Citation

Lasko EN, Chester DS. Assessment 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1073191121996450

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Taylor Aggression Paradigm (TAP) is a widely used laboratory aggression task, yet item response theory analyses of this task are nonexistent. To estimate these aspects of the TAP, we combined data from nine laboratory studies that employed the 25-trial version of the TAP (combined N = 1,856). One- and four-factor solutions for the TAP data exhibited evidence of measurement invariance across gender (men vs. women) and experimental provocation (negative vs. positive social feedback), as well as negligible instances of differential item functioning. As such, psychometric properties of the TAP were invariant across binary representations of gender and experimental provocation. Furthermore, trials following low and high provocation were the least informative and those following moderate provocation were the most informative. Scoring approaches to the TAP may benefit from giving greater weight to trials following moderate provocation. Overall, we find great utility in applying item response theory approaches to behavioral laboratory tasks.

Language: en

Keywords

item response theory; measurement invariance; provocation; psychometrics; Taylor Aggression Paradigm