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两难境地。它可以被描述为一种情况，在这种情况下，研究人员必须在较复杂的、较难解释的测量模型和较简单的模型之间做出选择，如果没有适应，可能会受到错误说明的影响。为解决这一问题，该项目将研究如何使用足够接近实际情况的简单和可解释的模型，然后对简单模型与经验数据的潜在偏差进行统计调整。具体地说，本研究侧重于当代测量模型的一个分支(即项目反应模型)来说明这一方法。本研究将研究实现这一方法的两种方法。第一种方法将模型与数据的偏差视为干扰因素。这种方法将被应用于解决计算机化的适应性测试在测量老年人自我感知的身体功能方面的两难境地。第二种方法为更简单的模型与数据的偏差提供了实质性的模型，它将应用于另外两种社会和行为测量情况。该项目将为面临解释与错误说明问题的社会科学家提供灵活而有意义的分析工具。该项目还通过增加研究人员在教育成就、心理健康、生活质量和社会信仰等重要领域衡量心理结构的灵活性，潜在地产生了重大的更广泛的影响。该项目的结果将适用于广泛的心理和社会测量情况，在这些情况下，错误说明与解释的两难境地很普遍。我们的社会越来越强调需要了解和衡量个人需求，无论这些需求是与社会、经济还是与健康相关的，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不同的社会和心理领域建立可解释和准确的测量标准。最后，该项目还将通过提供公开可用的软件工具来进行测量，从而改善社会科学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.