autoFC (version 0.2.0.1002)

construct_blueprint: Build a Blueprint Data Frame for the Focal FC Scale

Description

This function takes in specifications of block size, number of blocks, as well as trait and keying of each item in these blocks, and returns a data frame incorporating these information and ready to be further used for constructing FC blocks by other functions like build_scale_with_blueprint().

Usage

construct_blueprint(N_blocks, block_size, traits, signs)

Value

A data frame, containing the block membership, trait and keying information of all the items.

Arguments

N_blocks

Number of total FC blocks

block_size

Desired block size for the FC scale

traits, signs

Optional vectors. If given, specifies which traits and signs each item in the FC scale should have. traits is a string vector, while signs is a numeric vector (1 for positive items and -1 for negative items)

Author

Mengtong Li

Details

A "blueprint" of the forced-choice scale is essentially a data frame where each row represents one item in the forced-choice scale, and columns specify which block the item belongs to, the trait that the item measures, and the keying of that item.

Note that these are only the basic item information typically needed when matching items into FC blocks; Users can further add other columns to the blueprint if they want to match based on more criteria.

Examples

example_blueprint <- construct_blueprint(N_blocks = 5, block_size = 3, 
                                         traits = sample(c("Openness", 
                                                           "Conscientiousness", 
                                                           "Extraversion", 
                                                           "Agreeableness", 
                                                           "Neuroticism"), 15, replace = TRUE),
                                         signs = sample(c(-1, 1), 15, replace = TRUE))