ONLINE AND OFFLINE RESOURCES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT PSY494P122 (2015-I) Carlos A. Almenara, PhD. Institute for Research on Children, Youth, and Family (IVMDR), Masaryk University, Brno – Czech Republic COURSE INFORMATION 2 COURSE INFORMATION ¢Classes are 2 academic hours long (45’ each one). —First hour lecture —Second hour: exercises ¢ ¢To access the final exam, it’s needed to attend at least 80% of the seminars (i.e. 10 out of 13 seminars in total). ¢ ¢Participate in classroom. ¢ ¢Read the assigned papers. 3 COURSE INFORMATION ¢EVALUATION: — —40% mandatory assignments — —35% final exam (multichoice answer quiz with 20 questions) — —25% participation during classes — 4 COURSE GOALS — —Give you the necessary skills and knowledge to: ¢efficiently search, ¢critically select, ¢efficiently organize scientific information. — — —Thus, to promote Information Literacy 5 ONLINE RESOURCES 6 ONLINE RESOURCES ¢If you need basic information about a test, I encourage you to use: ¢ —Educational Testing Service (ETS) ¢It’s a FREE database of more than 25,000 tests and other measurement devices. Contains information about tests from the early 1900s to the present, and is considered the largest compilation of such materials in the world. — —http://www.ets.org/test_link/find_tests/ 7 ONLINE RESOURCES ¢If you need bibliography about a test, I encourage you to use: ¢ —Tests and Measures in the Social Sciences ¢ ¢This FREE database contains information on about 14,000 measures available in 140 resources. — —http://libraries.uta.edu/TMdb 8 ONLINE RESOURCES ¢The largest databases on behavioral science and mental health: ¢ —PsycINFO —This database contains over 3 million abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations. — —PsycARTICLES —This database contains over 150 thousand full text articles of peer-reviewed scholarly journals. — —http://search.ebscohost.com/ 9 OFFLINE RESOURCES 10 MENTAL MEASUREMENTS YEARBOOK ¢ ¢ —Provides factual information, critical reviews, and comprehensive bibliographic references on the construction, use, and validity of all tests published in English. 11 MUNI FSS Library, Location: D2-732, Years: 1985-2010 n APA HANDBOOK OF TESTING AND ASSESSMENT IN PSYCHOLOGY ¢ ¢ ¢This 3-volume handbook is a comprehensive presentation of the theory and application of tests in psychology and education. ¢ ¢ ¢Probably the most comprehensive reviews on the use of testing and assessment. 12 MUNI FSS Library (Barcode): 4240767206 n SYSTEMATIC APPROACHES TO A SUCCESSFUL LITERATURE REVIEW ¢ ¢ ¢This book takes you step-by-step through the process of a systematic review. ¢ ¢It includes examples, case studies, and exercises 13 MUNI FSS Library (Barcode): 4240771942 n INFORMATION LITERACY 14 INFORMATION LITERACY ¢ ¢ 15 American Library Aassociation - http://www.ala.org/acrl/files/standards/standards.pdf‎ INFORMATION LITERACY ¢ ¢National governments all around the globe ¢emphasize strong literacy as a ¢more-important-than-ever skill ¢in today’s knowledge-based societies 16 Bawden, D. (2008). Origins and concepts of digital literacy. In C. Lankshear & M. Knobel (Eds.), Digital literacies: Concepts, policies, and practices (pp. 17–32). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing. n SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION 17 SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ¢Science: ¢ — —A method or process of evolving or developing an explanation of a phenomena or idea based on observation, identification, description, and experimental investigation using the best and most currently available information. 18 Collins, J W, O’Briend N P (2011). The Greenwoord dictionary of education (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ¢Information can be conceptualized as: ¢ —Process (i.e. the communication act) — —Knowledge (i.e. increase in understanding) — —Thing (i.e. an object that imparts information) 19 Buckland, M. (1991). Information and information systems. New York: Praeger. EXERCISE 20 SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ¢EXERCISE (SOURCE CREDIBILITY): — —Perform a simple search for psychopharmacology on Google. — — — — — —How many of the results do you consider as “scientific information”? 21 SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION 22 Latto, J., & Latto, R. (2009). Study skills for psychology students. New York, NY: Open University Press. n n SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ¢The most relevant sources of information are: ¢ —Scientific books — —Articles in professional journals (peer-reviewed) — —Standard reference materials (e.g. encyclopedias) — —Research reports, dissertations and monographs — —Presentations at conferences, symposia and workshops 23 Fouché, C. B., & Delport, C. S. L. (2005). In-depth review of literature. In A. S. de Vos, H. Strydom, C. B. Fouché, & C. S. L. Delport (Eds.), Research at grass roots for the social sciences and human service professions (3rd ed., pp. 123–131). Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers. n SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ¢Evaluating source credibility (skepticism): ¢ 1. 1.The reporting scientists and their respective institutions. §Prior research §Reputation within the field §Prominence of the institution 2. 2.The publication or publisher of the reports. §Peer-reviewed publication (extensive review process) 24 Nelson, D. E. (2011). Understanding and reporting the science. In C. F. Parvanta, D. E. Nelson, S. A. Parvanta, & R. N. Harner (Eds.), Essentials of public health communication (pp. 55–73). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. n SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ¢As can be deduced from the previous exercise: ¢ —Scientific information is everywhere (online/offline), but the source must be evaluated. — —Scientific information is indexed in some way (e.g. library catalogues: keywords or internet metadata: tags) — — —Some information is “invisible” for us (not indexed) 25 SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ¢Also deduced from the previous exercise: ¢ — —Pre-requisites to retrieve scientific information: — ¢It’s available in some way (library, bookstore, etc.) ¢ ¢It’s indexed in some way (library’s catalogue, internet, etc.) ¢ — — — — 26 SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ¢Also deduced from the previous exercise: ¢ — —There are barriers to access scientific information: — ¢Language ¢ ¢Cost ¢ ¢Our own skills and knowledge ¢ — — — — 27 READINGS FOR THE NEXT CLASS: (1) Finding a Research Problem (Joyner, Rouse, & Glatthorn, 2013) (2) Hypothesis development [Part 1] (McBride, 2013) (3) Health and biomedical information, Indexing, Research directions (Hersh, 2009)* [optional] 28 ASSIGNMENT: Formulate a research question.