Andrew M. Colman

Optimal Number of Response Categories in Rating Scales: Reliability, Validity, Discriminating Power, and Respondent Preferences

Using a self-administered questionnaire, 149 respondents rated service elements associated with a recently visited store or restaurant on scales that differed only in the number of response categories (ranging from 2 to 11) and on a 101-point scale presented in a different format. On several indices of reliability, validity, and discriminating power, the two-point, three-point, and four-point scales performed relatively poorly, and indices were significantly higher for scales with more response categories, up to about 7. Internal consistency did not differ significantly between scales, but test-retest reliability tended to decrease for scales with more than 10 response categories. Respondent preferences were highest for the 10-point scale, closely followed by the seven-point and nine-point scales. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Game Theory and its Applications : In the Social and Biological Sciences

One-person games experiments with strictly competitive games multi-person games social dilemmas theories of coalition formation tactical voting theory of evolution moral philosophy and practical problems of strategy.

Context Effects on Recall and Recognition of Magazine Advertisements

Abstract This experiment tested the hypothesis that depth of involvement in a magazine article is inversely related to subsequent recall and recognition of accompanying advertisements. Subjects read magazine articles interspersed with unfamiliar advertisements for common product types. Results showed that the more deeply the subjects were involved in the articles, the less they remembered about the accompanying advertisements. Articles about recipes were rated least interesting, enjoyable, and absorbing, and they elicited less attention and concentration from the readers than fiction and feature articles, but subjects who read the recipes remembered the advertisements best and subjects who read the fiction article remembered the advertisements worst.

Comparing Rating Scales of Different Lengths: Equivalence of Scores from 5-Point and 7-Point Scales

Using a self-administered questionnaire, 227 respondents rated service elements associated with a restaurant, retail store, or public transport company on several 5-point and 7-point rating scales. Least-squares regression showed that linear equations for estimating 7-point from 5-point and 5-point from 7-point ratings explained over 85% of the variance and fitted the data almost as well as higher-order polynomials and power functions. In a cross-validation on a new data set the proportion of variance explained fell to about 76%. Functionally inverse versions of the derived linear equations were calculated for the convenience of researchers and psychometricians.

Overconfidence: Feedback and item difficulty effects

Abstract Overconfident subjects were given immediate feedback of results in a general knowledge test in an attempt to de-bias them. In a 2 × 3 × 4 mixed factorial design (Feedback × Question Difficulty × Trial Blocks), the accuracy, confidence, and overconfidence of judgements of 150 subjects (48 male and 102 female) were measured. Hard questions produced significantly higher levels of overconfidence than medium-difficulty and easy questions, which in turn resulted in underconfidence. Combining all levels of difficulty, females were significantly less overconfident than males. No significant effect of external feedback was found, although better calibration in latter trial blocks for hard-level questions suggests that intrinsic feedback through self-monitoring occurred, but was effective in reducing the bias only for hard questions.

Gender and Social Facilitation Effects on Computer Competence and Attitudes toward Computers

Subjects (36 male, 36 female), aged from fifteen to fifty-two years, performed a computer-based tracking task under one of six audience conditions in an experiment designed to investigate the effects of gender and social facilitation on performance. In addition to the computer task, each subject completed a fifteen-item questionnaire designed to identify levels of computer usage, computer-related anxiety, confidence and competence when using computers, and attitudes toward computers and computer users. Males performed significantly better than females, and a significant social facilitation effect was found. A significant Gender × Audience interaction was found, with females performing very much better in the presence of a female audience than alone or with a male audience. The implications for educational policy and practice are briefly discussed.

What is psychology

Getting started (including definitions of what psychology is not) beyond common sense: a self-assessment quiz the subject matter of psychology research methods and statistics the origins and development of psychology psychology as a profession.

A bibliometric evaluation of the research performance of British university politics departments: Publications in leading journals

The research performance of 41 British university politics departments was evaluated through an analysis of articles published between 1987 and 1992 in nine European politics journals with the highest citation impact factors. Annual performance scores were obtained by dividing each departments number of publications in these journals in each year (departmental productivity) by the corresponding departmental size. These scores were summed to obtain a research performance score for each department over the period of assessment. They correlate significantly with research performance scores from two previous studies using different methodologies: Crewes per capita simple publication count for the years 1978 to 1984, and the Universities Funding Councils research selectivity ratings covering the years 1989 to 1992.

Continuity and Trust in Primary Care: A Qualitative Study Informed by Game Theory

PURPOSE The relationship between continuity of care and patient trust in primary care is not fully understood. We report an empirical investigation, informed by game theory, of patients’ accounts of their trust in general practitioners (GPs). METHODS We conducted an analysis based on the constant comparative method of 20 semistructured interviews with patients about trust in GPs in the United Kingdom. RESULTS People use institutional trust, derived from expectations of medicine as an institution and doctors as professionals, as a starting point for their transactions with unfamiliar doctors. This expectation may be enough to allow patients the minimum of what they want from doctors and is often sufficient for single-episode encounters, where patients have specific goals. Repeated interactions with the same doctor can allow patients to develop more secure expectations, based on a history of other interactions and anticipation of future interactions. Secure trust can develop over time, especially if patients are convinced that the doctor has their interests at heart. CONCLUSIONS This work identifies dynamics inherent in repeated interactions that enable secure trust to develop. These findings have important implications for the design of services, which in the United Kingdom and elsewhere are increasingly focused on enhancing access rather than continuity. They suggest that patients do not see GPs as interchangeable and that the move toward organizing services around single encounters may disrupt the development of secure trust.

Mystery customer research: cognitive processes affecting accuracy

Mystery customer research and factors associated with memory likely to influence its accuracy