Designing A Shorter Form of the Big Three Perfectionism Scale: An Application of Ant Colony Optimization

The present study has two main purposes. The first is to create a short form of the BTPS and to evaluate the psychometric properties of the short form. The second is to evaluate the performance of the ant colony optimization procedure and discuss the applicability of the ant colony optimization procedure in creating a short form. Results revealed that the 30-item short form of the BTPS can be applied to psychological or educational assessment settings to obtain valid and reliable results related to ten different facets of perfectionism. The current study also showed that the ant colony optimization procedure can be used to create the best short form which has variance, reliability, and high factor correlations between original and short versions of a scale.

The alchemical symbols in the manuscripts of “The Mirror of Wonders” (Mirʾāt al-ʿajāʾib)

“The Mirror of Wonders” (Mirʾāt al-ʿajāʾib) is an illustrated Arabic treatise about a mysterious mirror that displays different alchemical symbols. This work of unsettled authorship, which was composed between the 12th and 16th centuries, has got a rich manuscript tradition with more than 45 extant copies dating from the 16th to the 20th centuries, including translations into Turkish and Persian and various short versions of the text. They prove the remarkable popularity of “The Mirror of Wonders” throughout the Islamicate world, even in modern times. Most manuscripts contain a coloured illustration of the mirror and its symbols, with a large scope of variation in their visual design. The nine alchemical symbols of the mirror are: 1. The two figures embracing each other (al-shakhṣān al-muʿtaniqān); 2. The black circle (al- dāʾira al-sawdāʾ); 3. The palm of the hand (al-kaff); 4. The black raven (al-ghurāb al-aswad); 5. The eagle (al-ʿuqāb); 6. The sun (al-shams); 7. The snake (al-thuʿbān); 8. The nine crabs (al-saraṭānāt al-tisʿa) with the dog descending into the water (al-kalb al-nāzil fī l-māʾ) and 9. The nine circles (al-dawāʾir al-tisʿa). This paper presents the manuscript tradition of Mirʾāt al-ʿajāʾib and analyses the diverging imagery of the symbols and their meanings in the different manuscripts.

Development of Short and Ultra-Short Forms of the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Scale

The multidimensional assessment of self-esteem plays an important role in self-esteem research. In this article, we present the development of a short form and an ultra-short form of the Multidimensional Self-Esteem Scale (MSES; Schütz et al., 2016 ). Items were selected by eliminating redundant items and by using a deterministic search algorithm in a sample of 644 adults ( Mage = 47.0). Construct validity was established by investigating the relations between each MSES short form and other constructs and cross-validating the factor structure of both short forms of the MSES in 674 adolescents ( Mage = 14.2) and in 425 adults from a preregistered study ( Mage = 49.1). Both short scales demonstrated satisfactory reliability and factorial validity in all samples. Analyses examining relations with the Big Five personality traits, narcissism, and academic achievement supported construct validity in all age groups. The present research indicates that the short versions of the MSES are economic and valid instruments for measuring multidimensional self-esteem in adolescents and adults. The short form (MSES-24) should be particularly useful in applied research settings with a need to reduce participants’ burden, whereas the ultra-short form (MSES-12) may prove convenient for panel studies and large-scale research with limited time capacities.

Validation of a Short Scale for Student Evaluation of Teaching Ratings in a Polytechnic Higher Education Institution

The general purpose of this work is 2-fold, to validate scales and to present the methodological procedure to reduce these scales to validate a rating scale for the student evaluation of teaching in the context of a Polytechnic Higher Education Institution. We explored the relationship between the long and short versions of the scale; examine their invariance in relation to relevant variables such as gender. Data were obtained from a sample of 6,110 students enrolled in a polytechnic higher education institution, most of whom were male. Data analysis included descriptive analysis, intraclass correlation, exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), confirmatory factorial analysis, correlations between the short and long form corrected for the shared error variance, gender measurement invariance, reliability using congeneric correlated factors, and correlations with academic achievement for the class as unit with an analysis following a multisection design. Results showed four highly correlated factors that do not exclude a general factor, with an excellent fit to data; configural, metric, and scalar gender measurement invariance; high reliability for both the long and short scale and subscales; high short and long-form scale correlations; and moderate but significant correlations between the long and short versions of the scales with academic performance, with individual and aggregate data collected from classes or sections. To conclude, this work shows the possibility of developing student evaluation of teaching scales with a short form scale, which maintains the same high reliability and validity indexes as the longer scale.

A Systematic Review Approach to Find Robust Items of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory

The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) is one of the most well-known and widely used measures of time perspective. Various short versions were proposed to resolve the psychometric problems of the ZTPI. The present study conducted a systematic review to obtain 25 short versions, calculated the frequency of each item of the ZTPI in short versions, and hypothesized that the more frequent the item is, the more robust it becomes. The hypothesis was tested by assessing the structural validity and internal consistency of short forms with high, medium, and low frequent items in Chinese samples (575 children, 407 undergraduates, and 411 older adults). Structural validity and internal consistency analyses showed that the form with more frequent items had better psychometric properties; item frequencies were positively correlated with factor loadings. The results suggest that the systematic review is an effective approach to identify the robust items of the ZTPI. This approach is general and can be the basis to improve the psychometric properties of scales in social science.

GFMT2: A psychometric measure of face matching ability

We present an expanded version of a widely used measure of unfamiliar face matching ability, the Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT). The GFMT2 is created using the same source database as the original test but makes five key improvements. First, the test items include variation in head angle, pose, expression and subject-to-camera distance, making the new test more difficult and more representative of challenges in everyday face identification tasks. Second, short and long versions of the test each contain two forms that are calibrated to be of equal difficulty, allowing repeat tests to be performed to examine effects of training interventions. Third, the short form tests contain no repeating face identities, thereby removing any confounding effects of familiarity that may have been present in the original test. Fourth, separate short versions are created to target exceptionally high performing or exceptionally low performing individuals using established psychometric principles. Fifth, all tests are implemented in an executable program, allowing them to be administered automatically. All tests are available free for scientific use via www.gfmt2.org.

Μια σύντομη εκδοχή του Ego Identity Process Questionnaire (EIPQ-SF): έλεγχος των ψυχομετρικών χαρακτηριστικών σε νεαρούς/ές ενήλικες

In the last two decades, there has been a growing interest in short versions of questionnaires for measuring several psychological constructs. Focusing on identity development, in the present study, we extracted and tested the psychometric properties of the EIPQ-SF, a short version of the EIPQ scale for measuring identity according to Marcia’s identity statuses (achieved, foreclosed, moratorium and diffused identity). The data of our study derived from a sample of 210 college students aged 18-25 years. For extracting the EIPQ-SF, we first tested the content of the items of the original EIPQ and then we performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. We evaluated the predictive validity of the EIPQ-SF by comparing the levels of self-esteem among participants with achieved, foreclosed, moratorium and diffused identity. The results of our study indicate that EIPQ-SF has a good factor structure and adequate validity and reliability; therefore, it can be used as a short scale for measuring identity in typical samples of young adults (university students). The advantages, applications as well as the limitations of the EIPQ-SF are thoroughly discussed.