Department of Psychology
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270
(919) 962-5036

Education:

B.A., Psychology, St. Louis University, June 1971

Ph.D., Behavioral Sciences, The University of Chicago, August 1976

Teaching and Research experience:

1976	Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University (Summer)
1976-1981	Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas
1981-1987	Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas
1987-1990	Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas
1990-2002	Professor and Director, Quantitative Program, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2003-	Professor, Quantitative Program, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Academic Honors and Affiliations:

1971	Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, St. Louis University
1971-1972	NDEA Title IV fellow, University of Chicago
1972-1975	NSF Graduate fellow, University of Chicago
1973-	Member, Psychometric Society
1979-	Member, American Statistical Association (Fellow, 2006-)
1985-	Member, National Council on Measurement in Education
1989	Elected to Sigma Xi, University of Kansas
1990-	Member, American Psychological Society (Charter Fellow, 1998-)
1994-1998	Senior Fellow, National Institute of Statistical Sciences
1999-2000	President-elect, Psychometric Society
2000-2001	President, Psychometric Society
2001-2002	Past President, Psychometric Society

Research Interests:

Psychometrics, item response theory

Models for human growth and development

Graphics and statistics in psychological contexts

Selected Recent Publications:

Varni, J., Stucky, B.D., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E.M., Irwin, D., Lai, J.S.,Yeatts, K., & DeWalt, D.A. (2010). PROMIS Pediatric Pain Interference Scale: An Item Response Theory Analysis of the Pediatric Pain Item Bank. Journal of Pain, 11, 1109-1119

Irwin, D., Stucky, B.D., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E.M., Lai, J.S., Yeatts, K., Varni, J., & DeWalt, D.A. (2010). An item response analysis of the Pediatric PROMIS Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms Scales. Quality of Life Research, 19, 595-607.

Irwin, D.E., Stucky, B.D., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E.M., Lai, J.S.,Yeatts, K., Varni, J.W., DeWalt, D.A. (2010). Sampling plan and patient characteristics of the PROMIS pediatrics large-scale survey. Quality of Life Research, 19, 585-594.

Yeatts, K., Stucky, B.D., Thissen, D., Irwin, D., Varni, J., DeWitt, E.M., Lai, J.S., & DeWalt, D.A. (2010). Construction of the Pediatric Asthma Impact Scale (PAIS) for the Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). Journal of Asthma, 47, 295-302.

Thissen, D., Cai, L., & Bock, R.D. (2010). The nominal categories item response model. In M. Nering & R. Ostini (Eds.), Handbook of polytomous item response theory models (Pp. 43-75). New York, NY: Routledge.

Thissen, D. & Steinberg, L. (2010). Using item response theory to disentangle constructs at different levels of generality. In S. Embretson (Ed.), Measuring psychological constructs: Advances in model-based approaches (Pp. 123-144). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Thissen, D. (2009). The MEDPRO project: An SBIR project for a comprehensive IRT and CAT software system—IRT software. In D. J. Weiss (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2009 GMAC Conference on Computerized Adaptive Testing. At www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/CATCentral/.

Linn, R.L., McLaughlin, D., & Thissen, D. (2009). Utility and validity of NAEP linking efforts. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research, NAEP Validity Studies Panel.

Thissen, D. (2009). On interpreting the parameters for any item response model. Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research & Perspectives, 7, 104-108.

Thissen, D. & Steinberg, L. (2009). Item response theory. In R. Millsap & A. Maydeu-Olivares, The Sage handbook of quantitative methods in psychology (Pp. 148-177). London: Sage Publications.

Langer, M.M., Hill, C.D., Thissen, D., Burwinkle, T.M., Varni, J.W., & DeWalt, D.A. (2008). Item response theory detects differential item functioning between healthy and ill children in QoL measures. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 61, 268-276.

Edwards, M. C. & Thissen, D. (2007). Exploring potential designs for multi-form structure computerized adaptive tests with uniform item exposure. In D. J. Weiss (Ed.), Proceedings of the 2007 GMAC Conference on Computerized Adaptive Testing. At www.psych.umn.edu/psylabs/CATCentral/.

Bjorner, J.B., & Chang, C.-H., Thissen, D., Reeve, B.B. (2007). Developing tailored instruments: item banking and computerized adaptive assessment. Quality of Life Research, 16, 95-108.

Thissen, D., Reeve, B.B., Bjorner, J.B., & Chang, C.-H. (2007). Methodological issues for building item banks and computerized adaptive scales. Quality of Life Research, 16, 109-116.

Thissen, D. (2007). Linking assessments based on aggregate reporting: Background and issues. In N.J. Dorans, M. Pommerich, & P.W. Holland (Eds.) Linking and aligning scores and scales (Pp. 287-312). New York, NY: Springer.

Hill, C.D., Edwards, M.C., Thissen, D., Langer, M.M., Wirth, R.J., Burwinkle, T.M., & Varni, J.W. (2007). Practical issues in the application of item response theory: A demonstration using items from the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventoryª (PedsQLª) 4.0 Generic Core Scales. Medical Care, 45, S39-47.

Reeve, B.B., Hays, R.D, Bjorner, J.B., Cook K.F., Crane, P.K., Teresi, J.A., Thissen, D., Revicki, D.A., Weiss, D.J., Hambleton, R.K., Liu, H., Gershon, R., Reise, S.P., & Cella, D (2007). Psychometric evaluation and calibration of health-related quality of life items banks: Plans for the patient-reported outcome measurement information system (PROMIS). Medical Care, 45, S22-31.

Jones, L.V. & Thissen, D. (2007). A history and overview of psychometrics. In C.R. Rao and S. Sinharay, Handbook of Statistics, 26: Psychometrics (Pp. 1-27) Amsterdam: North Holland.

Edelen, M.O., Thissen, D., Teresi, J.A., Kleinman, M., & Ocepek-Welikson, K. (2006). Identification of differential item functioning using item response theory and the likelihood-based model comparison approach: application to the Mini-Mental Status Examination. Medical Care, 44, S134-142.

Steinberg, L., & Thissen, D. (2006) Using Effect Sizes for Research Reporting: Examples using Item Response Theory to Analyze Differential Item Functioning. Psychological Methods, 11, 402-415.

Cai, L., Maydeu-Olivares, A., Coffman, D.L., & Thissen, D. (2006). Limited information goodness-of-fit testing of item response theory models for sparse 2p tables. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 59, 173-194.

Woods, C.M. & Thissen, D. (2006). Item response theory with estimation of the latent population distribution using spline-based densities. Psychometrika, 71, 281-301.

Rodebaugh, T.L., Woods, C.M., Thissen, D., Heimberg, R.G., Chambless, D.L., & Rapee, R.M. (2004). More information from fewer questions: The factor structure and item properties of the original and brief fear of negative evaluation scale. Psychological Assessment, 16, 169-181.

Orlando, M. & Thissen, D. (2003). Further invesigation of the performance of S-X2: An item fit index for use with dichotomous item response theory models. Applied Psychological Measurement, 27, 289-298

McLeod, L., Lewis, C, & Thissen, D. (2003). A Bayesian method for the detection of item preknowledge in computerized adaptive testing. Applied Psychological Measurement, 27, 121-137.

Thissen, D. (2003). Psychometric engineering as art: Variations on a theme. In H. Yanai, A. Okada, and K. Shigemasu, Y. Kano, & J.J. Meulman (Eds), New developments in psychometrics: Proceedings of the International Meeting of the Psychometric Society IMPS 2001 (Pp. 3-18). Tokyo: Springer-Verlag.

Thissen, D., Steinberg, L., & Kuang, D. (2002). Quick and easy implementation of the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure for controlling the false discovery rate in multiple comparisons. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 27, 77-83.

Thissen, D. (2001). Psychometric engineering as art. Psychometrika, 66, 473-486.

Thissen, D. & Wainer, H. (Eds) (2001) Test Scoring. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Orlando, M., & Thissen, D. (2000). New item fit indices for dichotomous item response theory models. Applied Psychological Measurement, 24, 50-64.