Assessment and Measurement in Health Psychology

Sound assessment and measurement is at the heart of every discipline, including health psychology. Within the current chapter, we address several key issues of assessment and measurement in health psychology. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of commonly used methodologies in health psychology research and clinic, including questionnaire assessment and ecological momentary assessment, as well as potential pitfalls in using these assessment methods. Next, we discuss three pivotal features of assessment (i.e., reliability, validity, and responsiveness) and their importance for assessment of health psychological constructs. Last, we discuss some examples of tools to assess health outcomes in research and evidence-based practice as well as future directions in the field of health psychology assessment.