Psychology is weird. Some of the most important and useful insights involve things that nobody can observe — things that go on in your head — events that only you witness. And yet our most developed theories were developed to predict observable behaviour, not hidden thoughts and feelings.

I live this conundrum on a daily basis.

As a coaching psychologist (and as a human being) my main psychological interest is in self-development through regulating our own thoughts and behaviours. Learning to meditate changed my life. Of course, what it mostly changed was how I deal with my own thoughts and bodily sensations. As an Associate Professor of Psychological Measurement and Statistics, I spend large parts of my life trying to figure out how we can accurately measure, understand, and teach such self-development processes.

Until we have the sort of brain scanners only found in sci-fi, our best bet is psychometric measurement.

Psychometric measures

A large part of my research work concerns the creation and validation of psychometric scales to measure various clinically-relevant phenomena such as eating behaviours, coping styles, and patterns of thinking. Below are brief summaries of measures my colleagues and I have developed.

Psychometric measures

Mindful Eating Scale

The Food Craving Inventory

Bangor Life Events Schedule for Intellectual Disabilities