Definition of Self Esteem Discussion

Discussion Assignment 1 Discussion Assignment 1  Module 17 has the background information for this assignment.  This module includes instructions for the assignment Assignment 1: (OVERVIEW)  Develop a 10-item measure of self-esteem (closed-ended questions)  Target Audience → college students like yourselves studying in USA  DO NOT DO A LITERATURE SEARCH, Module 17 provides the background knowledge.  DO NOT LOOK UP DEFINITIONS of self-esteem.  NO INTERNET searches PLEASE! Steps for designing your SELF-ESTEEM questionnaire  1. define construct – your operational definition of self-esteem  2. spend time thinking about the rationale for the structure and content of your selfesteem questionnaire.  3. write instructions and create 10 items with response choices (a minimum of 4 response choices, no more than 7 response choices)  Step 1:  define self-esteem in your own words, there are not right or wrong answers – this is your definition. Your definition should be 1 sentence or up to 2 sentences. A clear definition will help you create a questionnaire that addresses that definition of self-esteem. Simple, concise definitions are good. A more complex but concise definition is also fine. Recall the two definitions of optimism from Module 17 this week. One definition was relatively simple and short, and the other definition was relatively longer. Both definitions are good. Your definition guides you as you create items of your questionnaire. This is an important first step to developing any questionnaire. Step 2        2. spend time thinking about the rationale for the structure and content of your self-esteem questionnaire. Look at Module 17. Module 17 has all the information that is needed for this assignment. Will you include explicit or subtle items or some combination? Why or why not? Will you include neutral response option (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree)? Why or why not? Will you include filler items or reverse-scored items? Why or why not? As you think about your target audience of participants (college students in the U.S. who are completing your measure), are you aiming to measure general self-esteem or self-esteem in different domains… academics, family relationships, friendships, romantic relationships, appearance etc. Why or why not? It is not necessary to have reverse-scored and filler items. Think about what works for your definition of self-esteem. Step 3  3. write simple instructions for your questionnaire (e.g., circle the answer that best fits your opinion) and create 10 items with response choices (a minimum of 4 response choices, no more than 7 response choices)      Here are some sample response choice options: 1. not at all, 2. a little, 3, some, 4. a lot 1. strongly disagree, 2. disagree, 3. agree, 4 strongly disagree 1. not at all, 2. a little, 3, some, 4. a lot, 5. completely 1. very strongly disagree, 2. strongly disagree, 3. disagree, 4. agree, 5, strongly agree, 6 very strongly agree What you turning in for this assignment. One page  Name  Concise 1-2 sentence definition of self-esteem (1.5 points)    Instructions (0.5 point) 10 items of your self-esteem questionnaire (1 point each for item). Next to the item, you can you write if it’s reversescored or filler, although reverse-scored and filler items are not necessary. As noted in Module 17, there are some downsides to reverse-scored and filler items.  Name  Definition of self esteem:…..  Instructions:……  1. xxxx  Insert response choices….  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Reminder      Please do not use the internet to look up pre-existing measures of self-esteem or definitions. Resources for this assignment are Module 17. Grades are based on providing your own definition of selfesteem and creating a questionnaire based on your own definition. Simple, short items of the measure may fit your definition. Look back on Module 17, the optimism measure did not have long complicated items. Create items that fit your definition. In past semesters, students report that they enjoy this assignment, and students tend to receive high grades on this assignment. Where are you turning this in?  On Blackboard, in the Assignment folder. When is it due?  March 13 Send Questions about Discussion Assignment 1 to: Please send any questions about this assignment to Clare using Blackboard’s email tool.  If Blackboard’s email tool is not functioning, then you can email Clare at: Clare.Beatty@stonybrook.edu and use PSY382 in the subject line to be sure that your email will be read.   • Attitude and Questionnaire Measures Copyright Sheri Levy Outline Definition of Attitudes Gordon Allport’s (Historical) Attitude Measurement Behavioral Indicators Head Movement The lost letter technique Scaling • Bogardus’s Social Distance Scale • Likert’s Method of Summated Ratings • Osgood’s Semantic Differential • One Item Scales Gordon Allport (1935) Attitude is: mental or neural state of readiness, organized through experience, directly influencing one’s response to all related objects and situations. The relations between Actions and Attitudes We can Measure attitudes by recording subtle behavioral and physiological indicators. Advantage of measuring actions: it does not require self reports (reporting about the self, such as filling out a questionnaire) that are under the control of the respondent and that may have biases. Let’s talk a look at an action that might indicate one’s attitudes Head movement: when people listen to messages they agree with, they tend to move their heads vertically (nod) more than horizontally (shake). Let’s talk a look at a study that aims to test whether head movements influences attitudes Head Movement Brinol & Petty (2003) This study has a Cover story: Why do we have Cover stories??? In social psychology we often have cover stories because revealing what the actual goal of the study is to participants would undermine the study; A cover story provides cover for the true purpose of the study. A cover story should fit what participants are doing and serves to distract participants from uncovering the real purposes of the study. It is a form of deception and thus we need to debrief participants at end of study about the true goals of the study. Head Movement Brinol & Petty (2003) Cover story: This study iss about Testing The effectiveness of headphones and so you are asked to (shake head or nod head to see if the headphones are good) Head Movement Brinol & Petty (2003) In actuality, College student participants in the study were randomly assigned to shake their heads side to side or nod their heads up and down while wearing the headphones. This is an example of an experiment. Head Movement While participants were nodding head or shaking head, Participants listened to a persuasive message about students being required to carry personal identification cards as part of a proposed new university security system. Remember this study is from many years ago, and back then, students were not required to carry id cards. Head Movement Results Participants randomly assigned to nod their heads up and down agreed more with the message than those who were assigned to shake their heads side to side. Implications of study Head movements seem to be related to attitudes. • Take note: do you nod (shake) your head when you agree (disagree) with something you are reading or hearing The Lost Letter Technique Stanley Milgram (well-known social psychologist for more than obedience studies) Let’s talk a look at another kind of action that might indicate one’s attitudes. What if you saw a stamped and addressed envelope sitting near a mail box Would you assume the letter fell out or was dropped by accident? Would you look at the letter? What you put it in the mailbox so it got mailed? Do you think people’s decisions to mail a “lost” letter would depend on who letter was addressed to or the return address? The Lost Letter Technique Is considered an indirect attitude measure Stanley Milgram and colleagues tested whether people would mail the letters and if mailing rates depended on who the letter was addressed to. The Lost Letter Technique An indirect attitude measure Milgram, Mann, and Harter (1965) ‘planted’ stamped, addressed envelopes in public places – appeared ‘lost’ Letters were addressed to organizations, ex: UNICEF or Nazi groups. The Lost Letter Technique Milgram wanted to determine the relationship between mailing rates (percentage of people who mailed the letters) and organizations the envelopes were addressed to. The Lost Letter Technique According to Milgram, the number of letters received for each organization reflected general attitude of population towards that organization. • Higher mailing rate meant more favorable attitude. • This is only an aggregate attitude measure, but especially useful in environments where attitudes may be suppressed or there is social desirability. According to Milgram et al., # letters received for each organization reflected general attitude of population towards that organization. • Higher mailing rate meant more favorable attitude. As can be seen in the table, results fit Milgram’s hypotheses. • Let’s take a look at more recent study of the lost letter technique. How effective is it? Think of the strengths and weaknesses of this technique for measuring attitudes of a community. The Lost Letter Technique Petrykowski and colleagues, 2010: •Following the September 11th terrorist attacks, there was a concern that some Americans held discriminatory attitudes toward Arab Americans •Manifestations of prejudice through discriminatory behaviors may be passive, and therefore not easy to observe and people may not be willing to report on selfreport measures such as questionnaires. •Hypothesis: U.S. community members would be less likely to put a “lost letter” (application to an honor society) in the mail if the return address appears to be an Arab name compared to appearing to be a stereotypical American names. The Lost Letter Technique • 200 forms and envelopes, split evenly between Arabic and American names, were distributed and left in the community. • The forms were left in well-populated, primarily commercial, locations in the southeast of the United States. • The envelopes were open with the application forms protruding from the envelope and the applicant’s name and country of origin were prominently displayed. The Lost Letter Technique Results • Counter to the hypothesis, letters with return addresses containing Arab names were more likely to be returned than letters with stereotypical American names. The Lost Letter Technique Implications • This community didn’t seem to have the discriminatory attitudes that the researchers expected. Limitations of the study The lost letter technique by definition has a lack of control over the processes that mediate the return rate Still this lost letter technique CAN BE USEFUL, UNOBTRUSIVE MEASURE in some circumstance We reviewed unobtrustive measures of attitudes. What about self-report Measures? Self-Report: Review Scales focus on a continuum. Goal: determine where on the continuum the attitudes of individuals fall. Bogardus’s Social Distance Scale (1920s): •Attitudes towards members of social or ethnic groups. •Based on assumption that one’s liking for a group is reflected in the social distance that one finds acceptable in relationships with members of the group. Bogardus’s Social Distance 1. 2. 3. 4. Would exclude from my country. Would accept as visitor only to my country. Would accept to citizenship to my country. Would accept for employment in my occupation in my country. 5. Would accept to my street as neighbors. 6. Would accept to my club as personal chums. 7. Would accept close kinship by marriage. Respondent’s score is the closest distance at which they find the relationship with members of the target group acceptable. (recall this scale was first used 100 years ago) Likert scale (a very common scale to measure attitudes; here is an example of a questionnaire measuring liking of cats) 1. I like cats. • Not at all • 1 a little 2 some 3 very 4 completely 5 very 4 completely 5 2. I like to pet kittens. • Not at all • 1 a little 2 some 3 3. I hate cats** • Not at all • 1 a little 2 some 3 very 4 completely 5 ** this would be a reverse-scored item in a questionnaire if the questionnaire is intended to measure liking of cats. Reversescored in the sense that higher numbers on the response scale refer to less agreement with liking cats. Reverse-score in that scores have to be reversed in the calculation of each respondent’s liking of cats – a 5 = 1, 4 = 2 and so on. Likert’s Method of Summated Ratings: •Respondents indicate the extent to which they agree or disagree with a statement. •Usually 5 response options: not at all to completely or strongly disagree TO strongly agree. •A respondent’s score is the sum of responses to all items of the questionnaire (except for reverse-coded items). … Semantic Differential (bi-polar) Participants are asked to express their attitude by selecting a position on a scale between two bipolar adjectives (opposites). • Rarely contains a neutral point along the scale, because participants are asked to choose between two opposite adjectives: Questionnaires Most questionnaires have more than one item. This is because more items give participants more opportunities to share their opinion/attitudes. Generally speaking, questionnaires with more than one item are more reliable (replicable) measures of an attitudes. Many items reduce the chances that the attitude score is due to error.in responding to a single item. Scales: One-Item Scale Although there are good psychometric reasons (reliability) for using several items to measure an attitude, a single item questionnaire is sometimes appropriate. Scales: One-Item Scale An example of a popular one-item measure: thermometer measure How do you feel toward x? How much do you like cats on a scale of 0 to 100? Scales: One-Item Scale Advantage: One-item scales avoid redundancy. If we are measuring a simple attitude, it might be difficult to have more than one item. For example, how many different ways can we ask if someone likes chocolate milk. It might be best to have one item, “how much do you like chocolate milk” Scales: One-Item Scale Example of another popular one-item measure Scales: One-Item Scale This is a measure of relationship closeness. How close does someone (SELF) feel toward a partner (OTHER) Scales: One-Item Scale If someone doesn’t feel close, and feels separate and not much in common then choose this. Scales: One-Item Scale If someone feels very close, and feels a lot in common then choose this. Scales: One-Item Scale Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992: • This One-item measure is called Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale Scales: One-Item Scale Gächter, Starmer, & Tufano, 2015: •Does the one-item Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) Scale adequately measure relationship closeness? •Participants: 772 diverse adults recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk •Procedure: Completed established multiitem scales of relationship closeness and the IOS one-item measure. Results: IOS scale correlated significantly with established scales with multiple items: Relationship Closeness Inventory, Social Closeness Index, “We Scale” (Studies 1, 2, 3) Liking and Loving Scales and the Personal Acquaintance Measure (Study 3) Concluded “IOS Scale is not only extremely easy to use but it is also highly replicable and psychologically meaningful from various perspectives of relationship closeness” Let’s imagine we want to design our own questionnaire • STEPS • 1. define construct – operational definition • 2. think about a rationale for the structure and content of the questionnaire. • 3. develop items that fit our operational defintion Operational definition of construct • Define the construct in several sentences • Consider : what are closely related constructs – how does your construct differ from those other constructs • Let’s imagine our construct is OPTIMISM Think of some Definitions of Optimism Definitions from literature (relatively simple concise definition) • “Optimists are people who expect good things to happen to them; pessimists are people who expect bad things to happen to them” Carver et al. 2011 Definitions from literature (slightly more complex definition) • “ “ Individuals with an optimistic life orientation tend to have positive expectations for the future, to see desired outcomes as attainable and to persist in their goal-directed efforts. Those with a pessimistic life orientation have negative outcome expectations, withdraw effort and become passive, and potentially give up on achieving their goals” • (Heinonen et al., 2005). Relevant constructs: convergent and divergent validity • To help us define a construct, we consider similar and different constructs Relevant constructs to OPTIMISM : convergent validity: • Anxiety • Neuroticism • Self-esteem • Convergent validity – validity that tests that variables expected to converge, do correlate – show a correspondence or convergence between similar constructs • For example, we would expect higher optimism to be related to (1) lower neuroticism (2) lower anxiety and (3) higher self-esteem Let’s focus on this definition • “Optimists are people who expect good things to happen to them; pessimists are people who expect bad things to happen to them” Carver et al. 2011 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • With that definition in mind, what would be an appropriate closed-ended way to measure that construct? (in contrast, open-ended refers to fill in the blank such as describe in a few sentences how optimistic you are _________) Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • Should the questions be subtle (e.g., “When your semester grades are all As, how do you feel?) or explicit or face valid (e.g., “Are you optimistic?”)? Face validity refers to extent to which a questionnaire appears to measure what it is intended to measure (explicit measures have high face validity) Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • Scenarios with several response choices? • You are in a café thinking about your friends, your family, college, and life in general. A stranger asks “how are you?” • • • • 1. you say “I’m very happy” 2. you say “I’m happy” 3. you say “I don’t feel happy or sad” 4. you say “I’m sad” Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • Forced Choice Question refers to be forced to choose between two extremes such as yes/no or true/false? • Are you happy on most days? • Yes No • I am happy most days. • True False Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • Statement with agree/disagree scale (Likert)– sometimes, we label (“not at all”) all response choices such as here • I am happy. • Not at all a little some very • Sometimes 1 2 3 4 we label only the extremes (1) and (5) Not at all 1 a little some very completely 5 completely 5 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • How many items in your measure? • Internal reliability (which is a good property of a questionnaire) tends to increase as the number of items in the measure increases. Internal reliability increases because we are not relying on one item or two items to gauge participants’ attitudes. However, longer questionnaires are repetitive boring for participants. Internal reliability • Measure of consistency • How well the items hold together and appear to measure the same thing – in our example, how well all the items measure optimism (statistical term for internal reliability is Cronbach’s alpha α) Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • We might consider “acquiescence response set” – people’s tendency to say “yes”/”true”/”agree” with all statements in a questionnaire Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • How to avoid acquiescence and socially desirable responding • Include some reverse-scored items • I am optimistic. • Not at all • 1 a little 2 some 3 very 4 completely 5 • I am pessimistic. (reverse-scored) • Not at all • 1 a little 2 some 3 very 4 completely 5 Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • This respondent who circled answers in red is showing consistent responses in their feelings about optimism. • I am optimistic. • Not at all • 1 a little 2 some 3 very 4 completely 5 • I am pessimistic. (reverse-scored) • Not at all • 1 a little 2 some 3 very 4 completely 5 As noted earlier, Reverse-scored in the sense that higher numbers on the response scale refer to less agreement with optimism. Reverse-score in that scores have to be reversed in the calculation of each respondent’s optimism score– a 5 = 1, 4 = 2 and so on. • Disadvantage: inclusion of reversed-scored items in a questionnaire usually decrease’s internal reliability for that questionnaire because the rhythm in responding is broken (however, this is what reverse scoring is trying to achieve, break the rhythm and make sure participants are not just simply agreeing). Decisions, Decisions, Decisions • How to avoid socially desirable responding • Include some filler items (items that do not pertain to the construct )– For example, for a questionnaire about optimism, a filler item would be about a topic unrelated to optimism, “I tend to be a vegetarian”) • Disadvantage: inclusion of filler items in a questionnaire usually decrease’s internal reliability for that questionnaire because the rhythm in responding is broken (however, this is what filler items are trying to achieve, break the rhythm and make sure participants are paying attention to the items. Let’s take a look at a popular measure of optimism Operational Definition • “Optimists are people who expect good things to happen to them; pessimists are people who expect bad things to happen to them” Carver et al. 2011 • This questionnaire is 10 items and includes filler and reverse-scored items. • The items are simple and fit the definition of optimism that the researchers gave. It’s called the Life Orientation Test. Notice how the items are about optimism in general and aren’t focused on specific domains such as academics or romantic relationships. Because it is a general questionnaire (which fits the researchers’ definition), the questionnaire is appropriate to use in a wide range of studies. If the questionnaire focused on optimism in romantic relationships, the questionnaire would be fitting for a smaller range of studies – studies about romantic relationships. Life orientation test (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) • *reverse-scored • • • • • • • • • • 1. In uncertain times, I usually expect the best. It’s easy for me to relax (filler) 3. If something can go wrong for me, it will.* 4. I’m always optimistic about my future. I enjoy my friends a lot (filler) It’s important for me to keep busy (filler) 7. I hardly ever expect things to go my way. * I don’t get upset too easily (filler) 9. I rarely count on good things happening to me.* 10. Overall, I expect more good things to happen to me than bad. Discussion Assignment 1 Discussion Assignment 1  Module 17 has the background information for this assignment.  This module includes instructions for the assignment Assignment 1: (OVERVIEW)  Develop a 10-item measure of self-esteem (closed-ended questions)  Target Audience → college students like yourselves studying in USA  DO NOT DO A LITERATURE SEARCH, Module 17 provides the background knowledge.  DO NOT LOOK UP DEFINITIONS of self-esteem.  NO INTERNET searches PLEASE! Steps for designing your SELF-ESTEEM questionnaire  1. define construct – your operational definition of self-esteem  2. spend time thinking about the rationale for the structure and content of your selfesteem questionnaire.  3. write instructions and create 10 items with response choices (a minimum of 4 response choices, no more than 7 response choices)  Step 1:  define self-esteem in your own words, there are not right or wrong answers – this is your definition. Your definition should be 1 sentence or up to 2 sentences. A clear definition will help you create a questionnaire that addresses that definition of self-esteem. Simple, concise definitions are good. A more complex but concise definition is also fine. Recall the two definitions of optimism from Module 17 this week. One definition was relatively simple and short, and the other definition was relatively longer. Both definitions are good. Your definition guides you as you create items of your questionnaire. This is an important first step to developing any questionnaire. Step 2        2. spend time thinking about the rationale for the structure and content of your self-esteem questionnaire. Look at Module 17. Module 17 has all the information that is needed for this assignment. Will you include explicit or subtle items or some combination? Why or why not? Will you include neutral response option (strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, strongly agree)? Why or why not? Will you include filler items or reverse-scored items? Why or why not? As you think about your target audience of participants (college students in the U.S. who are completing your measure), are you aiming to measure general self-esteem or self-esteem in different domains… academics, family relationships, friendships, romantic relationships, appearance etc. Why or why not? It is not necessary to have reverse-scored and filler items. Think about what works for your definition of self-esteem. Step 3  3. write simple instructions for your questionnaire (e.g., circle the answer that best fits your opinion) and create 10 items with response choices (a minimum of 4 response choices, no more than 7 response choices)      Here are some sample response choice options: 1. not at all, 2. a little, 3, some, 4. a lot 1. strongly disagree, 2. disagree, 3. agree, 4 strongly disagree 1. not at all, 2. a little, 3, some, 4. a lot, 5. completely 1. very strongly disagree, 2. strongly disagree, 3. disagree, 4. agree, 5, strongly agree, 6 very strongly agree What you turning in for this assignment. One page  Name  Concise 1-2 sentence definition of self-esteem (1.5 points)    Instructions (0.5 point) 10 items of your self-esteem questionnaire (1 point each for item). Next to the item, you can you write if it’s reversescored or filler, although reverse-scored and filler items are not necessary. As noted in Module 17, there are some downsides to reverse-scored and filler items.  Name  Definition of self esteem:…..  Instructions:……  1. xxxx  Insert response choices….  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 Reminder      Please do not use the internet to look up pre-existing measures of self-esteem or definitions. Resources for this assignment are Module 17. Grades are based on providing your own definition of selfesteem and creating a questionnaire based on your own definition. Simple, short items of the measure may fit your definition. Look back on Module 17, the optimism measure did not have long complicated items. Create items that fit your definition. In past semesters, students report that they enjoy this assignment, and students tend to receive high grades on this assignment. Where are you turning this in?  On Blackboard, in the Assignment folder. When is it due?  March 13 Send Questions about Discussion Assignment 1 to: Please send any questions about this assignment to Clare using Blackboard’s email tool.  If Blackboard’s email tool is not functioning, then you can email Clare at: Clare.Beatty@stonybrook.edu and use PSY382 in the subject line to be sure that your email will be read.  
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