Psychologists and researchers often find difficulty in comparing various psychological inventories due to the different structures and content in each questionnaire. One common comparison may be between Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Health-related Quality of Life (HRQOL). The BAI focuses on the severity of anxiety symptoms, with 21 questions related to common cognitive and physical symptoms. The HRQOL, on the other hand, assesses general health and wellbeing with questions on physical and mental health status, daily activities limitations, and personal care requirements due to health problems. However, comparing and harmonising these two questionnaires can be particularly challenging because of their different focus areas, content and language used. The software tool Harmony provides a solution to the difficulty of conducting a comparison between Beck Anxiety Inventory and HRQOL. It employs natural language processing and generative AI models to intelligently match questionnaire items, even if they are framed in different ways or written in different languages.
Using Harmony, psychologists are able to select instruments from a database or upload their own in PDF format and then Harmony can provide a percentage comparison for each item in Beck Anxiety Inventory vs HRQOL. Therefore, Harmony can help in eliminating the tedious manual process of examining the correspondence between various questionnaire items, which may also be prone to subjective errors. Given the complexity and subjectivity of harmonising psychological tools such as Beck Anxiety Inventory vs HRQOL, it is advised that researchers utilise Harmony for more objective and reliable comparisons. The software’s language models can accurately compare and match items, while also saving researchers significant time and effort. Harmony’s simplicity of use, from dragging and dropping PDF forms to obtaining comprehensive results, makes it an invaluable tool for psychologists and researchers alike.