, including its dimensionality.
- Unobservable latent trait
- Unidimensional
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Type of Scale
- Scale selection is done before items can be generated.
Two broad categories of multi-item reflective scales
- Traditional summated rating (Likert)
- Latent trait
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Generating Item Pool
- Sources
- Existing instruments
- Research literature
- Concept analyses
- In-depth studies
- Clinical observations
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Decisions about Item Features
- Number of items
- Response items
- Positive and negative stems
- Item intensity
- Item time frames
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Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Number of Items
- Domain sampling model: homogeneous set of items from a hypothetical universe of items
- Goal is to provide appropriate redundancy so idiosyncrasies can be cancelled out.
- Recommends starting with 3 to 4 times as many items as you will have in your final scale
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Response Options
- Scale items contain:
- A stem
- Response options
- For example, strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree
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Positive and Negative Stems
- The objective was to include items that would minimize the possibility of an acquiescence response set—the tendency to agree with statements regardless of their content.
- Many experts currently advise again including negative and positive items on a scale.
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Item Intensity
- The intensity of the statements (stems) should be similar and fairly strongly worded.
- Statements should not be so extremely worded as to result in universal rejection.
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Item Time Frames
- A time frame should not emerge as a consequence of item development.
- It should be decided upon in advance, based on the conceptual understanding of the construct and the needs for which the scale is being constructed.
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Wording the Items—Readability
- Clarity
- Jargon
- Length
- Double negatives
- Double-barreled items
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Question
Once content validity has been established at a satisfactory level, the scale must be administered to a development sample. What is the typical number of respondents who are representative of the target population?
100
150
250
300
Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Answer
D
Once content validity has been established at a satisfactory level, the scale must be administered to a development sample—typically 300 or more respondents who are representative of the target population.
Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Content Validity
- Satisfactory level
- Development sample
- 300 or more respondents representative of target population
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Field Testing the Instrument
- Developing the sampling plan
- Developing a data collection plan
- Preparing for data collection
Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Question
Tell whether the following statement is true or false:
Exploratory factor analysis is used to reduce a small set of variables into a larger set of underlying dimensions, called factors.
Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Answer
False
Exploratory factor analysis is used to reduce a large set of variables into a smaller set of underlying dimensions, called factors.
Copyright © 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Analysis of Scale Development Data
Basic item analysis
- Inter-item correlation
- Item–scale correlations
Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
- Factor extraction
- Principal components analysis (PCA)
- Factor rotation—orthogonal or oblique
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Illustration of Factor Rotation
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Scale Refinement and Validation
- Revising the scale
- Scoring the scale
- Conducting a validation study
Confirmatory factor analysis
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Confirmatory Factor Analysis
- CFA is a second study often undertaken to validate the scale.
- A subset of sophisticated statistical techniques (structural equation modeling)
- Involves tests of a measurement model
- Stipulates the hypothesized relationship between latent traits and manifest variables (items)
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Interpretability of Scale Scores
- Interpretability: the degree to which one can assign qualitative meaning
- Percentile
- Standard scores
- Norms
- Cutoff points
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Critiquing Scale Development Studies
- Methods used
- Whether the evidence regarding the scale’s psychometric adequacy is sufficiently sound
- See Box 15.1
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