Measured Constructs

This volume establishes how English language constructs were measured in Cambridge English examinations over the period 1913 to 2012. An addition to the Studies in Language Testing series, this volume provides an overview of English language testing over the last century, with coverage of key theoretical and practical aspects of the assessment of reading, listening, writing and speaking skills. It includes examples of the Cambridge English exams, old and new, and is the first volume to describe in a systematic way the different theoretical influences which have shaped the development of the constructs underlying Cambridge English exams in the last 100 years.

Contributors to the volume represent an international "who's who" of research scientists from the fields of psychology and measurement. It offers the insights of these leading authorities regarding cognition and personality. In particular, they address the roles of constructs and values in clarifying the theoretical and empirical work in these fields, as well as their relation to educational assessment. It is intended for professionals and students in psychology and assessment, and almost anyone doing research in cognition and personality.

Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs assists researchers and practitioners by identifying and reviewing the best scales/measures for a variety of constructs. Each chapter discusses test validity, reliability, and utility. Authors have focused on the most often used and cited scales/measures, with a particular emphasis on those published in recent years. Each scale is identified and described, the sample on which it was developed is summarized, and reliability and validity data are presented, followed by presentation of the scale, in full or in part, where such permission has been obtained. Measures fall into five broad groups. The emotional disposition section reviews measures of general affective tendencies, and/or cognitive dispositions closely linked to emotion. These measures include hope and optimism, anger and hostility, life satisfaction, self-esteem, confidence, and affect dimensions. Emotion regulation scales go beyond general dispositions to measure factors that may contribute to understanding and managing emotions. These measures include alexithymia, empathy, resiliency, coping, sensation seeking, and ability and trait emotional intelligence. The interpersonal styles section introduces some traditional social–psychological themes in the context of personality assessment. These measures include adult attachment, concerns with public image and social evaluation, and forgiveness. The vices and virtues section reflects adherence to moral standards as an individual characteristic shaped by sociocultural influences and personality. These measures include values and moral personality, religiosity, dark personalities (Machiavellianism,narcissism, and subclinical psychopathy), and perfectionism. The sociocultural interaction and conflict section addresses relationships between different groups and associated attitudes. These measures include cross-cultural values, personality and beliefs, intergroup contact, stereotyping and prejudice, attitudes towards sexual orientation, and personality across cultures. Encompasses 25 different areas of psychology research Each scale has validity, reliability info, info on test bias, etc Multiple scales discussed for each construct Discussion of which scales are appropriate in which circumstances and to what populations Examples of scales included

Ten chapters discuss key aspects of advanced PLS analysis and its practical applications, covering new guidelines and improvements in the use of PLS-PM as well as various individual topics.

More than a half-century has passed since Cronbachs distinction between the correlational and experimental approaches in psychology. Yet measurement today is not much better integrated with psychological theory than it was in the late 1950s, and many argue that the traditional psychometric model itself may have introduced constraints that have limited the integration of measurement and theory. Measuring Psychological Constructs seeks to break through these constraints by offering conceptual alternatives to traditional item-response theorys fixed-content/multiple-choice models. This edited volumes contributors present groundbreaking explanatory approaches to model-based measurement that provide various psychological constructs with more authentic measures such as constructed-response tasks and performance assessment. These new explanatory approaches not only extend rigorous psychometric methods to a variety of major psychological constructs, but also have the potential to change fundamentally the nature of the constructs that are being measured. Grounded in psychometrics and quantitative assessment, and in the history and major theoretical approaches of psychology, Measuring Psychological Constructs is aimed at students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners alike, in variety of psychology subdisciplines that include developmental and geriatric, industrial/organizational, clinical and counseling, educational, social and personality, experimental, neuropsychology, health and rehabilitation, and quantitative psychology.

This new text provides the most current coverage of measurement and psychometrics in a single volume. Authors W. Holmes Finch and Brian F. French first review the basics of psychometrics and measurement, before moving on to more complex topics such as equating and scaling, item response theory, standard setting, and computer adaptive testing. Also included are discussions of cutting-edge topics utilized by practitioners in the field, such as automated test development, game-based assessment, and automated test scoring. This book is ideal for use as a primary text for graduate-level psychometrics/measurement courses, as well as for researchers in need of a broad resource for understanding test theory. Features: "How it Works" and "Psychometrics in the Real World" boxes break down important concepts through worked examples, and show how theory can be applied to practice. End-of-chapter exercises allow students to test their comprehension of the material, while suggested readings and website links provide resources for further investigation. A collection of free online resources include the full output from R, SPSS, and Excel for each of the analyses conducted in the book, as well as additional exercises, sample homework assignments, answer keys, and PowerPoint lecture slides.

In an era of big data and data analytics, how can managers make decisions based on almost unlimited information, not to mention hiring and retaining individuals with the required data analytics skills? The new fourth edition of Essentials of Business Research Methods explains research methods and analytical techniques for individuals who aren't data scientists. The authors offer a straightforward, hands-on approach to the vital managerial process of gathering and using data to make relevant and timely business decisions. They include critical topics, such as the increasing role of online research, ethical issues, privacy matters, data analytics, customer relationship management, how to conduct information-gathering activities more effectively in a rapidly changing business environment, and more. This is also the only text that includes a chapter on qualitative data analysis, and the coverage of quantitative data analysis is more extensive as well as much easier to understand than in other texts. A realistic continuing case used throughout the book, applied research examples, and ethical dilemma mini cases enable upper-level undergraduate and postgraduate students to see how business research information is used in the real world. This comprehensive textbook is supported by a range of online resources, including instructors’ manuals, PowerPoint slides, and test banks.

This book provides some recent research advances in the field of lean manufacturing. Its content is of interest to students in management and production engineering. Topics covered include Just in Time (JIT), Kaizen activities and Critical Metrics. The chapters are written by worldwide well-known experts in the field.