Solving the Interpretation Versus Misspecification Dilemma in Psychological, Social, and Behavioral Measurements

该项目旨在解决对心理和社会测量感兴趣的研究人员经常遇到的困境。 它可以被描述为这样一种情况，在这种情况下，研究人员必须在一个更复杂的测量模型和一个更简单的模型之间进行选择，前者更难解释，而后者如果不进行调整，可能会出现错误。 为了解决这一问题，该项目将研究使用简单和可解释的模型的方法，这些模型是对现实的足够好的近似，然后对简单模型与经验数据的潜在偏差进行统计调整。 具体来说，研究集中在当代测量模型的一个分支（即，项目响应模型）来说明这种方法。 本研究将研究实现这种方法的两种方法。 第一种方法将模型与数据的偏差视为干扰因素。 该方法将被应用于解决一个困境，在计算机自适应测试测量自我感知的身体功能在老年人群。 第二种方法，它提供了实质性的模型，从数据的简单模型的偏差，将被应用到其他两个社会和行为的测量情况。 该项目将提供灵活和有意义的分析工具，社会科学家面临的解释与错误的问题。该项目还通过增加研究人员在测量教育成就，心理健康，生活质量和社会信仰等重要领域的心理结构方面的灵活性，产生了潜在的重大影响。 该项目的结果将适用于广泛的心理和社会测量的情况下，其中的错误指定与解释的困境是普遍存在的。 我们的社会越来越强调了解和衡量个人需求的必要性，无论是社会需求、经济需求还是与健康相关的需求，并提供定制的解决方案。 为这一困境提供解决方案将有助于研究人员在各种社会和心理领域建立可解释和准确的指标。 最后，该项目还将通过提供用于执行测量的公开软件工具来改善社会和行为科学的研究基础设施。

The project aims to solve a dilemma that researchers interested in psychological and social measurements often encounter. It can be described as a situation in which a researcher has to choose between a more complex measurement model that is less interpretable and a simpler model that, without adaptation, may suffer from misspecification. To provide solutions to this problem, the project will study the approach of using simple and interpretable models that are sufficiently good approximations of reality, and then perform statistical adjustments for the potential deviations of the simple models from empirical data. Specifically, the research focuses on a branch of contemporary measurement models (i.e., item response models) to illustrate such an approach. The research will study two methods that implement this approach. The first method treats the deviation of the model from data as a nuisance factor. This method will be applied to solve a dilemma in computerized adaptive testing for measuring self-perceived physical functioning in elderly populations. The second method, which provides substantive models for the deviation of simpler models from the data, will be applied to two other social and behavioral measurement situations. The project will deliver flexible and meaningful analytic tools for social scientists facing the interpretation-versus-misspecification problem. The project also has potentially significant broader impacts through increasing the flexibility of researchers in measuring psychological constructs in important domains such as educational achievement, psychological well being, quality of life, and social beliefs. The results of the project will be applicable to a wide range of psychological and social measurement situations in which the misspecification-versus-interpretation dilemma is prevalent. Our society is increasingly emphasizing the need to understand and measure individual needs, whether they are social, economical, or health-related, and to provide customized solutions. Providing solutions for this dilemma will help researchers to establish interpretable and accurate metrics in various social and psychological domains. Finally, the project also will improve research infrastructure for the social and behavioral sciences by offering publicly available software tools for performing measurements.