Dr. Josh Weller
On this episode, Katie is joined by Dr. Joshua Weller, an assistant professor of psychology at Oregon State University. Dr. Weller received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Iowa. His research broadly focuses on how affective and cognitive processes contribute to decision-making and risk perceptions and, more particularly, on the development of psychological scales to quantify individual differences in risk taking tendencies and decision-making competence. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Automobile Association Foundation, and the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Dr. Weller teaches courses on Judgment and Decision Making, Personality, and Psychometrics.
Transcript (.docx)
Show Notes
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Segment 1: What is psychometrics [00:00-15:28]
In this first segment, Josh describes the components of psychometrics (the scientific study of the attributes of tests) and offers some examples of how psychometrics are used in research and instrument design.
Segment 2: Josh’s research and applications of psychometrics [15:29-35:49]
In segment two, Josh shares more about his research in risk-taking and how psychometrics have contributed to this research.
In this segment, the following resources are mentioned:
- David Watson’s work
- Josh’s work in Italy
- Lauriola, M., Foscha, R., Mosca, O., & Weller, J.A., (2015). Tolerance of Ambiguity: Empirically robust factors in self-report personality scales.
- Weller, J. A., Ceschi, A., & Randolph, C. (2015). Decision-making competence predicts domain-specific risk attitudes. Frontiers in Psychology: Cognition, 6, 540.
- Andy Field’s website on statistics
- Andy’s Field’s book on SPSS to do statistics
- Stats textbook by Furr
- Anistasi & Urbina’s Psychological Testing
- Essentials of Psychological Testing by Urbina
- Josh’s favorite articles about writing good survey items
- Clark, L. A., & Watson, D. B. (1995) Constructing validity: Basic issues in scale development. Psychological Assessment, 7, 309-319.
- Smith, G. T., Fischer, S., & Fister, S. M. (2003). Incremental validity principles in test construction. Psychological Assessment, 15, 467-477.
- Khan Academy’s statistics modules
Bonus Clip: Statistics and Fantasy Baseball [00:00-11:34]
In this bonus clip, Josh shares about his experience using his skills and experience with statistics and research on risk-taking for his hobby of fantasy baseball.
In this segment, the following resources are mentioned:
- Moneyball by Michael Lewis
- The film adaptation of Moneyball
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The views expressed by guests on the Research in Action podcast do not necessarily represent the views of Ecampus or Oregon State University.
