Title: Beyond psychometrics: Comprehensive construct validation on the ground using examples from motivation and character skills assessments

Speaker: Dr. Sneha Shankar (Psychology, McGill)

Time: 2:00 – 3:00 pm, Feb 19 (W)

Place: 2001 McGill College, Room 464

Abstract: Measuring and validating unobservable constructs is a common task in psychology. Although psychometric measurement models can be applied to examine factor structure and item characteristics, these models do not wholly determine the validity of the construct. This talk presents work from systematic reviews of validation practices for motivation and goal measures, with discussion about what it means to have a valid measure. In the second part of my talk I will relate this validity process to evaluating a character skills assessment used for admission in thousands of students around the world. Moving from modelling to application I present numerous considerations in validation research, including issues of fairness and accuracy that are needed to establish that a scale effectively measures what is intended.

Dr. Sneha Shankar is a post-doctoral researcher in Dr. Jessica Flake’s lab.

McGill Quant Psych Brownbag: https://www.mcgill.ca/psychology/events-colloquia-0/brownbag-series