Validity in Action: Lessons From Studies of Data Use

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97163/1/jedm12003.pd

Reconceptualizing Validity for Classroom Assessment

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72390/1/j.1745-3992.2003.tb00140.x.pd

Themes and Variations in Validity Theory

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71587/1/j.1745-3992.1995.tb00854.x.pd

Rhizomatic Encounters and Encountering Possibilities

Many thanks to Joni Palmer, the panellists, and the participants in the Author Meets Critics session at the Association of American Geographers meeting (April 2008) where the conversation that we continue here began. We appreciate the gracious criticisms and are delighted with the authors‟ enthusiasm. Criticisms offered with such care nurture the larger intellectual project from which the book comes (see Schuurman and Pratt; Aufhauser ). We feel fortunate to be able to address some of the issues identified that we believe need more attention. We thank the editors of Thirdspace for the opportunity. It may seem curious for editors to respond to critiques of an edited collection. But this collection is different, as are the critiques. Edited volumes are usually compilations of works that address a specific topic and reviewers tend to focus on the connections among the chapters. We take up the critiques as laid out here in Thirdspace that cultivate engagement with the book overall rather than with individual contributions. Most of the authors whose pieces are included in the book did not participate in defining it, and their contributions stand independent of our overarching argument. Although their inclusion supports our argument, the pieces stand on their own as individual contributions to both geographical knowledges in feminisms and feminist knowledges in geography

Weary Warriors

As seen in military documents, medical journals, novels, films, television shows, and memoirs, soldiers’ invisible wounds are not innate cracks in individual psyches that break under the stress of war. Instead, the generation of weary warriors is caught up in wider social and political networks and institutions—families, activist groups, government bureaucracies, welfare state programs—mediated through a military hierarchy, psychiatry rooted in mind-body sciences, and various cultural constructs of masculinity. This book offers a history of military psychiatry from the American Civil War to the latest Afghanistan conflict. The authors trace the effects of power and knowledge in relation to the emotional and psychological trauma that shapes soldiers’ bodies, minds, and souls, developing an extensive account of the emergence, diagnosis, and treatment of soldiers’ invisible wounds

A Revised Model of Trust in Internet-Based Health Information and Advice: Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study

Background: The internet continues to offer new forms of support for health decision making. Government, charity, and commercial websites increasingly offer a platform for shared personal health experiences, and these are just some of the opportunities that have arisen in a largely unregulated arena. Understanding how people trust and act on this information has always been an important issue and remains so, particularly as the design practices of health websites continue to evolve and raise further concerns regarding their trustworthiness.Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the key factors influencing US and UK citizens’ trust and intention to act on advice found on health websites and to understand the role of patient experiences.Methods: A total of 1123 users took part in an online survey (625 from the United States and 498 from the United Kingdom). They were asked to recall their previous visit to a health website. The online survey consisted of an updated general Web trust questionnaire to account for personal experiences plus questions assessing key factors associated with trust in health websites (information corroboration and coping perception) and intention to act. We performed principal component analysis (PCA), then explored the relationship between the factor structure and outcomes by testing the fit to the sampled data using structural equation modeling (SEM). We also explored the model fit across US and UK populations.Results: PCA of the general Web trust questionnaire revealed 4 trust factors: (1) personal experiences, (2) credibility and impartiality, (3) privacy, and (4) familiarity. In the final SEM model, trust was found to have a significant direct effect on intention to act (beta=.59; P<.001), and of the trust factors, only credibility and impartiality had a significant direct effect on trust (beta=.79; P<.001). The impact of personal experiences on trust was mediated through information corroboration (beta=.06; P=.04). Variables specific to electronic health (eHealth; information corroboration and coping) were found to substantially improve the model fit, and differences in information corroboration were found between US and UK samples. The final model accounting for all factors achieved a good fit (goodness-of-fit index [0.95], adjusted goodness-of-fit index [0.93], root mean square error of approximation [0.50], and comparative fit index [0.98]) and explained 65% of the variance in trust and 41% of the variance in intention to act.Conclusions: Credibility and impartiality continue to be key predictors of trust in eHealth websites. Websites with patient experiences can positively influence trust but only if users first corroborate the information through other sources. The need for corroboration was weaker in the United Kingdom, where website familiarity reduced the need to check information elsewhere. These findings are discussed in relation to existing trust models, patient experiences, and health literacy

Recovering a Dialectical View of Rationality

In this article, I argue for an interpretation of Messick's (1989) theory of validity that supports a dialectical over a technical view of rationality in making validity judgments. A primary theme underlying Messick's theory is the “Singerian” approach to inquiry where one system of inquiry is observed by another in order to open "their underlying scientific and value assumptions to public scrutiny and critique"(pp. 61–62). Against Markus (this issue), who argues that a “completion” of Messick's theoretical project is necessary to support a single, best justified validity judgment for any given test use, I argue that Messick has provided a means of maintaining validity theory and the judgments it supports as ongoing accomplishments, always open to other perspectives, and critically reflexive in light of those challenges.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43691/1/11205_2004_Article_183153.pd

Practicing Collective Biography

Collective biography uses researchers\u27 written memories about a set of experiences as texts for collective analysis. As a feminist approach to research, collective biography draws centrally on the idea that significant memories are critical in the constitution of the self, and maintains that in analyzing memories collectively, researchers can begin to tap into wider social processes and structures. Though rarely used in geography, collective biography could be useful in data collection and analysis for geographers. In this paper, we provide a brief history and description of collective biography. We situate collective biography in relation to life writing methods. We then identify a set of attributes that mark collective biography as a distinct research approach. In closing, we reflect on our experiences working with collective biography