Jr. Engelhard

This is the second edition of an introductory text that describes the principles of invariant measurement; how invariant measurement can be achieved using Rasch measurement theory; and how to use invariant measurement to solve a variety of measurement problems in the social, behavioral, and health sciences. Rasch models are used throughout the text, but brief comparisons of Rasch models to other item response theory (IRT) models are also provided.Written with students in mind, this new edition was class-tested to help maximize accessibility. Chapters open with an introduction and close with a discussion and summary. All chapters have been updated from the first edition, and a new chapter on explanatory Rasch models has been added. Features include numerous examples and exercises to demonstrate the main issues addressed in each chapter. Key terms are defined when first introduced and included in a helpful end-of-text glossary.This book also benefits from online materials which include the data sets used in the book, sample syntax files for running the Facets program, Excel files for creating item and person response functions, and links to related websites.This book will act as a supplementary text for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on measurement or test theory, IRT, scaling theory, psychometrics, advanced measurement techniques, research methods, or evaluation research taught in education, psychology, and other social and health sciences. It will also appeal to practitioners and researchers in these fields who develop or use scales and instruments. Only a basic mathematical level is required, including a basic course in statistics, ensuring it is an accessible resource for students and researchers alike.

This is the second edition of an introductory text that describes the principles of invariant measurement; how invariant measurement can be achieved using Rasch measurement theory; and how to use invariant measurement to solve a variety of measurement problems in the social, behavioral, and health sciences. Rasch models are used throughout the text, but brief comparisons of Rasch models to other item response theory (IRT) models are also provided.Written with students in mind, this new edition was class-tested to help maximize accessibility. Chapters open with an introduction and close with a discussion and summary. All chapters have been updated from the first edition, and a new chapter on explanatory Rasch models has been added. Features include numerous examples and exercises to demonstrate the main issues addressed in each chapter. Key terms are defined when first introduced and included in a helpful end-of-text glossary.This book also benefits from online materials which include the data sets used in the book, sample syntax files for running the Facets program, Excel files for creating item and person response functions, and links to related websites.This book will act as a supplementary text for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on measurement or test theory, IRT, scaling theory, psychometrics, advanced measurement techniques, research methods, or evaluation research taught in education, psychology, and other social and health sciences. It will also appeal to practitioners and researchers in these fields who develop or use scales and instruments. Only a basic mathematical level is required, including a basic course in statistics, ensuring it is an accessible resource for students and researchers alike.

This introductory text describes the principles of invariant measurement, how invariant measurement can be achieved with Rasch models, and how to use invariant measurement to solve measurement problems in the social, behavioral, and health sciences. Rasch models are used throughout but a comparison of Rasch models to other item response theory (IRT) models is also provided. Written with students in mind, the manuscript was class tested to help maximize accessibility. Chapters open with an introduction and close with a summary and discussion. Numerous examples and exercises demonstrate the main issues addressed in each chapter. Key terms are defined when first introduced and in an end-of-text glossary. All of the book’s analyses were conducted with the Facets program. The data sets used in the book, sample syntax files for running the Facets program, Excel files for creating item and person response functions, links to related websites, and other material are available at www.GeorgeEngelhard.com. Highlights include:A strong philosophical and methodological approach to measurement in the human sciencesDemonstrations of how measurement problems can be addressed using invariant measurementPractical illustrations of how to create and evaluate scales using invariant measurementA history of measurement based on test-score and scaling traditionsPreviously unpublished work in analyzing rating data, the detection and measurement of rater errors, and the evaluation of rater accuracyA review of estimation methods, model-data fit, indices used to evaluate the quality of rater-mediated assessments, rater error and bias, and rater accuracy.Intended as a supplementary text for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses on measurement or test theory, item response theory, scaling theory, psychometrics, advanced measurement techniques, research methods, or evaluation research taught in education, psychology, and the social and health sciences, the book also appeals to practitioners and researchers in these fields who develop or use scales and instruments. Only a basic mathematical level is required including a basic course in statistic.