Articles

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