Discussion Question One

Attitude Rating Scale

The term rating scale refers to any instrument that permits rapid assessment of a behavior or psychological dimension by yielding a numerical score that is easily interpreted. With rating scales, a construct is measured or evaluated according to a set of predetermined factors, and each factor is ranked from the lowest level to the highest. Most rating scales use five categories. Many research studies utilize this approach in their methodology and it is considered one of the single most widely used methods of appraising a particular construct. It is popular because it is viewed as simple and very easy to use.

Rating Scale to Measure a Teacher’s Attitude toward State-Wide Educational Assessments

1. How useful do you think the Statewide Assessment Program is at providing information on individual student achievement on performance standards set by the State Board of Education at grade and benchmark levels?

Not at all useful                      ( )

Slightly useful                         ( )

Somewhat useful                    ( )

Very useful                             ( )

Extremely useful                     ( )

2. How useful do you think the Statewide Assessment Program is at providing measures of student knowledge and understanding and can be used to make informed decisions that help improve student achievement?

Not at all useful                      ( )

Slightly useful                         ( )

Somewhat useful                    ( )

Very useful                             ( )

Extremely useful                     ( )

3. To what extent do you agree that Statewide Assessment Programs support instructional program improvement efforts?

Strongly Agree            1          2          3          4          5          strongly disagree

4. To what extent do you agree that Statewide Assessment Programs informs the public about student’s achievement in schools?

Strongly Agree            1          2          3          4          5          strongly disagree

5. How satisfied are you in Statewide Assessment programs Assisting and guiding in prioritizing curriculum and instructional planning.

Very satisfied                                      ( )

Somewhat satisfied                             ( )

Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied        ( )

Somewhat dissatisfied                                    ( )

Very dissatisfied                                 ( )

6. To what extent do you agree that Statewide Assessment programs Score reports are useful in helping pinpoint weaknesses not only for the individual student but also at the programmatic level for the school or district?

To very great extent                            ( )

To great extent                                    ( )

To some extent                                    ( )

To little extent                                      ( )

To very little extent                              ( )

 

Factors That Might Influence a Teacher to Rate Honestly

A basic assumption underlying the use of surveys is that respondent will answer questions truthfully and honestly. However, this most often than not is usually not the case, this is especially so if the issue is a concern that touches on them more personally.

One key influence that comes into play in self-report inventories and which according to Diener & Eid, (2006) results to dishonest response is the influence of social desirability, favorable self-presentation or self defensiveness. This response involves giving an overly positive self-presentation. The influence of social desirability is a problem and a source of dishonest response whenever self-report inventories are used to assess emotional, attitudinal, or other personality characteristics.

The nature of the question can also influence the honesty of the response. Respondents may be reluctant to answer sensitive questions honestly. They may feel a need to give favorable impressions of themselves, or they may want to adapt their response to what they perceive to be the expectation of the interviewer (Tanur, 1992).

Other key factors that influence a respondent’s decision to respond honestly are; confidentiality, a teacher will respond more honestly on paper if he or she is believes that confidentiality will be upheld;the natural tendency of any individual to be seen in a good light; be done with this intrusion in their lives as quickly as possible; or to receive the help that they feel they need.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Forced Choice Rating Scale

There are several commonly used types of rating scales. Each has its advantages and disadvantagesdepending on situational needs. These rating scales include: paired comparison, forced distribution, critical incidence technique, checklist, graphic rating scale, behavioral anchored rating scale, and behavioral observation scales as well as forced choice.

With the forced choice method, two to four alternatives that are considered to be about equal in terms of desirability are listed, and the rater selects the alternative that best or least describes the rate. This method has the advantages that it reduces biases and facilitates easy collection and analysis of data because of the forced choice among options listed. However, it has the disadvantage that it is time consuming to develop and raters often dislike it. It is also considered inflexible, subjective and inconsistent. Additionally, it is considered to be more complicated to score when compared to other rating scales, and thus less beneficial for providing useful feedback, or in-depth information is needed.

The forced choice format also does not allow respondents to give a ‘middle of the road’ or undecided answer, this can serve as both an advantage and disadvantage. It is an advantage because it guards against respondents using an acquiescent response mode which occurs when respondents give middle responses all the time perhaps because of laziness or a wish to conceal their true opinions.

Critique of Your Own Scale and the Strengths and Weaknesses

My scale was developed based on the standards for constructing a rating scale. It followed the rules and satisfies all the requirements of a criterion rating scale.

However, the scale has some few weaknesses; it assumes that the respondents share the understanding with regards to the nature of the item being rated, that is, the term ‘Statewide Assessment Program’,and the meaning of the anchor points or potential answers being provided on the scale of that item. Thus there arises the problem of specificity and/ or clarity of the item to be rated.

Also, various factors may also influence the capacity of the rater to provide an accurate report of the behavior represented in the items on the scale. That is, level of intelligence, education, emotional status, range of life experiences, prior experience with similar rating scales, and a myriad of other factors may have the potential to bias the reports of the rater in ways that may affect the accuracy or validity of the ratings provided.Individual and situational factors canalso affect the scales performance.However, this is a general limitation of all rating scales and not specific to my rating scale.

The rating scale also may also result to highly subjective evaluations; this is because the factors and degrees are vaguely defined. That is, the weight attached to each response is not specified. However, this also is a general limitation that is associated with all rating scales.

The last weakness stems from the problem of an acquiescent response mode. This problem arises from the freedom allowed to respondents to give a ‘middle of the road’ or undecided answer, which allows respondents to conceal their true opinion.

Some strengths of my rating scale is that it is easy to use and administer. It does not take much time to complete, and because numerical values have been attached to all the responses, an average rating can quickly be calculated thus facilitating faster and more accurate evaluation and analysis of the results.

 

Discussion Question Two

Interests and Personality Assessments

The Strong Interest Inventory

Personality assessment attempt to find out what an individual is like and what he does. These elements are considered important in predicting a person’s behavior and informing psychological treatment.

The Strong Interest Inventory interest inventory is an interest inventory. It is one of the most widely administered inventories in the world and has a long history of providing students with useful academic and career planning information. It was first introduced in 1927 as a way of helping young men and women find satisfying employment. Since that time, the Strong Interest Inventory has undergone a number of major revisions in response to changing work environments, the introduction of new occupations and the extinction of other occupations.  In its current form, theStrong Interest Inventory has 317 items that survey an individual’s attitude towards occupations, occupational activities, school subjects, and types of people. The response format varies slightly across the sections of the SII, although in most cases the examinee responds to one of three levels of endorsement of an item, essentially like, dislike, and indifferent.

What the Test Measures

The Strong Interest Inventory interest inventory is commonly used in career counseling, and is often cited as one of the most widely used instrument in counseling in general. Strong Interest Inventory is often used in career counseling because they are helpful in measuring and describing an individual’s general occupational interests. It provides sound information and has been found to promote career exploration and connects an individual’s interests to specific occupations (Whiston, 2012).

The Strong Interest Inventory interest inventory measures and assesses an individual’s interest and matches them to a probable career. According to Taylor, Tyler, Wilson, and Solomon (2011), the inventory informs the person where they might enjoy working, based on the interests that they might have in common with other individuals in a given professions. However, it is worth noting that it does not measure ability or aptitude.

Settings and/or Populations the Test is intended for

The Strong Interest Inventory evaluates and measures up an individual’sanswer to items with the response patterns of professionals in different occupations. This tool is most appropriate for high school students, college students and adults (Whiston, 2012). To students it is used to give them career guidance on what and where their interest lies in relation to the future occupation.

Situations When Personality Assessments Might Be Used in the Workplace

Employers test all level of workers to see how they deal with conflicts, solve problems, perform specific job skills, and obtain results or answers that increase production and pose the least financial risk to the company(Sheldon & Hart, 2007). Personality assessments provide self-insight into revealing behavior into revealing behavior such as impatience.

At the work place, these tests are given to job applicants and managers. Executives take personality tests to develop and improve specific blind spots in their leadership skills or decision-making habits. Most personality tests in corporate settings are used for team-building, and the tests may be given by coaches, instructional designers, or members of the HR department

Personality surveys include tests of integrity, honesty and may include questionnaires to screen out angry, potentially disruptive job applicants from the corporate workplace(Reynolds & Scott, 2010). Other test may be related to leadership and teambuilding skills, such as avoiding blind spots by overlooking important details before making decisions that might derail an executive early on in the individual’s career. Some personality assessment also include questionnaires to select career or job-related interest niche areas, such as preference for creative or artistic work, clerical work, academic work, or realistic work.

The Test’s Strengths and Weaknesses of the Test

Strengths

A key strength that researchers have found with regards to the Strong Interest Inventory is that it has very accurate predictive abilities when it comes to matching an individual’s interest and temperament to his prospective occupation. This has enabled it to be a popular tool to use.

The Strong Interest Inventory also has a history of providing individuals, predominantly students with useful academic and career planning information. Therefore, it is an important tool for helping young men and women find satisfying employment. It is one of the most widely administered inventories in the world due to its accuracy and ease of use.

Weaknesses

The Strong Interest Inventory cannot be used exclusively alone to make a decision about a particular career choice, that is, It cannot be used alone as a basis for career or educational choices (Edwards, 2006). The results obtained from the Strong Interest Inventory can only be used in combination with other information to make important decisions.

The Strong Interest Inventory only suggests academic and career directions for an individual to take into consideration or investigate, but it does not inform an individual what he or she should do for a living. It is best used to open up, rather than limit, the world of occupational choice.

It provides detailed feedback about an individual’s interests, however, it does not measure aptitudes or abilities, and therefore, cannot necessarily predict whether an individual has the particular academic or occupational areas. That is, the results cannot predict whether an individual has the skills to succeed in particular academic or occupational areas.

Finally, the Strong Interest Inventory cannot distinguish between an individual’s vocational interests from the persons avocational interests. As such, when reviewing the results obtained from the strong interest inventory, an individual needs to note that some of the results may be describing the person’s hobbies and not future career (Edwards, 2006).

Factors to Consider When Examining and Interpreting the Results of Personality and Self-Inventories

Personality tests have no right or wrong answers. They are designed to give an individual self-insight into what a person’s preferences are. That is, does the individual make decisions quickly or take a lot of time to make sure he does not overlook important details. Most personality test responses are looking for normal responses, what is polite in a corporate setting. Empathy is important. It looks for clarity and expert, relatively flawless validation in a test.The questions should be specific and not vague or ambiguous. Simple answers that are clear to understand are best. The tests should be answered honestly, and the responder should not try to trick the test, since most tests have built-in lie detectors that sound the alarm. In a general personality test, the goal is to match a personality with the character traits and vision of the corporation’s present leaders for the specific job duties and for the firm’s growth plans.

Personality tests are about insight, values and integrity. They also may include hobby-type interests. The purpose is to find out what an individual enjoys doing with his time. They measure how a person takes in information, use the information and make decisions.

Self-report inventories are only as accurate as the information as the information that respondents provide. They are susceptible to several sources of errors which should be considered during the interpreting of the results of the personality and self inventories. These include; Deliberate Deception, where some respondents intentionally fake particular personality traits; Social Desirability Bias, where without realizing it, some people consistently respond to questions in ways that will make them look good;  and Response Set, which is a systematic tendency to respond to test items in a particular way that is unrelated to the content of the items.

These are some of the contemplations that should be taken into consideration. However, they can be addressed, for example, it is possible to insert a ‘lie scale’ into a test to assess the likelihood that a respondent is engaging in deception. The best way to reduce the impact of social desirability bias is to identify items that are sensitive to this bias and drop them from the test. Problems with response sets can be reduced by systematically varying the way in which test items are worded.

In conclusion, although self report inventories have some weaknesses, carefully constructed personality scales remain and indispensable tool for applied psychologists.

 

References

Derrington, M. L. (2009, April). A Three-Step Guide to Developing Effective Surveys. Retrieved from National Association of Elementary School Principals: www.naesp.org/resources/2/Principal/2009/M-A_p46.pdf

Diem, K. (2002, January 2). A Step-By-Step Guide to Developing Effective Questionnaires and Survey Procedures for Program Evaluation & Research. Retrieved July 13, 2014, from New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=FS995

Diener, E., & Eid, M. (2006). Handbook of Multimethod Measurement in Psychology. American Psychological Association.

Edwards, J. F. (2006). Use of a Pre-organizer and Recall of the Strong Interest Inventory. ProQuest.

Reynolds, D. H., & Scott, J. C. (2010). Handbook of Workplace Assessment. John Wiley & Sons.

Seibert, Ph.D, T. (2002, July 24). Designing Surveys: A Workshop Co-Sponsored by The Community Research Center At Keene State College and Monadnock United Way.

Sheldon, G., & Hart, A. (2007). Employment Personality Tests Decoded: Includes Sample and Practice Tests for Self-Assessment. Career Press.

Tanur, J. M. (1992). Questions About Questions: Inquiries into the Cognitive Bases of Surveys. Russell Sage Foundation.

Taylor, T., Tyler, L., Wilson, G., & Solomon, A. (2011). 100% Job Search Success. Cengage Learning.

Whiston, S. (2012). Principles and Applications of Assessment in Counseling. Cengage Learning.

 

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