Lidia Dobria, an instructor at this year’s summer psychometric school, talks about the importance of support and friendship with colleagues and professors on the path of psychometrics
Good morning, Lidia. We are doing a series of interviews with people in the summer psychometric school for our classmates and others interested in psychometrics. Could you introduce yourself first?
I am a professor of mathematics at Wilbur Wright College in Chicago, Illinois, where I teach undergraduate mathematics and statistics courses. Occasionally, I teach graduate measurement and advanced statistics classes at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). I am also a freelance measurement consultant working on various projects, including rating scale analyses, performance assessment analyses, item bank calibrations, test forensics analyses, etc.
How did you enter psychometrics?
I came across psychometrics by sheer chance. A fellow statistics professor from Wright College was taking classes with Professor Benjamin Wright at the University of Chicago. Professor Wright was running a sort of an “open classroom” where students could bring guests interested in psychometrics. It took two years for my colleague to get me to finally attend one of Prof. Wright’s
lectures, but once I did, I was instantly captivated by the subject. Psychometrics, to me, came across as statistics with a meaningful application – the measurement of things unseen.
To learn more about psychometrics, I enrolled in the Rating Scale Analysis course taught by Prof. Everett Smith at UIC. The course was challenging and interesting at the same time. It was challenging because I had jumped over all the prerequisite courses and did not have the necessary knowledge (e.g., a complete understanding of reliability and validity) to be on a sure footing. But oh, so very interesting! The course introduced the Rasch Model and the Rating Scale Models with many
applications. I had no idea that such in-depth data analysis was possible. The difficulty of the course did give me pause, however, and for a minute, I wondered if the field of psychometrics was for me. But thanks to Prof. Smith’s encouragement, I stuck with it and am glad I did.
In the autumn of 2001, I officially enrolled in the Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment (MESA) program at UIC. I was one of the first ten doctoral students to join the newly established MESA program led by Prof. Smith. This opportunity opened a world of fantastic opportunities for me. Through inter-university collaboration, I had the privilege of taking courses with Benjamin Wright and Mike Linacre at the University of Chicago. A year later, Prof. Carol Myford, a highly regarded expert in the field, joined UIC as a “star hire” and brought her extensive practical experience to the program. I took courses with her in program evaluation, assessment, and many-facet Rasch model applications, which became one of my primary research interests. Prof. George Karabatsos also joined the MESA program around that time and introduced courses in item response theory, hierarchical linear modeling, and nonparametric statistics, which expanded my research interests and helped me realize that psychometrics was the field for me.
Sometimes it’s hard to explain what psychometrics is. How would you describe this to someone new to the field?
Psychometrics is the science of latent trait measurement. It aims to quantify and measure various human characteristics such as psychological traits, abilities, attitudes, and behaviors.
For instance, think about measuring math ability. One would most likely do this with the help of a test. Some essential questions immediately come to mind. Is the test fair? Do students with equivalent math abilities receive the same score? Is the test valid? Does it measure just math ability or other underlying abilities, such as the ability to read and interpret written text? Did raters score student responses? If so, were there differences between the levels of severity raters displayed when scoring responses, and did those differences impact student scores? Did it matter which rater scored one’s test responses? Psychometrics is the field of study that can answer questions like these and more.
In the United States, the field of psychometrics has widespread applications. Psychometrics is used extensively in education for assessment and educational research. It is also employed widely in psychology, social sciences, human resources, market research, and public policy, to name but a few.
Because psychometrics is so essential in many fields, the demand for professionals with expertise in this area is quite significant in the US and, I expect, globally.
What advice would you give our students on navigating the world of psychometrics and achieving success?
I cannot claim any great insight into the best way to navigate this field. Each person’s experience is different, and each path presents its unique challenges. However, if I were to share some of the things that helped me succeed, I would mention the following:
1. Find a topic that interests you and learn all you can about it.
Why do you want to study psychometrics? What interests you? Is it test development? Is it the analysis of rating scales? Is it rater bias and its impact on scores? Find the “something” that piques your interest the most and set about learning everything there is to learn about that topic. You may think, “I don’t know much about the field; how should I know what to focus on?” Start broadly with the basics of measurement and learn those very well. Then, as you come across different topics, narrow down your interests until you find “the one.” In a nutshell, learn the fundamentals well and remain curious.
In my case, after several courses on rating scale analysis, I was exposed to the analysis of rater effects and their impact on student scores. Carol Myford’s fantastic lectures on this topic made it of great interest to me, so I decided to check it out. Later on, in his hierarchical models course, George Karabatsos presented the Rasch model as a multilevel model. This made me think that one could do the same with the many-facet Rasch model, and so the intersection of IRT and hierarchical models became my main research interest.
2. Find a mentor and forge strong relationships with your colleagues.
One of the most important things you can do for your professional development is to find a mentor. I cannot stress enough how much of an impact a great mentor can have on your career trajectory.
Personally, I have been fortunate enough to have had professors who invested in me and helped shape my path. However, the greatest impact on my professional and personal life came from Carol Myford, who became a mentor and remained a lifelong friend.
More than just teaching you content, a great mentor will walk alongside you for a while and help you navigate the sometimes choppy waters of the field you are entering. They can teach you how to write for journal publications, present at conferences, propose grants, apply for a job in the field, etc. A mentor’s insights are priceless. Make it your mission to find one as soon as possible.
Second, make friends with your colleagues. They are on the same journey as you and understand, like none other, what it is to travel the road you are on. Be a team player. Give and receive feedback on projects. Read your colleague’s papers and learn to be generous with your ideas. Psychometrics is a team sport. Great collaborations lead to great results.
3. Seek support.
When I started the PhD program, I taught full-time and had two small children. My husband was also in a PhD program and working full-time; things were very rough at times. But I was very fortunate in that I had fantastic support and understanding. I had a loving family who made great sacrifices to see me through the program and understanding professors who were willing to work with me when life became too complicated.
If, as the proverb goes, “it takes a village to raise a child,” then for sure, “it takes a village to put one through a psychometrics program.” Don’t be afraid to ask for help. You will be surprised at how many people will be willing to support your efforts. In return, your successes will be theirs as well.
Good luck to you all!
