Articles

The Optimism–Pessimism Short Scale–2 (SOP2): a comprehensive validation of the English-language adaptation

The Optimism–Pessimism Short Scale–2 (SOP2) described in this article measures the psychological disposition of optimism with two items. SOP2 is the English-language adaptation of an originally for the German ...

Authors: Désirée Nießen, Katharina Groskurth, Christoph J. Kemper, Beatrice Rammstedt and Clemens M. Lechner

Measuring public knowledge on nuclear weapons in the post-Cold War: dimensionality and measurement invariance across eight European countries

Research on public opinion and international security has extensively examined attitudes toward nuclear weapons, but the diffusion of basic knowledge about nuclear weapons among the everyday citizens has never...

Authors: Fabrício M. Fialho

Developing a COVID-19 module for the European Social Survey

This short report describes the development of a COVID-19 module for Round 10 of the European Social Survey (ESS). The module is formed of 20 items, including 10 agreed with ESS National Coordinators and 10 de...

Authors: Tim Hanson, Marc Helbling, Rahsaan Maxwell, Richard Traunmüller, Kostas Gemenis and Levente Littvay

Adaptation and validation of the Nigerian Igbo Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support in patients with chronic low back pain

Social support may be important in the perpetuation of symptoms in chronic low back pain (CLBP). The multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS) is one of the best measures of social support wit...

Authors: Chinonso Nwamaka Igwesi-Chidobe, Sheila Kitchen, Isaac Olubunmi Sorinola and Emma Louise Godfrey

Measuring psychological pain: psychometric analysis of the Orbach and Mikulincer Mental Pain Scale

Suicide is a public health concern, with an estimated 1 million individuals dying each year worldwide. Individual psychological pain is believed to be a contributing motivating factor. Therefore, establishing ...

Authors: Madeline P. Casanova, Megan C. Nelson, Michael A. Pickering, Karen M. Appleby, Emma J. Grindley, Lindsay W. Larkins and Russell T. Baker

Correction to: Measuring school children’s attitudes toward immigrants in Switzerland and Poland

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Charlotte Clara Becker, Eldad Davidov, Jan Cieciuch, René Algesheimer and Martin Kindschi

Structural validation of the “Teacher’s report form” attention problems scale in a Brazilian sample

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common childhood neurodevelopmental syndromes. Although clinical evaluation is considered the gold standard in diagnosing psychiatric disorders, in e...

Authors: Thiago Pires, Marina Rocha, Simone Assis and Flavio Nobre

Psychometric properties of the Porto Saudade Scale

Saudade involves psychosocial reactions to several circumstances involving deprivation from loved people and/or familiar locations. This work concerns the development and preliminary validation of an instrumen...

Authors: Félix Neto

The Challenged Sense of Belonging Scale (CSBS)—a validation study in English, Arabic, and Farsi/Dari among refugees and asylum seekers in Germany

This study introduces and investigates the validity of a brief scale measuring a challenged sense of belonging. The sense of belonging as well as challenges to this sense are important, albeit neglected aspect...

Authors: Lukas M. Fuchs, Jannes Jacobsen, Lena Walther, Eric Hahn, Thi Minh Tam Ta, Malek Bajbouj and Christian von Scheve

Why ability point estimates can be pointless: a primer on using skill measures from large-scale assessments in secondary analyses

Measures of cognitive or socio-emotional skills from large-scale assessments surveys (LSAS) are often based on advanced statistical models and scoring techniques unfamiliar to applied researchers. Consequently...

Authors: Clemens M. Lechner, Nivedita Bhaktha, Katharina Groskurth and Matthias Bluemke

An English-language adaptation and validation of the Political Efficacy Short Scale (PESS)

The Political Efficacy Short Scale (PESS) is the English-language adaptation of the German-language Political Efficacy Kurzskala (PEKS); it measures perceived political efficacy with four items. PESS comprises...

Authors: Katharina Groskurth, Désirée Nießen, Beatrice Rammstedt and Clemens M. Lechner

Hoist the flag! The future of measurement instruments for the social sciences

Authors: Matthias Bluemke and Beatrice Rammstedt

An English-language adaptation of the Interpersonal Trust Short Scale (KUSIV3)

The Interpersonal Trust Short Scale—the English-language adaptation of the Kurzskala Interpersonelles Vertrauen (KUSIV3)—measures interpersonal trust as a psychological disposition with just three items (compl...

Authors: Désirée Nießen, Constanze Beierlein, Beatrice Rammstedt and Clemens M. Lechner

Measuring school children’s attitudes toward immigrants in Switzerland and Poland

For decades, social scientists have been interested in studying individual attitudes toward ethnic minorities or immigrants and their development over time. Whereas these attitudes have been commonly studied a...

Authors: Charlotte Clara Becker, Eldad Davidov, Jan Cieciuch, René Algesheimer and Martin Kindschi

Factorial validity and measurement invariance across gender groups of the German version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) is the most widely used measure of empathy, but its factorial validity has been questioned. The present research investigates the factorial validity of the German adapt...

Authors: Dennis Grevenstein

Revisiting the five-facet structure of mindfulness

The current study aimed to replicate the development of the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) in a sample of 399 undergraduate students. We factor analyzed the Mindful Attention and Awareness Questionna...

Authors: Johannes Alfons Karl and Ronald Fischer

A translation and validation of the Perceived Political Self-Efficacy (P-PSE) Scale for the use in German samples

Caprara et al. (European Journal of Social Psychology 39:1002–1020, 2009) criticized existing measures of internal political efficacy for not taking into account psychological theories of self-efficacy and for...

Authors: Laurits Bromme, Tobias Rothmund and Gian Vittorio Caprara

A meeting report: OECD-GESIS Seminar on Translating and Adapting Instruments in Large-Scale Assessments (2018)

This report summarizes the main themes and conclusions from the OECD-GESIS Seminar on Translating and Adapting Instruments in Large-Scale Assessments, which took place at the Organization for Economic Co-opera...

Authors: Dorothée Behr and Anouk Zabal

Development of an international survey attitude scale: measurement equivalence, reliability, and predictive validity

Declining response rates worldwide have stimulated interest in understanding what may be influencing this decline and how it varies across countries and survey populations. In this paper, we describe the devel...

Authors: Edith de Leeuw, Joop Hox, Henning Silber, Bella Struminskaya and Corrie Vis

A meeting report: cross-cultural comparability of questionnaire measures in large-scale international surveys

The value of cross-country comparisons is at the heart of large-scale international surveys. Yet the validity of such comparisons is often challenged, particularly in the case of latent traits whose estimates ...

Authors: Francesco Avvisati, Noémie Le Donné and Marco Paccagnella

Psychometric evaluation of the Portuguese Satisfaction with Family Life Scale

The purpose of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of the Satisfaction with Family Life Scale (SWFLS) among Portuguese adolescents. This scale assesses a person’s global evaluation of family s...

Authors: Marta Pinto da Costa and Félix Neto

The short version of the Metacognitive Prospective Memory Inventory (MPMI-s): factor structure, reliability, validity, and reference data

Prospective memory, the ability to remember to execute an intended action at the appropriate moment in the future, is frequently assessed with standardized questionnaires. Prospective-memory abilities strongly...

Authors: Jan Rummel, Daniel Danner and Beatrice G. Kuhlmann

What motivates you right now? Development of a measure of momentary-chronic regulatory focus

Regulatory focus is a motivational construct that describes humans’ motivational orientation during goal pursuit. It is conceptualized as a chronic, trait-like, as well as a momentary, state-like orientation. ...

Authors: Doris Fay, Tina Urbach and Linda Scheithauer

Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences

Authors: Beatrice Rammstedt and Matthias Bluemke

Do the PVQ and the IRVS scales for personal values support Schwartz’s value circle model or Klages’ value dimensions model?

The paper compares the theoretical implications of two popular scales for the measurement of personal values, the Portrait Values Questionnaire (PVQ) of Schwartz et al. (J Cross-Cult Psychol, 32:519–542, 2001)...

Authors: Ingwer Borg, Dieter Hermann, Wolfgang Bilsky and Andreas Pöge

An English-Language Adaptation of the Social Desirability–Gamma Short Scale (KSE-G)

The Social Desirability–Gamma Short Scale—the English-language adaptation of the Kurzskala Soziale Erwünschtheit–Gamma (KSE-G)—measures two aspects of the Gamma factor of socially desirable responding (SDR): e...

Authors: Désirée Nießen, Melanie V. Partsch, Christoph J. Kemper and Beatrice Rammstedt

Measuring cultural capital through the number of books in the household

Cultural capital is frequently measured via the number of books in a respondent’s household. Despite this measure’s widespread use, its quality remains largely unclear. To remedy this, we conducted a comprehen...

Authors: Swen Sieben and Clemens M. Lechner