Teaching Traits and Constructs through Scale Construction: A Need and a Strategy

Most students have some experience with purported measures of psychological constructs before entering college. Critical analysis of such measures requires familiarity with test development strategies. The activities outlined in this article allowed students to complete the steps involved in scale construction and empirical analysis in a relatively brief period of time. Steps included trait conceptualization, searching for literature, generating hypotheses, operationalizing constructs, collecting and analyzing data, and interpreting the quality of instruments. The activity took place in an introductory laboratory course but contains sufficient flexibility to make it useful in a variety of courses. Student evaluations of the activities were positive, and the article includes evidence of student learning.