Psychometrics and Scale Development in Educational Research

The past decade has witnessed an increase in different research investigations involving psychometrics and scale development. However, the majority of these investigations are traditionally centered on developmental psychology and consumer marketing literature. The scholars engaged in educational research consider the process of scale development as laborious, lengthy, time consuming, methodologically rigorous and somewhat prone to “criticism” with no imminent chance of success. These “stereotypes” or “beliefs” have also affected ongoing as well as upcoming educational research investigations. Consequently, educational scholars are content with single cross-sectional studies, while longitudinal and repeated cross-sectional studies are still rarely performed. The purpose of this seminar is to present the findings and associated research processes of the few recent investigations involving psychometrics and scale development in educational research. Three recent scale development initiatives will be discussed and presented, namely the Internet gratification scale, the photo-tagging gratification scale, and the avoiding photo-tagging use scale. All three investigations are influenced from the mixed method research philosophy involving qualitative essays and repeated cross-sectional studies with digital natives and young-adults. This seminar will also outline the main benefits, associated challenges and risks involved in the process of scale development research.