PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT

Psychological Measurement

Psychological Measurement

Introduction

Health researchers have long moved past looking at mortality as the only health-related measure to examine a range of outcomes including morbidity, disability, quality of life, and psychological well-being (PWB). Mental health research has often focused on negative health—for example on depression and anxiety. However, there is an increasing desire to examine positive as well as negative aspects of mental health. Much of this research has drawn from the rich well of psychological literature on well-being.

Questionnaires

1. Is the picture of a boy or a girl?

Boy Girl

2. Show me in the picture what tells you it is a.. boy/girl. Boy Girl

3. Which words go with the picture?

Shy         Weak         Quiet        Boring         Pretty

Clever     Smelly       Scared      Strong Brave

Gentle     Giggly         Nice        Smart Fun

Sporty      Fast         Bossy Loud Silly

4. Indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: Overall, I am satisfied with my medical fitness. (Select one):

Strongly agree Disagree ---

Agree Strongly disagree ---

Neither agree nor disagree ---

5. Indicate whether you agree or disagree with the following statement: I am confident that I have acquired the skills required to live a happy life. (Select one):

Strongly agree Disagree ---

Agree Strongly disagree ---

Neither agree nor disagree ---

6. Would you say you are:

(7) Very Attractive

(6)

(5)

(4)

(3)

(2)

Very Unattractive

7. Which of the following categories best describes your last experience of job? Would you say that your experience was:

Very pleasant

Somewhat pleasant

Neither pleasant nor unpleasant

Somewhat unpleasant

Very unpleasant

8. How satisfied are you with your behavior?

Very satisfied

Somewhat satisfied

Neutral

Somewhat dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

9. How satisfied are you with memorization?

Very satisfied

Somewhat satisfied

Neutral

Somewhat dissatisfied

Very dissatisfied

10. How you spent your leisure time?



Surfing the web

Friend/colleague

Sports Activity

Listen Music

Reading

11. How often do you visit your relatives?

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Quarterly

Annually

12. How likely are you to spend your vacation on a hill side?

Very likely

Somewhat likely

Neutral

Somewhat unlikely

Very unlikely

13. On the basis of your physical fitness, how comfortable are you with your business or job?

Very comfortable

Somewhat comfortable

Neutral

Somewhat comfortable

Very comfortable

14. I loose my temper at least once a day

Agree Strongly Agree Strongly disagree Disagree

Conceptualizing a multidimensional model of well-being

Carol Ryff has argued in several publications that previous perspectives on operationalizing well-being are atheoretical and decentralized (Ryff, 1989a and Ryff, 1989b). To address this shortcoming, she developed a new measure of psychological well-being that consolidated previous conceptualizations of eudaimonic well-being into a more parsimonious summary.

In defense, the authors note that these two concepts have different age profiles, thus indicating that they may be distinct at different stages of the life course. However, that life-course interpretation was not actually tested because the age variation occurred in a cross-sectional sample, not in repeated observations. Ryff and Keyes' (1995) estimates of correlations among the six latent dimensions of RPWB are reproduced in Table 1.

Table 1.

Correlations among latent constructs in a 3-indicator, 6-factor model for a nationally representative sample over 25 years old. Ryff and Keyes (1995)

aut

env

grow

relat

purp

acc

aut

1.00

env

0.59

1.00

grow

0.51

0.56

1.00

relat

0.24

0.65

0.31

1.00

purp

0.39

0.38

0.64

0.30

1.00

acc

0.53

0.85

0.53

0.65

0.55

1.00

Note. n = 928, aut, autonomy; env, environmental mastery; grow, personal growth; relat, positive relations; purp, purpose in life; acc, self-acceptance.

To test the validity of our results and examine possible confounders, we employ ...