Measurement Models for Psychological Attributes : Classical Test Theory, Factor Analysis, Item Response Theory, and Latent Class Models

Despite the overwhelming use of tests and questionnaires, the psychometric models for constructing these instruments are often poorly understood, leading to suboptimal measurement. Measurement Models for Psychological Attributes is a comprehensive and accessible treatment of the common and the less than common measurement models for the social, behavioral, and health sciences. The monograph explains the adequate use of measurement models for test construction, points out their merits and drawbacks, and critically discusses topics that have raised and continue to raise controversy. Because introductory texts on statistics and psychometrics are sufficient to understand its content, the monograph may be used in advanced courses on applied psychometrics and is attractive to both researchers and graduate students in psychology, education, sociology, political science, medicine and marketing, policy research, and opinion research.

The monograph provides an in-depth discussion of classical test theory and factor models in Chapter 2; nonparametric and parametric item response theory in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, respectively; latent class models and cognitive diagnosis models in Chapter 5; and discusses pairwise comparison models, proximity models, response time models, and network psychometrics in Chapter 6. The chapters start with the theory and methods of the measurement model and conclude with a real-data example illustrating the measurement model.

Klaas Sijtsma is a professor of Methods of Psychological Research at the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, the Netherlands. His research specializes in psychometrics, in particular, all issues related to the measurement of psychological attributes by means of tests and questionnaires. He is a past President of the Psychometric Society, editorial board member for several journals, and has authored two other books on measurement.

Andries L. van der Ark is professor of Psychometrics at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. His primary research interests include reliability analysis, nonparametric item response theory, and categorical data analysis. The authors have published over 40 papers together on measurement in the social and behavioral sciences.