Assessment of dental anxiety: A facet approach

Dental anxiety is a complicated phenomenon, and its multicomponent nature is often not acknowledged in existing measurement instruments. Using a facet design, a new Dental Anxiety Inventory (DAI) was constructed. Facets chosen were: time (made up of four elements: at home, on your way to the denstist, in the denstist's waiting room, in the dental chair), situation (three elements: introductory aspects, dentist-patient interaction, actual dental treatment), and reaction (three elements: subjective feelings, physical reactions, cognitive reactions). Psychometric qualities of the DAI are good. The internal structure of the DAI was studied by linear and nonlinear techniques, and was partially recovered from the data. The construct and criterion validity of the DAI was supported in several studies.     

Offender and Offence Characteristics of School Shooting Incidents

School shootings are a concern due to their impact in the local community. This paper aimed to (a) establish frequent characteristics of the offender and offence, (b) explore the differences between offenders who are over the age of 18 years and those who are younger, and (c) consider the underlying themes of the offence characteristics. Data were collected on 28 cases through accessing resources such as West Law and case studies. The majority of the offenders were Caucasian and US citizens and suffered from depression. Their offences were primarily well planned, involved more than three deaths, and resulted in the offender committing suicide. Pearson's chi‐square test and Fisher's exact test identified significant differences between the two age groups. Offenders who were 18 years of age or under were more likely to experience depression, be US citizens and be linked to the school. Additionally, offenders who were 18 years of age or under were more likely to have stolen their weapons and made threats prior to the incident. Smallest space analysis revealed four thematic regions in relation to the offence characteristics: making an impact, delivering a message, doing unrestrained activity, and targeting specific individuals. These findings have implications for risk assessment and furthering understanding. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The modified star graph and the petal diagram: two new visual aids for discrete alternative multicriteria decision making

Many studies have looked into the provisions of visual aids to multicriteria decision making. However, most of them have separated the display of alternative profiles and criteria weight information into two displays. This makes the analysis of the relationship between the criteria and alternatives and the effect of changing the criteria weights on the decision difficult. In this study, displays that can incorporate the display of both alternative profiles and criteria weight information for discrete alternative multicriteria decision-making problems are examined. The simple additive model is the multicriteria analysis method used. The result is two new visual aids for representing data of multicriteria decision-making problems, the modified star graph and the petal diagram. This paper discusses the two displays and compares their strengths and weaknesses. The results of a preliminary test conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the displays are also included. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using multidimensional item response theory to evaluate how response styles impact measurement

Multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) models for response style (e.g., Bolt, Lu, & Kim, 2014, Psychological Methods, 19, 528; Falk & Cai, 2016, Psychological Methods, 21, 328) provide flexibility in accommodating various response styles, but often present difficulty in isolating the effects of response style(s) from the intended substantive trait(s). In the presence of such measurement limitations, we consider several ways in which MIRT models are nevertheless useful in lending insight into how response styles may interfere with measurement for a given test instrument. Such a study can also inform whether alternative design considerations (e.g., anchoring vignettes, self-report items of heterogeneous content) that seek to control for response style effects may be helpful. We illustrate several aspects of an MIRT approach using real and simulated analyses.     

Distance stability analysis in multidimensional scaling using the jackknife method

Stability or sensitivity analysis is an important topic in data analysis that has received little attention in the application of multidimensional scaling (MDS), for which the only available approaches are given in terms of a coordinate‐based analytical jackknife methodology. Although in MDS the prime interest is in assessing the stability of the points in the configuration, this methodology may be influenced by imprecisions resulting from the inherently necessary Procrustes method. This paper proposes an analytical distance‐based jackknife procedure to study stability and cross‐validation in MDS in terms of the jackknife distances, which is not influenced by the Procrustes method. For each object, the corresponding jackknife estimated points are considered as naturally clustered points, and stability and cross‐validation are analysed in terms of the MDS distances arising from the jackknife procedure, on the basis of a weighted cluster‐MDS algorithm. A jackknife‐relevant configuration is also proposed for cross‐validation in terms of coordinates, in a cluster‐MDS framework.     

Developing new online calibration methods for multidimensional computerized adaptive testing

Multidimensional computerized adaptive testing (MCAT) has received increasing attention over the past few years in educational measurement. Like all other formats of CAT, item replenishment is an essential part of MCAT for its item bank maintenance and management, which governs retiring overexposed or obsolete items over time and replacing them with new ones. Moreover, calibration precision of the new items will directly affect the estimation accuracy of examinees’ ability vectors. In unidimensional CAT (UCAT) and cognitive diagnostic CAT, online calibration techniques have been developed to effectively calibrate new items. However, there has been very little discussion of online calibration in MCAT in the literature. Thus, this paper proposes new online calibration methods for MCAT based upon some popular methods used in UCAT. Three representative methods, Method A, the ‘one EM cycle’ method and the ‘multiple EM cycles’ method, are generalized to MCAT. Three simulation studies were conducted to compare the three new methods by manipulating three factors (test length, item bank design, and level of correlation between coordinate dimensions). The results showed that all the new methods were able to recover the item parameters accurately, and the adaptive online calibration designs showed some improvements compared to the random design under most conditions.     

Non‐ignorable missingness item response theory models for choice effects in examinee‐selected items

Examinee‐selected item (ESI) design, in which examinees are required to respond to a fixed number of items in a given set, always yields incomplete data (i.e., when only the selected items are answered, data are missing for the others) that are likely non‐ignorable in likelihood inference. Standard item response theory (IRT) models become infeasible when ESI data are missing not at random (MNAR). To solve this problem, the authors propose a two‐dimensional IRT model that posits one unidimensional IRT model for observed data and another for nominal selection patterns. The two latent variables are assumed to follow a bivariate normal distribution. In this study, the mirt freeware package was adopted to estimate parameters. The authors conduct an experiment to demonstrate that ESI data are often non‐ignorable and to determine how to apply the new model to the data collected. Two follow‐up simulation studies are conducted to assess the parameter recovery of the new model and the consequences for parameter estimation of ignoring MNAR data. The results of the two simulation studies indicate good parameter recovery of the new model and poor parameter recovery when non‐ignorable missing data were mistakenly treated as ignorable.     

Estimating Between-Person and Within-Person Subscore Reliability with Profile Analysis

Subscores are of increasing interest in educational and psychological testing due to their diagnostic function for evaluating examinees' strengths and weaknesses within particular domains of knowledge. Previous studies about the utility of subscores have mostly focused on the overall reliability of individual subscores and ignored the fact that subscores should be distinct and have added value over the total score. This study introduces a profile reliability approach that partitions the overall subscore reliability into within-person and between-person subscore reliability. The estimation of between-person reliability and within-person reliability coefficients is demonstrated using subscores from number-correct scoring, unidimensional and multidimensional item response theory scoring, and augmented scoring approaches via a simulation study and a real data study. The effects of various testing conditions, such as subtest length, correlations among subscores, and the number of subtests, are examined. Results indicate that there is a substantial trade-off between within-person and between-person reliability of subscores. Profile reliability coefficients can be useful in determining the extent to which subscores provide distinct and reliable information under various testing conditions.     

Normal Personality Correlates of Chronic Pain Subgroups

A heterogeneous sample of chronic pain patients was first classified into one of three previously identified subgroups (i.e., dysfunctional, interpersonally distressed, adaptive) using the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (R. D. Kerns, D. C. Turk, & T. E. Rudy, 1985). Multiple differences at the domain and facet levels of the Revised NEO PI-R Personality Inventory (P. T. Costa, Jr. & R. R. McCrae, 1992) were found among the three subgroups of patients. In particular, the interpersonally distressed patients showed a greater degree of Neuroticism and were more introverted. Further analyses revealed that this group had tendencies toward feeling more vulnerable, being less trustful, and experiencing less positive emotions than the other groups. The dysfunctional group of patients was notable in terms of their low activity level and lower Openness (to new experience). Adaptive copers reported being emotionally stable, having a moderate degree of Extraversion, and being open to a wider variety of experiences. These differences may act as mediating influences in differing patient responsiveness to pain management programs.