Joshua A. Fishman - Introduction to Test Construction in the Social and Behavioral Sciences : a Practical Guide.

Basant, K. P. (1996). Statistics in practice: An illustrated guide to SPSS. London: Arnold; Pallant, J. (2001). SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using SPSS for Windows (version 10). Buckingham: Open University Press. These are two books particularly useful as resources for students who are not familiar with SPSS. Both books are well organized and present material using accessible yet detailed descriptions and explanations.

Cronbach, L. J. (1990). Essentials of psychological testing (5th ed.). New York: HarperCollins. Though this classic text is unfortunately out of print, the reader may wish to invest the effort in obtaining a copy. We find Lee Cronbachs discussion of evaluating a tests criterion validity especially useful and eloquent. Needless to say, chapter 6 is obligatory reading for readers interested in learning more about the Cronbach alpha as a measure of test reliability.

Dawes, R. M., & Smith, T. L. (1985). Attitude and opinion measurement, in G. Lindzey and E. Aronson (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (3rd ed., vol. 1, pp. 509-566). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. This is a new version of an influential article on attitude research that discusses attitude theory and a number of methodological considerations in attitude research.

Lewis-Beck, M. S. (1980). Applied regression: An introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. This handy (and short) book provides one of the more accessible explanations on regression that we have come across. The intended audience is similar to that of our book: beginning social researchers, with limited quantitative expertise, who are interested in using regression and related forms of quantitative analyses.

Patten, M. L. (2000). Understanding research methods (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Pyrczak. In Part D: Measurement, Mildred Patten does a fine job of explaining validity in its various forms. She also discusses the relationship between validity and reliability and ways to evaluate both. Readers may find the rest of her book a useful overview to research methods, particularly for those readers interested in a basic, yet accessible introduction.

Peterson, R. A. (1999). Constructing effective questionnaires. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. This book presents a more technical approach to instrument construction than the one we describe in this book, focusing specifically on questionnaires. However, for the reader who is ready to move on to greater levels of expertise, Petersons volume may provide a useful next step. The text includes chapters on open- and closed-ended questions and on rating scales, as well as on questionnaire structure and evaluation.

Robinson, J. P., Shaver, P. R., & Wrightsman, L. S. (Eds.). (1991). Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes. New York: Academic Press. This book contains an extensive and technical literature on scaling (beyond Likert, Thurstone, and Guttman), which might interest the mathematically advanced reader. The text focuses on attitude scales, some of which have benefited from considerable test construction research.

Schuman, H., & Presser, S. (1996). Questions and answers in attitude surveys. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Krebs, D., & Schmidt, P. (Eds.). (1993). New directions in attitude measurement. Berlin: de Gruyter. These two books comprise yet another presentation on scales that is accessible to readers with some basic understanding of tests and test construction.

Stapleton, C. D. (1997). Basic concepts in exploratory factor analysis (EFA) as a tool to evaluate score validity: A right-brained approach. Available: ericae.net/ft/tamu/Efa.HTM (current as of 8/1/02). This paper presents one of the most accessible presentations of factor analysis, both exploratory and confirmatory, as pertaining to tests for research purposes and validity. Though we disagree with Stapletons position on the use of exploratory factor analysis for the evaluation of construct and criterial validity, we still think that readers may find her essay useful.