Robert D. Ankenmann

The relationship of workaholism with work-life conflict, life satisfaction, and purpose in life

This study examined the differences between 2 types of workaholics (enthusiastic and nonenthusiastic workaholics) and nonworkaholic workers (work enthusiasts, relaxed workers, unengaged workers, and disenchanted workers) with respect to work-life conflict, life satisfaction, and purpose in life in a sample of 171 salaried employees of a high technology organization. Results differed for the 2 types of workaholics, supporting the importance of continued differentiation of workaholic types. Nonenthusiastic workaholics were found to have significantly more work-life conflict and significantly less life satisfaction and purpose in life than 3 of the 4 types of nonworkaholics. Enthusiastic workaholics were found to have significantly more life satisfaction and purpose in life than nonenthusiastic workaholics and significantly more work-life conflict than 3 of the 4 nonworkaholics. Implications for career planning and counseling are discussed.

A Comparison of Item Selection Rules at the Early Stages of Computerized Adaptive Testing

The effects of five item selection rules—Fisher information (FI), Fisher interval information (FII), Fisher information with a posterior distribution (FIP), Kullback-Leibler information (KL), and Kullback-Leibler information with a posterior distribution (KLP)—were compared with respect to the efficiency and precision of trait (Θ) estimation at the early stages of computerized adaptive testing (CAT). FII, FIP, KL, and KLP performed marginally better than FI at the early stages of CAT for Θ= -3 and -2. For tests longer than 10 items,there appeared to be no precision advantage for any of the selection rules.

Comparison of Dichotomous and Polytomous Item Response Models in Equating Scores from Tests Composed of Testlets

The performance of two polytomous item response theory models was compared to that of the dichotomous three-parameter logistic model in the context of equating tests composed of testlets. For the polytomous models, testlet scores were used to eliminate the effect of the dependence among within-testlet items. Traditional equating methods were used as criteria for both. The equating methods based on polytomous models were found to produce results that more closely agreed with the results of traditional methods.

Appropriate Sample Size for Comparing Alpha Reliabilities

In many measurement settings, it might be appropriate to test the significance of the difference between the internal consistency reliability coefficients of two competing measurement procedures. Determination of an adequate sample size is a crucial factor in the design of such studies. A graphical method was developed for determining sample size based on the power of Feldts (1969) test of the difference between two values of Cronbachs alpha (a) coefficient. Implementation of this approach presumes that the researcher can specify a desired power for the statistical test against a particular alternative to the null hypothesis.

Alternative Matching Scores to Control Type I Error of the Mantel–Haenszel Procedure for DIF in Dichotomously Scored Items Conforming to 3PL IRT and Nonparametric 4PBCB Models:

When the matching score is either less than perfectly reliable or not a sufficient statistic for determining latent proficiency in data conforming to item response theory (IRT) models, Type I error (TIE) inflation may occur for the Mantel—Haenszel (MH) procedure or any differential item functioning (DIF) procedure that matches on summed-item score, but primarily on short tests. Alternative matching scores were developed based on sufficient statistics, reliability, and explicit corrections for measurement error. Manipulated factors were tests (20, 24, 26 items), reference/focal sample sizes (1,000/1,000, 800/200), proficiency distributions (identical, means differed, variances differed, means and variances differed), and simulation technique (three-parameter logistic IRT model and four-parameter beta compound-binomial model with nonparametric nonmonotonic item-true score step functions). Outcomes were as follows: TIE of MH chi-square test at the .05 nominal level; and the bias, standard error, and root mean square error of the MH delta-DIF statistic under null-DIF conditions. Of eight categorized alternative matching scores, four scores controlled TIE as well as or better than traditional summed-item score in almost all items for all conditions: (a) estimated latent proficiency from a 3PL IRT model, (b) the sum of weighted item scores where the weight was the item— total score biserial correlation coefficient excluding the item from total score, (c) the sum of weighted item scores where the weight was the item loading on the single common factor from factor analysis of tetrachoric correlation coefficients, and (d) Kelley’s linear regressed true score estimate.