In research synthesis, researchers may aim at summarizing peoples' attitudes and perceptions of phenomena that have been assessed using
different measures. Self-report rating scales are among the most commonly used measurement tools to quantify such latent constructs in education
and psychology. However, self-report rating-scale questions measuring the same construct may differ from each other in many ways. Scale format,
number of response options, wording of questions, and labeling of response option categories may vary across questions. Consequently, variations
across the measures of the same construct bring about the issue of comparability of the results across the studies in meta-analytic
investigations. In this study, I examine the complexities of summarizing the results of different survey questions about the same construct in
the meta-analytic fashion. More specifically, this study focuses on the practical problems that arise when combining survey items that differ
from one another in the wording of question stems, numbers of response option categories, scale direction (i.e., unipolar and bipolar scales),
response scale labeling (i.e., fully-labeled scales and endpoints-labeled scales), and response-option labeling (e.g., "extremely happy" -
"completely happy" - "most happy", "pretty happy", "quite happy"- "moderately happy", and "not at all happy" - "least happy" - "most unhappy").
In addition, I propose practical solutions to handle the issues that arise due to such variations when conducting a meta-analysis. I discuss the
implications of the proposed solutions from the perspective of meta-analysis. Examples are obtained from the collection of studies in the World
Happiness Database (Veenhoven, 2006), which includes various single-item happiness measures. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2018. / November 9, 2018. / meta-analysis, scale transformations, survey / Includes bibliographical references. / Betsy J. Becker, Professor Directing Dissertation; Fred W. Huffer, University Representative; Yanyun Yang,
Committee Member; Insu Paek, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_661141 |
| Contributors | Gozutok, Ahmet Serhat (author), Becker, Betsy Jane, 1956- (professor directing dissertation), Huffer, Fred W. (university representative), Yang, Yanyun (committee member), Paek, Insu (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Education (degree granting college), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting departmentdgg) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (102 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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