Bruno D. Zumbo - Böcker

The knowledge base in the domains of quality of life, well-being, and subjective well-being is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. In light of this growth, and the interest it reflects on the part of scholars, practitioners, and policy makers internationally, this book will play an important role in bringing scholars and students up to date on diverse topics and promoting and encouraging research in the field of quality-of-life (QOL) studies. Quality of life studies is an area broadly constructed to involve all of the social and health sciences. These papers reflect a diversity of disciplinary and methodological perspectives, it contains material on: the monitoring, assessing, and modelling of quality of life; matters of policy, finance, marketing, and business; and papers devoted to the determinants and correlates of well-being and quality of life.

Noted for addressing both the "hows" and "whys" of item response theory (IRT), this text has been revised and updated with the latest techniques (multilevel models, mixed models, and more) and software packages. Simple to more complex models are covered in consistently formatted chapters that build sequentially. The book takes the reader from model development through the fit analysis and interpretation phases that would be performed in practice. To facilitate understanding, common data sets are used across chapters, with the examples worked through for increasingly complex models. Exemplary model applications include free (BIGSTEPS, NOHARM, Facets, R packages) and commercial (BILOG-MG, flexMIRT, SAS, WINMIRA, SPSS, SYSTAT) software packages. The companion website provides data files and online-only appendices.New to This Edition*Chapter on multilevel models.*New material on loglinear models, mixed models, the linear logistic trait model, and fit statistics.*Many additional worked-through examples.*Updated guidance on software; now includes R, SAS, and flexMIRT.

This book combines an overview of validity theory, trends in validation practices and a review of standards and guidelines in several international jurisdictions with research synthesis of the validity evidence in different research areas.

This book combines an overview of validity theory, trends in validation practices and a review of standards and guidelines in several international jurisdictions with research synthesis of the validity evidence in different research areas. An overview of theory is both useful and timely, in view of the increased use of tests and measures for decision-making, ranking and policy purposes in large-scale testing, assessment and social indicators and quality of life research. Research synthesis is needed to help us assemble, critically appraise and integrate the overwhelming volume of research on validity in different contexts. Rather than examining whether any given measure is “valid”, the focus is on a critical appraisal of the kinds of validity evidence reported in the published research literature. The five sources of validity evidence discussed are: content-related, response processes, internal structure, associations with other variables and consequences. The 15 syntheses includedhere, represent a broad sampling of psychosocial, health, medical and educational research settings, giving us an extensive evidential basis to build upon earlier studies. The book concludes with a meta-synthesis of the 15 syntheses and a discussion of the current thinking of validation practices by leading experts in the field.

This volume addresses an urgent need across multiple disciplines to broaden our understanding and use of response processes evidence of test validity.

This volume addresses an urgent need across multiple disciplines to broaden our understanding and use of response processes evidence of test validity.