OVERVIEW

The course covers the basic concepts of psychometric theory and the basic statistical methods employed in psychology

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims at providing students with the basic concepts of measurement of psychological variables. The main aim is the learning of the methodology and the statistical techniques that allow an adequate development of a psychological test and the test of its validity and reliability. The course focuses on test/questionnaire item development and wording, descriptive and inferential statistics, correlational analysis.

LEARNING OUTCOMES (FURTHER INFO)

The course comprises two parts, with different learning objectives

Part 1 [Modulo 1]: Psychometric statistics (8 CFU): this part aims at developing students' skills in carrying out basic statistical analyses (descriptive and inferential analyses) on data from psychological research, and at introducing the basics of research methodology. These skills should enable students to design simple research projects, and to read and understand scientific research reports and articles.

Part 2 [Modulo 2]: Psychometric theory and techniques (4 CFU): this part aims at developing students' knowledge and skills about designing, developing, validating, and administering psychological tests, about adapting psychological measures to another language, and about the empirical tests and related statistical techniques of the adequacy of validity and reliability of a psychological measure. These skills should enable students to critically evaluate the information about a psychological test.

TEACHING METHODS

Combination of traditional lectures (72 hours) and assignments to be completed between the last lecture of a week and the first of the next

Students can also interact with the teacher and the other students on an online forum (see the Aulaweb website), where they can post solutions to exercises and questions about the topics covered by the course. Students can ask the teacher to be involved in his research activities.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Part 1 [Modulo 1]: Psychometric statistics (8 CFU). Basic concepts of psychometric theory and research methods in psychology, descriptive statistics (measurement scales, common psychological tests, validity, reliability, measures of central tendency, ranking, dispersion, shape of the distribution, and standardization of scores; combinatorial analysis, probability theory); inferential statistics (hypothesis testing for one and two independent and related samples, measures of effect size); basics of the general linear model (one-way analysis of variance for independent and related samples); measures of association (chi-square test for the independence of categorical variables, correlation, linear bivariate regression)

Part 2 [Modulo 2]: Psychometric theory and techniques (4 CFU): theoretical foundations of measurement in psychology, construct definition and operalization, assessment of content and face validity, item wording techniques, item analysis, test reliability, factor analysis, asessmento of criterion and construct validity, adaptation of a psychological measure in another language.

A laboratory activity (Pratica dei test [Test practice]) is associated to this course. The activity aims at developing students' skills in choosing and administering psychological tests (intelligence and personality), and interpreting their scores.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Part 1: Howitt, D. & Cramer, D. (2011). Introduction to Statistics in Psychology. Fifth Edition. London: Pearson [Chapters 1-17, 19-21]

Part 2: Coaley, K. (2010). An Introduction to Psychological Assessment and Psychometrics. London: Sage [Chapters 1-6, 10, 11]

[Please e-mail to the teacher if you have issues in finding these books]

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

CARLO CHIORRI (President)

GUIDO FRANCO AMORETTI

FABRIZIO BRACCO

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Lectures will start on September 27th, 2016 [Please note that they will be delivered in Italian, although foreign students can ask questions in English, French, and Spanish]

Class schedule

PSYCHOMETRICS AND THEORY OF THE TESTS

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

At the end of each part of the course, an exam will take place. This is not an "official" exam (hence the participation is not compulsory, nor it affects the possibility to take part to official exams), but its outcome is equivalent to that of regular exam sessions throughout the academic year. At each exam session, students can take any or both of the exams of each part of the course, with no limitation on the order in which they are taken or in the number of attempts. The course is completed when exams of both parts have been passed.

Exam Part 1

It is a written exam (105 minutes) in which students have to show their ability in carrying out statistical analysis, both at the descriptive and the inferential level.

During the exam students cannot consult books, notes, nor they can use computers, smartphones, smartwatches, or other electronic devices. However, they can use an electronic calculator and can refer to the formulary provided by the exam commission (a copy of the formulary is available on the Aulaweb website of the course). Any violation of these rules will lead to the annulment of the exam.

Answers must be written with a pen only on the sheets provided by the exam commission (additional sheets are available once the initial ones have been filled completely). Answers written with a pencil that are not graphs or diagrams will not be considered valid.

Exercises on statistical analyses account for the 75% of the final grade. The scoring of the answers does not take into account the correctness of calculations (unless they lead to non admissible results, such as negative variances or correlations outside the [-1;+1] range), but the adequacy of the statistical procedure.

Questions on theoretical issues account for the other 25% of the final grade.

The number of exercises can vary depending on the time needed to carry out the analyses, while open-ended questions are always four. Each exercise and question shows the highest scores that can be achieved with a perfect answer. The total possible score is 31. The exam is passed with a score equal to or greater than 18.

Exam Part 2

It is a written exam (105 minutes) with open-ended questions about theoretical issues and a single exercise on the interpretation of results of descriptive statistics, item analysis, and factor analysis.

During the exam students cannot consult books, notes, nor they can use computers, smartphones, smartwatches, or other electronic devices. Any violation of these rules will lead to the annulment of the exam.

Answers must be written with a pen only on the sheets provided by the exam commission (additional sheets are available once the initial ones have been filled completely). Answers written with a pencil that are not graphs or diagrams will not be considered valid.

Open-ended questions account for the 80% of the final grade and cover measurement theory, psychometric properties of a test (validity and reliablity, and related statistical techniques for their empirical test), scaling techniques, item wording techniques. The exercise accounts fot the remaining 20% of the final grade and requires to interpret the results of descriptive statistics, item analysis, and factor analysis according to the guidelines provided during the lectures and on the textbook. Some examples of this exercise are available of the Aulaweb website of the course.

Each question and exercise shows the highest scores that can be achieved with a perfect answer. The total possible score is 31. The exam is passed with a score equal to or greater than 18.

Final grade

The final grade is the weighted sum of the grades of Part 1 and Part 2: 2/3*Grade Part 1 + 1/3*Grade Part 2.

The exams of the two parts can be taken in any order and without limitation of attempts.

Once the exam has been passed, students can ask for an optional oral exam through which they can increase their grade to up to two points. This oral examination will consist in two questions about the application of the concepts covered by the course.

Students can reserve their seat at the exam here: https://servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami/. Note that the website is accessible to up to 4 days before the exam day. If the student has not reserved a seat, the teacher cannot guarantee the participation to the exam.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Part 1

The exam requires students to report all the steps needed to perform the analysis and to report the results in the way they are commonly reported in scientific publications. There are also open-ended questions of theoretical issues in psychometrics that require a synthetic, clear, and terminologically adequate answer

Part 2

Students have to show knowledge of the the theoretical foundations of psychometrics and ability in discussing them, i.e., clearly describing them using the adequate terminology. The open-ended questions require also to provide original examples of application of these concepts.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students can join the research activity of the teacher of the following topics:

Development and validation of psychological tests

Italian adaptation of tests originally in a foreign language

Multivariate statistical analyses: factor analysis, structural equation modeling, Rasch and Item Response Theory Models

Personality traits and individual differences

Personality disorders and clinical assessment

Cognitive styles

Traffic psychology

Police psychology