Fadillah, a lecturer at Institut Teknologi Bandung, has officially graduated from the Doctoral Program of the Faculty of Psychology at Universitas Gadjah Mada (Psychology UGM) in an open examination on Friday (Feb. 13), she successfully defended her dissertation titled From Theory to Game: A Development and Validation Model of Game-Based Assessment for Conscientiousness, under the supervision of Professor Rahmat Hidayat, and co-supervisor Professor Agung Santoso.
Fadillah’s dissertation provides a conceptual and methodological foundation for developing Game-Based Assessment (GBA) that is more inferentially transparent, architecturally robust, and empirically accountable, thereby enhancing its relevance in addressing the evolving challenges of psychological assessment in the digital era.
Her dissertation demonstrates that the development of construct-valid GBA cannot be separated from the formulation of clear and explicit behavioral inference mechanisms.
In the Conceptual Three-Model Framework of GBA Evaluation, she explains that validity is understood as emerging from the structural alignment between the theoretical specification of the construct being measured, behavior triggers mediated by game design, and psychometric evaluation of the quality of the resulting inferences.
Empirical findings from the three studies indicate that disruption or misalignment in any of these components, particularly in task design and user experience control, directly reduces the interpretability of observed behavior, even when aggregate psychometric indicators appear acceptable.
“This study formulates a theory-driven model for developing Game-Based Assessment to measure conscientiousness through three studies involving meta-analysis, prototype development, and empirical evaluation,” she explained.
The first study provides evidence that GBA has significant potential as a method for measuring personality traits. A meta-analysis of previous studies shows moderate and significant convergent validity between GBA and self-report measures (r = 0.516; p < 0.001).
The second study expands understanding of how psychological measurement attributes can be operationalized into game design through the integration of design thinking and the DPE framework. The findings indicate that design thinking and the DPE framework help structure and systematize the GBA development process while ensuring a clear foundation for measurement concepts.
The third study provides empirical evidence that the GBA prototype is positively correlated with conscientiousness scores (r = 0.350; p < 0.001).
Meanwhile, Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis identified several items with good discrimination power, although some items require further improvement. Cognitive interviews confirmed that the initial game scenarios more consistently spark conscientiousness-related behavior compared to later scenarios, which were affected by visual complexity and therefore require further revision.
“Overall, the findings from the three studies produce a theory-driven model that integrates personality theory, game design, and modern psychometric principles to support the development of more standardized, construct-valid, and replicable GBA,” she added.
Author: Agung Nugroho
Post-editor: Jasmine Ferdian