Dr. Karen Schmidt

Dr. Karen Schmidt is an Associate Professor in Psychology at The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.  Dr. Schmidt has been a professor for 17 years, and teaches courses in statistics, research methods, and item response theory (IRT) and Rasch measurement at the undergraduate and graduate level. Dr. Schmidt specializes in psychometrics, with specific focus on Rasch measurement and item response theory (IRT).  Her research and interests include scale and test design and analysis, item features experimental design and analysis, and trait measurement in a wide variety of areas, including psychological, educational, health, and medical sciences.

Education:

B.A. Psychology, Rockhurst University

M.A. Human Development, The University of Kansas

Ph.D. Psychology, with a specialization in Experimental Design and Quantitative Methods, The University of Kansas

Areas of Expertise:

Item Response Theory

Rasch Measurement

Applications of Rasch measurement and IRT to scale and test design

Structural Equation Modeling and Factor Analysis

Psychometrics

Publications:

Pritikin, J. N., & Schmidt, K. (2013). A self-report measure for familiarity with mental silence. In W. van Moer, D.A. Celik, and J. L. Hochheimer (Eds.), Spirituality in the 21st Century: Journeys  Beyond Entrenched Boundaries.   Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Schmidt, K. M., & Embretson, S. E. (2012). Item response theory and measuring abilities.  In J. A. Schinka and W. F. Velicer (Eds.), Research Methods in Psychology (2nd ed.). Volume 2 of Handbook of Psychology (I. B. Weiner, Editor-in-Chief). NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Gonder-Frederick, L. A., Vajda, K. A., Schmidt, K. M., Cox, D. J., DeVries, H., Ozgul, E., Kanc, K.,  Schächinger, H., & Snoek, F. J. (2013). Examining the Behaviour subscale of the Hypoglycaemia Fear Survey: An international study.  Diabetic Medicine, 30 (5):603-609.

Erbacher, M. K., Schmidt, K. M., Boker, S. M., & Bergeman, C. (2012). Measuring positive and negative affect in older adults over 56 days: Comparing trait level scoring methods using the Partial Credit Model.  Journal of Applied Measurement,13,146-164.

Gonder-Frederick. L. A., Schmidt, K. M., Vajda, K. A., Greear, M. L., Singh, H., Shepard, J. A., & Cox, D. J.  (2011). Psychometric Properties of the Hypoglycemia Fear Survey-II for Adults with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Diabetes Care, 34, 801-806.

Lick, D. J., Schmidt, K. M., & Patterson, C. J. (2011). The Rainbow Families Scale (RFS): A measure of experiences among individuals with lesbian and gay parents. Journal of Applied Measurement, 12, 222-241.

Kline, T. L., Schmidt, K. M., & Bowles, R. P.  (2006). Using LinLog and FACETS to model item components in the LLTM. Journal of Applied Measurement, 7, 74-91.

Williams, M. T., Turkheimer, E., Schmidt, K., & Oltmanns, T. (2005). Ethnic identification biases responses to the Padua Inventory for obsessive-compulsive disorder. Assessment, 12,174- 185.

Kline, T. L., & Schmidt, K. M. (2005). Rasch analysis explicating processing mechanisms of The Object Location Memory Test.  Journal of Applied Measurement, 6,382-395.

Website links:

Courses:
Introduction to Item Response Theory (IRT)

Instructor at Statistics.com since February 2014