Measuring Individual Differences
in person in Toronto, May 14-15, 2026 | Tuition TBA. To be informed when enrollment opens, contact ccram@ucalgary.ca. This course is being offered in cooperation with the Smith School of Business at Queen's University.
Researchers in the academic and private sectors often need to measure some aspect of people’s psychology be it their attitudes, satisfaction, motivation or intentions. We assume that the numbers these scales, questionnaires, tests and surveys produce are meaningful: that someone with a higher satisfaction score is in fact more satisfied than someone with a lower score. Because scale scores are used to make decisions like how to measure critical outcomes in a research study, develop a product, or admit a student or promote an employee, researchers need to thoroughly evaluate their validity. This short course will cover how to develop, evaluate, and refine scales using modern psychometric methods.
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Jessica Flake, PhD
In this course, you will learn how to apply modern validity theory and psychometric methods to appropriately develop and use scales measuring psychological attributes.
- Overview of construct validity theory and types of validity evidence
- Item writing
- Item content review and think-aloud protocol
- Interpreting item analysis
- Overview of types of factor analysis
- Interpreting exploratory factor analysis
- Interpreting reliability analysis
- Interpreting and evaluating validity evidence for scale selection and use
The course meets in person over two days from 9.00am to 5.00pm each day. Class will take place at SmithToronto, 200 Front Street West, 30th floor, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The course will focus on scale development and refinement with psychometric methods that can be implemented in many statistical software packages. Because this is a hands-on course, learners are encouraged to bring a laptop to class with a copy of R or SPSS installed. However, instruction will focus on demonstrating the statistical techniques and interpreting the most common outputs in various software programs. Provided materials and examples will include analysis scripts with annotated output from both SPSS and R.
This course will be helpful for researchers in any field —including psychology, sociology, education, business, human development, social work, public health, communication and others that rely on social science methodology —who want to develop and use scales to measure psychological attributes. Learners should have background knowledge in introductory statistics topics such as univariate statistical tests, descriptive statistics, and correlation. Ideally learners should be comfortable with multiple regression techniques. Though proficiency in a specific software isn’t required, ideally participants will have some familiarity with running analyses using some type of statistical software (e.g., R, SPSS, SAS, STATA).
Upon completing this course, you will
- Be able to define construct validity and describe different forms of validity evidence
- Evaluate scale items for poor, confusing, or problematic wording
- Use descriptive statistics to quantitatively evaluate item properties
- Use qualitative approaches to review item content
- Compare different approaches to factor analysis
- Compare different approaches to quantifying reliability
- Interpret an exploratory factor analysis
- Interpret a reliability analysis
- Evaluate multiple sources of validity evidence to select a scale
- Evaluate multiple sources of validity evidence to develop or refine a scale
A certificate of completion from the Canadian Centre for Research Analysis and Methods is provided at the end of the course.
- "Jessica was a fantastic instructor--good energy, engaging, highly informative. She was also happy to answer questions and discuss various research endeavors. The course content was excellent."
- "Dr. Flake is one of the best teachers ever!"
Do I Need a Visa to Travel to Canada?
Whether you need a visa or electronic travel authorization to come to Canada to attend a CCRAM session depends on your country of citizenship. To find out if you need one, see this government of Canada web page. Obtaining a visa takes time and there are various fees required by the Canadian government, so please plan and apply well in advance to increase the likelihood your application will be processed in time. Once you have paid your registration, we can assist by providing a letter for your visa application attesting to the purpose of your visit to Canada.
Cancellation Policy
If you need to cancel your registration or withdraw from your registered program, emailed notice must be submitted to a representative of the Canadian Centre for Research Analysis and Methods.
Cancellation or withdrawal of your registration will incur the following fee:
• $100 for notice of cancellation/withdrawal from the program received 31 days or greater prior to the program start date
• The fee amount equivalent to 25 percent of the program cost, up to a maximum of $500, for notice of cancellation/withdrawal from the program received between 30 and 15 days prior to the program start date
• The fee amount equivalent to 100 percent of the program cost, for notice of cancellation/withdrawal from the program received 14 days or less prior to the program start date. By request and no later than 7 days after the start of the class you registered for, we can apply your tuition dollar-for-dollar to a future CCRAM course.
Should you be unable to attend a registered program due to acts of God, war, government regulations, disaster, strikes, civil disorder, curtailment of transportation facilities, pandemic, or other emergencies making it illegal or impossible to travel, emailed notice must be submitted to ccram@ucalgary.ca no later than 7 days after the start of the class you registered in. You will be required to pay the $100 program deposit. All other cancellation fees will be waived.
Although always a last resort, we reserve the right to cancel a course or substitute a different instructor if circumstances require. We strive to give at least three weeks notice when such a cancellation or substitution is required. If a cancellation must occur, your tuition will be refunded. The Canadian Centre for Research Analysis and Methods is not responsible for any others costs you may have incurred (e.g., nonrefundable airline tickets or hotel bookings; visa/immigration fees).
Questions?
If you have questions, please contact us at (403)220-6600 or by email ccram@ucalgary.ca.