Psychometric Instruments

Psychometric Instruments

The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS)

Psychologists employ a variety of psychometric instruments to accumulate treatment data on patients and study participants to gather research data. For example, in psychological studies, surveys, interview questions and questionnaires are used. Alternatively, psychologists also use naturalistic observation when doing research. Naturalistic observation refers to simply observing the behaviour of subjects without any intervention. However, naturalistic observation may cause the Hawthorne effect, or that people behave differently when being watched, and especially when cognizant of being part of a scientific experiment.

Naturalistic observation aims to remain nonintrusive. Image: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Growing up one often hears how important it is to be self-confident and to believe in oneself to succeed. One such psychometric instrument is the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES). The GSES was developed by Matthias Jerusalem and Ralf Schwarzer in 1981 and consists of a questionnaire assessing optimism and personal agency. Personal agency refers to one’s belief in one’s ability and competency in bringing about successful results. The concept is somewhat similar to internal locus of control, which in turn correlates with greater motivation. Currently, the scale is available in thirty-three languages.

Experiments have dependent and independent variables. Image: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Another psychometric measure used to operationalize personal efficacy is the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). Indeed, coping with life’s hassles and challenges is often discussed in the realm of mental illness. For example, in inpatient psychiatric care units, group therapy often includes learning critical life coping skills, such as time and budget management, social skills and other valuable strategies to overcome mental illness and related struggles. Thus, the CISS is a questionnaire scoring 48 items on a 5-point scale. Three basic coping styles are evaluated, including task, emotion and avoidance oriented coping. The results help mental health professionals, or researchers in the case of psychological research, to better understand individuals’ preferred coping styles as they relate to their personalities. In the psychiatric setting, the results may be important in choice of treatment.