Friday, 13 January 2006: 8:00 AM-9:45 AM
An Introduction to Item Response Theory and Its Use in Social Work Research
Speaker/Presenter:William R. Nugent, PhD, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Abstract Text:
Item Response Theory (IRT) is a powerful extension of classical measurement theory. Item Response Theory builds upon classical theory by adding a set of strong assumptions to those made in classical theory. If these assumptions are met, IRT enables the researcher to develop and evaluate measurement tools for use by practitioners that cannot be developed within a classical framework. For example, IRT can be used to evaluate the extent to which scores from an instrument must be differentially interpreted for persons from different groups, such as males and females. Thus, IRT can be used to develop measurement tools that are critical for culturally sensitive assessment. For this reason IRT holds great promise for Social Work researchers and practitioners. This three-hour workshop will introduce participants to the fundamentals of IRT, and to the use of the IRT program MULTILOG, within the context of an illustrative scale development, making the IRT basics easier to grasp. Basic concepts such as the item response curve, the theta metric, the test characteristic curve, and item and test information functions will be discussed and illustrated. These concepts will be introduced and exemplified within the framework of development of an ultra-short form measure of suicidal ideation. Throughout the workshop IRT concepts will be compared and contrasted with principal concepts from classical theory, such as reliability. The emphasis in this portion of the workshop will be to inculcate in participants a conceptual understanding of these fundamental IRT concepts, how they differ from Classical Theory tenets; and most importantly to illustrate how participants can use these IRT concepts in the practical application of the development of the short-form suicidal thinking measure. Participants will also be introduced into the use of the program MULTILOG by way of an illustrative use of the program for analyses important to the development of the short-form measure of suicidal ideation. Participants will also be introduced to important applications of IRT, including applications to adaptive testing, test equating, differential item functioning and the development of culturally sensitive measures, and the development of instruments designed for highly specific research and practice purposes. Participants in this workshop can expect to leave with a basic grasp of fundamental IRT concepts; an understanding of how IRT can be used in the process of scale development; an understanding of how IRT can be used in the development of culturally sensitive measures; an understanding of how IRT can be used for advanced research in measurement, such as its use in detecting biased items and measures; and a beginning ability to use MULTILOG to do IRT analyses.

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