Reflection Paper on Test Development/Scale Construction

NAME: Paulina Danice A. Cedro

SECTION: 1

DATE: May 22, 2019

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To be honest, at first, I thought that the scale construction would not require me to overthink too much, but it
turned out otherwise. I realized that it was actually good to overthink for this project so that we would know every
loophole and find out the pros and cons for each item. We had so many ideas and we did not expect to have a lot of
revisions for both our item pool scale and concept paper. In the process of making the scale and concept paper I felt quite
confident that our work would not have major revisions because we based some items from existing scales. Similarly, with
our concept paper I thought we were able to operationally define self-stigma well and backed it up with substantial
information with regards to the aim of our study. However, we thought that we should stick to the standard of crafting
questions based on the categories such as: beliefs, behaviors, affective response, and language. Then, thankfully miss was
able to help us narrow down the desired aim of our test development. She suggested that we focus on affective responses,
beliefs, and behaviors, disregarding language because it is not necessary since it would not be applicable to the scale itself.
In short, the experience was enriching and fulfilling, and I am biased because I am fascinated with creating tests for
research purposes.

Specifically, the part in the test development I enjoyed was making the item pool scale because the scale that we
chose is close to my heart. It was a mental illness stigma scale and all my classmates know that I have a mental illness and
aside from that it was easy for me to think of questions because most were based on experience. In making the scale, my
groupmates kept on asking me the feelings I had and my beliefs on the topic because I have experienced it firsthand. And,
it was a bit of a cathartic experience due to the fact that I was able share my feelings about my illness and my beliefs on the
issue. Mentally, it was so helpful for me as well because upon assessing my journey having a mental illness, I became more
aware of weaknesses that I know I should improve on. I have always blamed my illness as the reason for my inefficiency
and ineffectiveness in my academic performance. Thankfully, as I was making the reversal items, I saw a sort of like a beam
of light wherein in that short period of time constructing the scale I found hope in myself and had a bit of a self-esteem
boost.

Due to time constraints, we changed our slant into public stigma since we will be able to gather a hundred
respondents more easily. With that, as I was revising our paper and taking in the comments of miss and our classmates, I
researched on the three types of internalised stigma because originally our slant was on self-stigma. Next, what I did is to
reconstruct the sentences so that it would fit the three categories of internalised stigma. I made my comments on some
statements which seemed vague and can be considered as jargons and highlighted statements which are to be discarded.
We met as a group personally for us to be aligned with our plans and vision. We finally came up with a better scale in which
it was reduced to 25 items. Another challenge is looking for studies that would support our chosen scale since our
respondents were Filipino adolescents, which is why one of my groupmates resorted discussing a study on adolescents
from another country. Finally, the results and discussion were the hardest to do because I am not really good with
statistics. I kept on looking at the data we gathered so many times, but it could not process in my brain. Basically, I am so
bad with numbers and interpreting them, so I was just able to review what my groupmates did for the interpretation and
made sure the ideas presented were logical and organized. I added one sentence and that was it.

In the final paper I was very happy with the studies I discussed because it seems to be so relevant and aligned with
the focus of our scale. Although, I hope it was substantial enough to back up the results and discussion of the paper. We
were also able to use most of our studies found in our concept paper which was very beneficial for us. I guess, overall, we
did a pretty good job with the test development because our scale was reliable and valid. The results made me glad
because I was kind of nervous as to how it would go about at first. Thankfully, the statements we made were relevant
enough which produced a positive outcome.

The test development experience was enriching, enlightening, and fulfilling. Again, I am biased because throughout
the semester my interest in scale construction grew and I am even considering it to be something what I want to do in the
future. I am not just saying this so that I can get a high grade but honestly making a scale is really fun. You are able to
evaluate statements to see whether they are understandable and answerable by your target audience. You are also able to
see the differences of responses across different ages and school backgrounds. You are able to discover the opinions of
people which can be shocking or surprising. And, lastly you are able to make meaning of the responses of people which is
the best part. To conclude, test development may be tedious, but it is always a worthwhile task.