Instrument Development in the Affective Domain

This text was prepared for a graduate level course in affective instrument development with a focus on the school-educational environment. A major change in this second edition is the inclusion of research on attitudes and values from the corporate domain. Self-efficacy has also been included as a major affective variable with implications for both educational and corporate worlds. The following methodological techniques have also been included in this edition: confirmatory factor analysis, causal modeling, Rasch latent trait techniques and generalizability theory. The techniques described, and the school and corporate environment data sets included, represent attempts over several years to prepare materials that would illustrate appropriate instrument development techniques in the affective domain. The need for this text became apparent after witnessing several large-scale research projects that were hindered by inadequately prepared instruments. Researchers in these projects were often not aware of the need to use appropriate procedures in developing affective instruments; furthermore, there were few comprehensive and readable texts that could help. The text was developed to meet this important need.