Karl F. Schuessler

Reliability of Attitude Scores Based on a Latent Trait Model

In this paper we present a coefficient for measuring the reliability of scores based on a fitting of a logit model with normal prior to k dichotomous items, and we consider methods of estimating the constituent terms on which that coefficient rests. We organize numerical examples around five topics: (1) the reliability of individual items, (2) reliability and goodness of fit, (3) scale differences in reliability within and between samples, (4) the influence of item slopes on reliability, and (5) variation in sample estimates of the reliability coefficient. We discuss why reliabilities differ within and between samples and present the argument for a random effects model in social research.

Form effect in the measurement of feeling states

This study investigates the relation between the responses given to survey items and the manner in which those items are given. Results are based on responses of a random sample of 1522 American adults to 202 items expressing social life feelings (SLFs). SLF items were selected from a domain of over 1000 such items appearing in over 100 scales used in American sociology during the last 50 years. Three different methods of administration were used: self-administration, interview, and card-sort. Each method was applied to each item about 500 times, and to each respondent approximately 67 times. The analysis consisted of comparing mean scores and missing response rates for items across methods, investigating the characteristics of items subject to form effects, investigating the possibility that form effects were spurious and might disappear after controlling on background of respondent, and investigating the presence of form effects in summary scale scores based on several or more items. Results indicate that for most items, patterns of responding and techniques of testing were statistically independent.

Properties of a Latent Trait Reliability Coefficient

This article takes as its point of departure a coefficient for gauging the reliability of composites based on a fitting of a logit model with normal prior to dichotomous items pertaining to social attitudes (abortion) and/or life feelings (alienation). The effect of item locations on that coefficient relative to that of item slopes is analyzed by means of simulated data. The sampling variation to which that coefficient is subject is investigated by Monte Carlo methods and by sampling theory; procedures for taking that variation into account are presented and illustrated. Discussion includes remarks on the following topics: sample size, sample design, missing responses, number of response categories, time-dependent reliability, group differences in reliability, random versus fixed effects.

Quantitative Methodology in Sociology: The Last 25 Years

The object of this article is to give some inkling of recent work on quantitative methods in American sociology. The article is more of a sociological argument than a neutral survey of the literature, however. The argument is that recent work consists largely (but of course not solely) of adapting methods developed elsewhere-in statistics, demography, economics, engineering-for answering relatively simple questions about social change (or permanence) that reflect practical concerns no less than theoretical ones. That the focus of much work