This book applies the principles of measurement developed in education and psychology to the health sciences. It answers the need for a sound reproducible system of assessment techniques in the field, ranging from psychiatry to oncology, where clinical researchers are called in to measure pain, depression, function and other "quality-of-life" variables. Logically arranged and easily comprehensible, this "hands-on" guide emphasizes practical applications.l Written for clinical researchers in a wide spectrum of fields, as well as all students of measurement in social and behavioral sciences, it provides all the information needed to develop a new measurement scale, from the literature search to the design and the analysis of reliability and validity studies.