Scale Development: Theory and Applications

About Carolyn T. ThorpeRobert F. DeVellis

Robert F. DeVellis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Health Behavior (Gillings School of Global Public Health) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. DeVellis has more than 40 years of experience in the measurement of psychological and social variables. He served as the first domain chair for Social Outcomes of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) consortium a multisite National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap initiative directed at identifying modifying testing and disseminating outcome measures for use by NIH investigators. He has served on the Board of Directors for the American Psychological Associations Division of Health Psychology (38) on the Arthritis Foundations Clinical/Outcomes/Therapeutics Research Study Section and on the Advisory Board of the Veterans Affairs Measurement Excellence Initiative. He is the recipient of the 2005 Distinguished Scholar Award from the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals and is an associate editor of Arthritis Care and Research. In addition he has served as guest editor guest associate editor or reviewer for more than two dozen other journals. He has served as principal investigator or co-investigator since the early 1980s on a series of research projects funded by the federal government and private foundations. Carolyn T. Thorpe PhD MPH is a tenured Associate Professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She holds a joint appointment as a Research Health Scientist and Core Investigator in the Veterans Affairs (VA) Pittsburgh Healthcare Systems Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP) and serves as Co-Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Postdoctoral Pharmacy Fellowship in Medication Safety and Pharmacy Outcomes. She has served on study sections for the National Institutes of Health and Department of Veterans Affairs as an Associate Editor for the journal Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy and as a reviewer for a diverse range of peer-reviewed journals at the intersection of public health medicine and social science. Over the past two decades Dr. Thorpe has led a federally-funded research program that aims to improve the health of older adults managing complex chronic conditions and has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Her research interests lie in measuring and examining psychological social and behavioral factors related to the safe and appropriate use of medications in older adults and she has specific expertise in developing and evaluating measures of patient illness self-management behavior and medication nonadherence. She enjoys teaching principles of study design and measurement to professional pharmacy and graduate students and serving as an active research mentor of trainees at all levels.