Measures

Our team has developed several survey measures over the years. Most of these measures were developed with the support of federal, state, intramural, and foundation funds, so they are available free of charge. You are welcome to make modifications to "improve" our measures for your population and research question if under the guidance of a psychologist or other professional with expertise in psychometrics. Please note any changes in the methods section of resulting manuscripts. No permission is required to use our measures.

Due to time constraints, we are generally unable to donate in-kind support for assistance with literature reviews, training in basic psychometrics, translations/adaptations, scoring, and statistical analysis. Such requests would generally require a consultation agreement.

Delaying Gratification Inventory (DGI-35 and DGI-10)

The DGI measures individual differences in gratification delay, or the tendency to pursue immediate versus later, greater rewards. It can be administered as a long form (DGI-35) or short form (DGI-10). The measure's theoretical factor structure was derived from six decades of prior literature and covers delay behavior across five domains: food, physical pleasures, social interactions, money, and achievement. Prior measures of delay of gratification, as well as related constructs such as delay discounting, tend to require in-depth experimental procedures and/or use surveys with limitations related to reliability, validity, scope, or item wording. The DGI has been used with >10,000 participants worldwide and translated into many languages.

Decisional Engagement Scale (DES-10 and DES-3)

The DES measures patient engagement in the healthcare decision-making process. Patient engagement is vital for supporting patient-centered outcomes, which simply means providing care that emphasizes what matters to the individual patient. The DES-10 is cancer-specific and spans five overlapping domains: diagnostic awareness and acceptance, empowerment, active involvement, information seeking, and planning. The short-form DES-3 correlates highly with the DES-10 and would be acceptable to non-cancer patients as well as healthy adults.

Verbal-Mathematical-Logical (VML) Test of Cognitive Ability

The VML is a measure of "intelligence," or general cognitive ability. It covers content one might expect on an IQ test or college admissions exam. Many measures of cognitive ability are onerous and/or proprietary and, therefore, expensive. The measure is brief, straightforward, and like all of our scales, free of charge.

Palliative Care Attitudes Scale (PCAS-9)

Palliative care improves quality of life in the context of a serious illness, but misperceptions of palliative care lead patients and caregivers to fear it, clinicians to avoid making referrals, and administrators and policy makers to avoid programmatic development. The PCAS-9 measures the extent to which patients fear or are comfortable with palliative care (emotional subscale), believe it is beneficial (cognitive subscale), and would be willing to use it if referred (behavioral subscale). The measure is reliability, valid, and responsive to educational interventions.