Scale Construction and Psychometrics for Social and Personality Psychology (The SAGE Library of Methods in Social and Personality Psychology)

Psychometrics and measurement are important for all aspects of psychological research and especially so in social/personality psychology. This volume provides conceptual and practical foundations in scale construction and psychometrics for producers and consumers of social and personality research. It covers basic principles, practices, and processes in scale construction, scale evaluation, scale use and interpretation of research results in the context of psychological measurement. It explains fundamental concepts and methods related to dimensionality, reliability, and validity. In addition, it provides relatively non-technical introductions to special topics and advanced psychometric perspectives such as Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Generalizability Theory, and Item Response Theory. Social/personality research is often grounded in effective measurement, but poor measurement can and does compromise the meaningfulness of psychological research. This volume is intended to raise awareness and understanding of issues that will enhance even further the generally good conduct and interpretation of research in social and personality psychology. This text will be perfect for all advanced students and researchers in social and personality psychology using psychometrics or measurement as part of their studies or research. Psychometrics and measurement are important for all aspects of psychological research and especially so in social/personality psychology. Regardless of the internal validity of one's research, the importance of one's research questions, or the apparent objectivity of one's measurements, psychometric issues have important implications for one's ability to draw meaningful conclusions from psychological research. This volume provides conceptual and practical foundations in scale construction and psychometrics for producers and consumers of social/personality research. It covers basic principles, practices, and processes in scale construction, scale evaluation, scale use, and interpretation of research results in the context of psychological measurement. It explains fundamental concepts and methods related to dimensionality, reliability, and validity. In addition, it provides relatively non-technical introductions to special topics and advanced psychometric perspectives such as Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Generalizability Theory, and Item Response Theory. Social/personality research is often grounded in effective measurement, but poor measurement can - and does - compromise the meaningfulness of psychological research. The current volume is intended to raise awareness and understanding of issues that will enhance even further the generally good conduct and interpretation of research in social and personality psychology. This text will be perfect for all advanced students and researchers in social and personality psychology using psychometrics or measurement as part of their studies or research Providing conceptual and practical foundations in scale construction and psychometrics for producers and consumers of social/personality research, this guide covers basic principles, practices, and processes in scale construction, scale evaluation, scale use, and interpretation of research results in the context of psychological measurement. It explains fundamental concepts and methods related to dimensionality, reliability, and validity. In addition, it provides relatively non-technical introductions to special topics and advanced psychometric perspectives such as Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Generalizability Theory, and Item Response Theory. The SAGE Library in Social and Personality Psychology Methods provides students and researchers with an understanding of the methods and techniques essential to conducting cutting-edge research. Each volume within the Library explains a specific topic and has been written by an active scholar (or scholars) with expertise in that particular methodological domain. Assuming no prior knowledge of the topic, the volumes are clear and accessible for all readers. In each volume, a topic is introduced, applications are discussed, and readers are led step by step through worked examples. In addition, advice about how to interpret and prepare results for publication are presented.