Explored the relationship between social interest, life changes, and individual mood states. Social interest was positively correlated with number of recent life changes and negatively correlated with total mood disturbance. High social interest individuals reported less subjective mood disturbances associated with perceived stress. (Author)

To demonstrate that some methods used to assess item fit can be applied to assess person fit and vice versa, performance of a chi-squared item-fit statistic was compared with that of a likelihood-based person-fit statistic for examinees and items under Monte Carlo conditions. (SLD)

This volume, which grew out of a conference on differential item functioning (DIF), provides an introduction and background on DIF, a discussion of statistical methodology, practical questions and examples of empirical investigation, a discussion of ancillary issues, and some concluding remarks and suggestions about DIF. (SLD)

Statistical methods designed for categorical data were used to perform confirmatory factor analyses and item response theory (IRT) analyses of the Fear of Negative Evaluation scale (FNE; D. Watson & R. Friend, 1969) and the Brief FNE (BFNE; M. R. Leary, 1983). Results suggested that a 2-factor model fit the data better for both the FNE and the…

Many do not consider the effect that missing data have on their survey results nor do they know how to handle missing data. This chapter offers strategies for handling item-missing data and provides a practical example of how these strategies may affect results. The chapter concludes with recommendations for preventing and dealing with missing…

Convincingly establishing the determinants of student evaluation of teaching (SET) scores has been elusive, largely because of inadequate statistical methods and a paucity of data. The author uses a much larger time span than in any previous research--607 economics classes over 17 semesters. This permits a proper treatment of unobserved…

Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are becoming more common in UK psychology departments and the need to assess their reliability is apparent. Having examined the reliability of MCQs in our department we faced many questions from colleagues about why we were examining reliability, what it was that we were doing, and what should be reported when…

Question-order effects refer to systematic differences in responses that can be attributed to the manner in which questions assessing attitudes and cognitions are asked. This article hypothesized that question-order effects in assessing the perceived importance of skin cancer would be moderated by the extent to which people are involved with the…

The NEAIR 2010 Conference Proceedings is a compilation of papers presented at the Saratoga Springs, New York conference. Papers in this document include: (1) Collaboration Between Student Affairs and Institutional Research: A Model for the Successful Assessment of Students' College Experience (Michael N. Christakis and Joel D. Bloom); (2) Direct…

In an effort to improve the ways in which words are learned, the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation (JOCRF) is attempting to determine the difficulty level of all non-technical words in the English language. This item banking project entails: (1) identifying words that should be calibrated; (2) writing a test item for each word; (3) testing the…

The Mantel-Haenszel procedure (MH) is a practical, inexpensive, and powerful way to detect test items that function differently in two groups of examinees. MH is a natural outgrowth of previously suggested chi square methods, and it is also related to methods based on item response theory. The study of items that function differently for two…

This paper considers (1) the requirements imposed on data in order to conform to the Rasch model, (2) some common sources of departure from the model, and (3) a procedure for recognizing the occurrence of these disturbances. The specific disturbances discussed are guessing, practice, speededness, and bias. The observed characteristic curve for…

In this comparison of the political "images" of Richard Nixon and George McGovern, public opinion data were collected on President Nixon in 1968 and 1972 and on Senator McGovern in 1972 just before and just after the television broadcast of the biography of McGovern. Changes in political attitudes toward Nixon and McGovern as a result of…

Fifty two Negro and 52 white second graders were asked to associate to each of 18 nonsense syllables verbally presented by one of two Negro or one of two white examiners. No examiner race differences were obtained. While significant subject race differences occurred in six of 15 response categories, each resulted from either the idiosyncratic…