I-O Psychology Doctoral Program

Research Group Description

We are investigating different psychometric theories that can be used to model how people respond to personality and attitude items.  Each of the models is based on item response theory, which is a statistical framework used to better understand psychological test data.

The particular model that we are analyzing, the unfolding model, assumes that having too much of a personality trait may lead respondents to reject certain personality statements.  For example, an extreme extravert may reject the item I enjoy going to parties some of the times because they enjoy going to parties all of the time.

These models have been used on personality inventories in the past, though very few items actually fit the unfolding model in a significant way.  We have been analyzing data from several standard personality tests as well as experimentally manipulating items to try to induce different types of responding.

Recent Research Publications and Presentations

Carter, N.T., & Zickar, M.J. (2011). Applying differential functioning methods to the generalized graded unfolding model. In A. Mead (Chair), Practical and Methodological Considerations for DIF/ME Research. Symposium presented at the 26th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Chicago, IL.

Carter, N.T., & Dalal, D.K. (April, 2010). An ideal point account of responses to the work satisfaction scale. Poster presented at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Atlanta, GA.

Carter, N.T. (April, 2010). Verification of a procedure for evaluating unidimensionality in unfolding responses. Poster present at the 25th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Atlanta, GA.

Carter, N.T., Kotrba, L., Gillespie, M., Zickar, M.J., Diab, D., Pui, S.Y., & Lin, B.C. (October, 2009).  A comparison of subjective and statistical item bias detection methods. Poster presented at the Michigan State University Symposium on Multicultural Psychology: East Lansing, MI.

Adams, J.E., Carter, N.T., Wolford, K., Highhouse, S., & Zickar, M.J. (April, 2009). The job descriptive index: A reliability generalization study. Poster presented at the 24th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: New Orleans, LA.

Carter, N.T., Zickar, M.J., Dalal, D.K., &  Adams, J.E. (April, 2009). Do vague quantifiers induce unfolding in personality items? Poster presented at the 24th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: New Orleans, LA.

Lin, B.C., Carter, N.T., Zickar, M.J., Dalal, D.K., Adams, J., & Wolford, K. (April, 2009). Unfolding item response theory: Analysis of employment drug testing attitudes. Poster presented at the 24th Annual Meeting of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology: New Orleans, LA.

Wolford, K.A., & Zickar, M. (April, 2011). An IRT examination of the functioning of negatively worded items. Poster presented at the 26th annual conference of the Society for Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Chicago, IL.

Zickar, M., & Wolford, K.A. (in press). Hunting for unicorns: Item Response Theory-based solutions to the faking problem. In Ziegler, M., MacCann, C., & Roberts, R.D. (Eds.), New Perspectives on Faking in Personality Assessments.