The relationship between Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory scores and scores on certain scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

"The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was administered to two groups of… teachers at opposite extremes of the distribution of scores for the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. Differences in mean scores of the two groups on the clerical scales of the MMPI, with and without the K correction and on 'subtle' and 'obvious' items scored separately, and differences in frequencies of different codings of profiles were analyzed." Several differences on MMPI scales between teachers scoring high on the MTAI and those scoring low on the MTAI seemed to be significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing the equivalence of translations of widely used response choice labels: results from the IQOLA Project. International Quality of Life Assessment

The similarity in meaning assigned to response choice labels from the SF-36 Health Survey (SF-36) was evaluated across countries. Convenience samples of judges (range, 10 to 117; median = 48) from 13 countries rated translations of response choice labels, using a variation of the Thurstone method of equal appearing intervals. Judges marked a point on a 10-cm line-representing the magnitude of a response choice label (e.g., "good" relative to the anchors of "poor" and "excellent"). Ratings were evaluated to determine the ordinal consistency of response choice labels within a response scale; the degree to which differences between adjacent response choice labels were equal interval; and the amount of variance due to response choice label, country, judge, and interaction between response choice label and country. Results confirmed the hypothesized ordering of response choice labels; the percentage of ordinal pairs ranged from 88.7% to 100% (median = 98.2%) across countries and response scales. Examination of the average magnitudes of response choice labels supported the "quasi-interval" nature of the scales. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results supported the generalizability of response choice magnitudes across countries; labels explained 64% to 77% of the variance in ratings, and country explained 1% to 3%. These results support the equivalence of SF-36 response choice labels across countries. Departures from the assumption of equal intervals, when observed, were similar across countries and were greatest for the two response scales that are recalibrated under standard SF-36 scoring. Results provide justification for scoring translations of individual items using standard SF-36 scoring; whether these items form the same scales in other countries as they do in the United States is evaluated with tests of scaling assumptions.     

Tests of data quality, scaling assumptions, and reliability of the SF-36 in eleven countries: results from the IQOLA Project. International Quality of Life Assessment

Data from general population samples in 11 countries (n = 1483 to 9151) were used to assess data quality and test the assumptions underlying the construction and scoring of multi-item scales from the SF-36 Health Survey. Across all countries, the rate of item-level missing data generally was low, although slightly higher for items printed in the grid format. In each country, item means generally were clustered as hypothesized within scales. Correlations between items and hypothesized scales were greater than 0.40 with one exception, supporting item internal consistency. Items generally correlated significantly higher with their own scale than with competing scales, supporting item discriminant validity. Scales could be constructed for 93-100% of respondents. Internal consistency reliability of the eight SF-36 scales was above 0.70 for all scales, with two exceptions. Floor effects were low for all except the two role functioning scales; ceiling effects were high for both role functioning scales and also were noteworthy for the Physical Functioning, Bodily Pain, and Social Functioning scales in some countries. These results support the construction and scoring of the SF-36 translations in these 11 countries using the method of summated ratings.     

Development of the survey of work values.

Developed a series of scales measuring attitudes toward work. The survey of work values (swv) was based on a number of dimensions of protestant ethic, specifically those aspects that deal with the meaning that an individual attaches to his role at work. The content validity of the items was established by the reallocation method of scaling. Items were analyzed to determine the best method of scoring and to select items for the subscales according to the internal consistencies and independence of the subscales. Unweighted, multipoint scoring was selected for 54 items. Swv scores discriminated among occupational groups of 449 ss and correlated with background characteristics of 342 employed and 133 disadvantaged ss. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Complete automation of the MMPI and a study of its response latencies.

Examined the feasibility of computerizing the administration, scoring, and interpretation of the MMPI and comparing its response latencies with other MMPI item characteristics. 26 scales were successfully scored for 77 undergraduates, and an interpretive report was typed by the program. With respect to item response latency, stepwise regression analysis indicate that item length accounted for 48-58% of the variance, while item ambiguity, social desirability, and social desirability dispersion accounted for only 3-8%. For the 38 MMPI critical items, "deviant" response latencies were longer than "nondeviant" latencies. Replication results with 56 Ss were almost identical. Thus, excepting subtests of personality items, latency may not have the psychological significance often attributed to it. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of the Short Parkinson's Evaluation Scale: a new friendly scale for the evaluation of Parkinson's disease in clinical drug trials

The extensive use of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) has revealed low interrater reliability in some items and redundancy in others. In view of these shortcomings, we have structured a new scale that includes a zero-to three-point scale for each item in the evaluation of PD. The mental axis includes memory, thought disorders, and depression. Activities of daily living (ADL) includes eight items: speech, eating, feeding, dressing, hygiene, handwriting, walking, and turning in bed. The motor examination includes eight items: speech, tremor, rest and posture, rigidity, finger tapping, arising from chair, gait, and postural stability. Complications of therapy were also included: dyskinesias, dystonia, motor fluctuations, and freezing episodes, collected by history. In addition, a global scoring for motor fluctuations that should complement the Hoehn and Yahr Scale was incorporated. In this report, we present a statistical analysis of the ADL, motor evaluation, and complications of therapy sections. Concerning the interrater reliability mean, Kendall's W values were >0.9 for most of the items in the Short Parkinson's Evaluation Scale (SPES). Kendall's W <0.8 (motor evaluation) was found for two items of the SPES and nine items of the UPDRS. The mean interrater reliability for both scales across all seven centers (seven Kendall's W for seven centers) (Mann-Whitney test) showed no statistical differences between the scales. Spearman's correlations between items of both scales were significant. Factor analysis of the SPES and UPDRS data revealed a four-factor solution that explained approximately 60% of the data. All participating centers found the SPES easier to apply and quicker to complete, when compared with the UPDRS. The results obtained strongly favor the introduction of SPES for clinical practice.     

MMPI: Professional use by professional people.

Aletter in answer to Mr. R., who inquired about the use of items relating to religion in the MMPI and pointed out that there are laws against inquiry about religious affiliation, is reproduced. "There is a well-recognized pattern of psychological distortion to which we apply the term "religiosity." There are also "frankly stated items on sex,… on body functions,… on certain occupations… " etc. Respondents "may omit any item they do not wish to answer for whatever purpose." Separate scores are derived on groups of items in the MMPI called scales; via machine scoring standard scores are derived which are "remote from the particular items that make up a scale. The MMPI is an experimentally derived instrument." If an item counts on a scale, it is on the basis of responses with well defined groups of maladjusted or mentally ill persons. "Tests are not offensive elements; the offensive elements, if any, come with the misuse of tests." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflecting interactions among personality items: Meehl's paradox revisited.

Regarding configural scoring, P. E. Meehl (see record 1951-00366-001) provided an artificial example in which 2 binary items were not individually correlated with the incidence of schizophrenia; yet, if item interactions were taken into account, the items could accurately predict schizophrenia. Relative to this paradox, the present study shows how substantial new information can be used by uncovering item interactions in personality scales. The California Psychological Inventory (CPI) was analyzed using data consisting of 472 binary CPI item scores taken from 5,219 high school students residing in small US cities in the 1950's, originally collected by H. G. Gough (1975). Results show that for most subscales, a substantial number of items interacted such that some item weights depended on how some other items were scored. Subsequent analyses indicated that identifying interacting items pointed toward interesting subscales and subgroups of individuals as well as augmented interactive scales that were substantially more reliable than existing scales. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Item selection counts: A comparison of empirical key and rational scale validities in theory-based and non-theory-based item pools.

Little explicit attention has been given to the impact of item pools on the validities and cross-validities of different background data scoring approaches. This study tests the idea that pools of items theoretically related to the performance of interest will outperform pools of items with no hypothesized relationship with the criterion. Validities and cross-validities of rational scales and empirical keys created from theory- and non-theory-based item pools were compared for 3 criteria. When size of the item pools was held constant, theory-based empirical keys (correlational and vertical percent) and rational scales showed larger validities and cross-validities than non-theory-based empirical keys (correlational and vertical percent) and showed minimal shrinkage in cross-validities. Even when item pool for the non-theory-based keys was expanded to include all items in the instrument, the theory-based keys showed comparable or slightly better validities and cross-validities for 2 of the 3 criteria, including college GPA, which was separated from the predictors by 4 years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unitary alcoholism factor and its personality correlates.

Administered a 135-item alcohol behavior questionnaire and the short-form MMPI to 160 new admissions to a state hospital. The alcohol questionnaire was constructed with substantial item redundancy so that specific factors could be defined. Factor analysis of the 135 items revealed 1 large alcoholism factor plus 10 small specific factors that were not essential features of alcoholism. A principal components analysis of the 42 items most highly related to the single major alcoholism factor povided scoring weights. Item analysis techniques were used to identify the MMPI items which were most discriminating between Ss with high and low alcohol-abuse scores. 49 MMPI items were found to relate highly to the alcohol-abuse factor scores. The 49 items were found to contribute most to scoring of HS, D, Hy, and Pt clinical scales, while the contribution to Pd was substantially lower. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical utility of the MMPI research scales in the assessment of adolescent acting out behaviors.

The substantial number of MMPI research scales developed during the last 50 yrs provides a unique opportunity to compare the practical value of a large number of related scales and the methodologies used to develop them. To this end, the concurrent validity of 93 MMPI scales as measures of acting out (aggressiveness, chemical dependency, delinquency, family conflict, and school behavior problems) was evaluated in a sample of 327 adolescent inpatients. Results generally support the construct validity of the Psychopathic Deviate scale but also reveal several research scales that function well as broad measures of acting out. There were, however, relatively few scales that were narrowly related to specific behavioral tendencies. Scales consisting exclusively of face-valid items generally performed better in this regard than did scales including "subtle" items, and they appear to have greater clinical utility with this population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarianism scales and response bias.

Scales of authoritarianism differ from other self-report measures like the MMPI in ways that make them particularly susceptible to agreement response bias: (1) depending particularly on item content in relation to a theoretical syndrome; (2) using ambiguous items; (3) scoring all items in 1 direction. Fittingly, evidence now indicates that response bias is a major factor on authoritarian scales and not on the MMPI. This evidence can be maintained against the counterproposals of Rokeach and Samelson. Support is reiterated for interpreting (1) response bias not mechanically but as a response tendency when the S is uncertain; (2) high authoritarianism scale scores as representing simple-mindedness more than authoritarian ideologies. The latter interpretation is supported not only for college students but even more from survey data for the general population. (28 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Content and comprehensiveness in the MMPI: An item factor analysis in a normal adult sample.

A principal components analysis of the 550 MMPI items on 1,576 patients referred for coronary angiography was performed to define the MMPI's psychological content dimensions and evaluate the comprehensiveness of its items. After failing to replicate the 21-factor solution of J. H. Johnson et al (1984), the authors interpreted 9 orthogonally rotated components. Agreement was found between a number of studies on several factors, including neuroticism, somatic complaints, cynicism, and religious orthodoxy. However, only 1 of the 5 personality dimensions identified by W. T. Norman (1963) was adequately represented. The 9-factor scales identified in this analysis may be useful as an alternative way of scoring the test, especially for longitudinal studies with archival MMPI data sets. It is suggested that the MMPI is capable of making subtle diagnostic distinctions when applied to a psychiatric population but that these distinctions become less meaningful when applied to a normal sample. Thus, it would be advisable to supplement the MMPI with instruments that measure a broader range of normal personality characteristics. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accentuation and perspective in attitudinal judgment.

Studied 185 15–16 yr old high school students' and 73 undergraduates' judgments of statements concerning the nonmedical use of drugs as affected by judges' attitudes toward the issue, the range of items presented, and value connotations. As predicted by accentuation theory, prodrug judges gave more polarized ratings on scales where the "pro" end was more positively labeled (P+), and antidrug Ss gave more polarized ratings on scales where the "anti" end was the more positive (A+); this replicated previous findings. Also, as predicted, more polarized ratings were given on P+ than on A+ scales when the item range was aborted at the pro end and vice versa when it was aborted at the anti end. It is argued that judgment does not necessarily depend on the total subjective range of items that a judge takes into account (the original definition of perspective) but rather on the perceived appropriateness of a given scale to a given region of the underlying continuum. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methodological considerations in the assessment of acquiescence in the MA and SD scale.

This paper cites certain limitations in making assessment of acquiescence in personality scales by the use of reversed items and the Helmstadter technique. Inadequate item reversals may have contributed to the interpretation by Adams and Kirby (1936) that the SD scale was confounded with acquiescence, a finding not supported here when original items only are used. A criterion of adequate reversal, derived from SD research, may aid in developing "balanced" scales. Precautions in making acquiescence interpretations from the Helmstadter model include the confounding of content and set scores in the formulas, the confounding of response style and trait responses, lack of evidence on what the set score measures, and the uncertainty over the nature of acquiescence and how to measure it. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The moderating effect of spinal cord injury on MMPI-2 profiles: A clinically derived T score correction procedure.

Applied a retrospective pretest-posttest design to examine the extent to which the physical sequelae of spinal cord injury (SCI) affected mean T scores on the MMPI-2. 32 men with quadriplegia and 10 with paraplegia answered the MMPI-2, then, after recalling their status prior to injury, reanswered 28 MMPI-2 items judged by 12 psychiatrists to reflect the physical sequelae of SCI. The original MMPI-2 scores were compared with corrected scores based upon the 28 preinjury responses. Significant differences were found on scales F, K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 9. Significant differences between the MMPI-2 male normative group and the SCI group were found on scales 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 0 when conventional scoring was used but only on scales 5 and 0 when the correction procedure was used. The correction procedure changed interpretive statements associated with the SCI group mean profile. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reworded versus new interest items.

In revising the SVIB, 49 items were reworded and 101 items were replaced by new ones. The change in content between the original and reworded items was judged too slight to affect scoring of these items using current weights. The change in content between the original items and new items was judged too significant to allow these items to be scored on existing scales using current weights. To determine whether these judgments were correct, control and experimental groups responded to the items in a test-retest situation with a 3-day interval. 3 measures of stability agreed very well but not perfectly. An average of the 3 procedures indicated that 10 of the 49 reworded items should be classified as new instead of reworded. The criterion, stability of items, is a useful one in the selection of new items. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Measuring cancer patients' affect: Revision and psychometric properties of the Profile of Mood States (POMS).

From the Profile of Mood States (POMS) response set, brief, psychometrically sound Negative Affect and Positive Affect scales free of somatic content were constructed. Despite the frequent use of the POMS, its scales are highly intercorrelated, administration time is long, and the presence of items reflecting somatic content potentially confounds the assessment of mood. Comparison of the revised scales' psychometric properties with the properties of the original POMS scoring support the contention that mood can be represented in a less complex format than that currently conceived. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How many IRT parameters does it take to model psychopathology items?

The authors compared the fit of the 2- and 3-parameter logistic models (2PLM; 3PLM) on 15 unidimensional factor scales derived from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--Adolescent item pool. Log-likelihood chi-square deviance tests indicated that a 3PLM provided an improved fit. However, residual statistics Indicated that the difference in fit between the 2 models was negligible. An unexpected finding was that from 10% to 30% of the items had substantial lower asymptote parameters (c ≥ .10) when the scales were scored in the pathology or nonpathology directions. The authors argue that the large lower asymptote parameters are attributable to item-content ambiguity possibly caused by item-level multidimensionality. These findings suggest that the direction of scoring can critically affect an item response theory analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)