Enhancing the construct validity of differential response latencies for personality test items.

Evaluated the effects of increasing scale reliability and of priming dimensional activation on the construct validity of personality test item differential response latencies. 93 undergraduates were computer-administered items from the 3 lengthened scales of the Personality Research Form. Findings show that differential response latencies can demonstrate remarkably strong evidence for their construct validity. In addition, the priming of personality traits may enhance the construct validity of their corresponding differential response latencies. Results support a model of test item responding where differential item response latencies reflect the interaction of an individual's schema with test item content. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The construct validity of depressive personality disorder.

This study examined the construct validity of depressive personality disorder (DPD; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Adult Psychiatric outpatients (N=900) underwent comprehensive Axis I and II evaluations and provided data on 4,768 of their 1st-degree relatives. Despite modest overlap, DPD was not redundant with any Axis I or II disorder. Participants with DPD exhibited more Axis I and Axis II comorbidity, and greater psychosocial dysfunction, than participants without DPD. Relatives of participants with DPD had higher rates of mood disorders, alcohol abuse, and antisocial personality. Results are consistent with findings of several other similar investigations. The authors argue that DPD is a valid construct and should be conceptualized as a personality disorder as opposed to a mood disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The construct validity of egocentrism.

Briefly explains construct validation and applies it to egocentrism. Conceptual and operational referents of this construct are organized into 3 categories: visual/spatial egocentrism (what does the other see), affective egocentrism (what does the other feel), and cognitive/communicative egocentrism (what is the other thinking). Several kinds of reliability information are reported, and construct validity is evaluated primarily by examination of the relationships among measures of egocentrism within and between categories. Although interrater reliability and interrater agreement were found to be uniformly high for all egocentrism measures examined in a review, and the measurement reliability was usually adequate, a few tasks were not internally consistent. Overall, the construct validity of egocentrism was not supported, since most task intercorrelations were low and often nonsignificant. An alternative interpretation of the data based on cognitive constructs and task- and response-specific variables is proposed. (2? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-monitoring personality at work: A meta-analytic investigation of construct validity.

The validity of self-monitoring personality in organizational settings was examined. Meta-analyses were conducted (136 samples; total N ?=?23,191) investigating the relationship between self-monitoring personality and work-related variables, as well as the reliability of various self-monitoring measures. Results suggest that self-monitoring has relevance for understanding many organizational concerns, including job performance and leadership emergence. Sample-weighted mean differences favoring male respondents were also noted, suggesting that the sex-related effects for self-monitoring may partially explain noted disparities between men and women at higher organizational levels (i.e., the glass ceiling). Theory building and additional research are needed to better understand the construct-related inferences about self-monitoring personality, especially in terms of the performance, leadership, and attitudes of those at top organizational levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The construct validity of social desirability.

Replies to A. L. Edwards (see record 1990-13700-001) and J. A. Walsh (see record 1990-13747-001) about R. Hogan and R. A. Nicholson's (see record 1989-00097-001) article on construct validity and social desirability (SD) in personality measurement. Nicholson and Hogan argue that SD does not contaminate self-reports of personality and that there is no lack of differential validity among instruments for SD to explain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence concerning the construct validity of conceptual level as a personality variable.

100 female 12th graders from Southern Ontario, classified as either high, moderate, or low in conceptual level (CL) by the Paragraph Completion Test, were examined for differences in integrative complexity as well as movement toward interpersonal maturity. Ss completed the Wonderlic Intelligence Test, Rasmussen Ego Identity Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. After controlling for intelligence, the higher CL group exhibited significantly superior performance on the more complex aspects of an impression formation task and higher ego identity and lower anxiety scores. Correlational analysis revealed that CL tended to be related to higher level task measures and to ego identity and anxiety, while intelligence tended to be related to less complex aspects of the impression task. Intelligence itself was unrelated to ego identity and anxiety. Findings support the construct validity of CL as outlined by D. E. Hunt at al (1977). (French summary) (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social desirability corrections in personality measurement: Issues of applicant comparison and construct validity.

Research investigating the validity of personality measures has established these measures as useful selection tools. However, personality measures are vulnerable to response distortion leading to employer concerns about the influence of applicant faking, with specific concerns about the influence of social desirability. A traditional method used to circumvent this is the application of a correction based on a social desirability scale score. This study sought to evaluate whether such corrections are effective tools for removing the influence of intentional distortion. A within-subjects design facilitated comparisons between honest, faked, and corrected scores. The goal was to evaluate whether a social desirability correction allows one to approximate an individual's honest score. The results suggest that a social desirability correction is ineffective and fails to produce a corrected score that approximates an honest score. Results are interpreted with respect to applicant comparison and construct validity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of coaching on the utility of response latencies in detecting fakers on a personality measure.

Test-item response latencies on a measure of conscientiousness from 379 undergraduates divided into 2 groups, a coached fake-good group and an ad-lib-fake-good group, were compared to response latencies on the same measure for a group of respondents instructed to answer honestly. In the comparison of honest to ad-lib-fake-good groups, response latencies correctly identified over 60% of individuals as either responding honestly or as faking. In the comparison of honest to coached- fake-good groups, response latencies did not discriminate between honest and faking individuals at greater than chance levels. However, coached fakers did not elevate their scores either on the conscientiousness scale or on an impression management scale in comparison to the group of participants instructed to answer honestly. Results thus suggest that response latencies may not be effective in identifying fakers who are coached on how to beat the response latencies, but, on the other hand, this type of coaching may actually reduce or prevent faking on the measures one is using to make substantive decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The construct validity of interview-based risk assessment in corrections.

The convergent and discriminant validity of selected subtotals of the 1st author's (1983) Level of Supervision Inventory (LSI), which is intended to predict criminal recidivism, were examined in relation to 26 paper-and-pencil self-report measures of similar areas of concern. In 192 probationers (16–25 yrs old), moderate but statistically significant convergent validity estimates were found that exceeded relevant discriminant estimates. The LSI total score was the single strongest predictor of recidivism. It is concluded that the quantification of social history information according to the risk principle of case classification is promising in community corrections. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparative validity of two projective and two structured attitude tests in a prison population.

Which is better for assessing personality—structured or projective devices? "Attitude toward Home & Parents and Attitude toward Law & Justice of 79 prison inmates were each measured by a sentence completion test and a structured attitude test. As examined through a multitrait-multimethod matrix, these tests were found to validate each other quite satisfactorily. Insofar as the two measurement approaches differed at all in the efficacy with which they differentiated crime groups among the prisoners, the structured tests were slightly the better." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial subgroup differences in predictive validity perceptions on personality and cognitive ability tests.

The relationships between examinees' racial subgroup membership and their perceptions of the predictive validity of a widely used personality test (NEO Five Factor Inventory; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and a widely used cognitive ability test (Wonderlic Personnel Test; E. F. Wonderlic, 1984) were examined. Results from 241 undergraduates showed that Black examinees perceived the cognitive ability test as less valid than White examinees, whereas no significant Black–White difference in predictive validity perceptions was observed on the personality test. Results also indicated a significant but small positive association between performance on the cognitive ability test and predictive validity perceptions of the cognitive ability test. Contrary to predictions, there was little evidence that test performance mediated the relationship between race and predictive validity perceptions on the cognitive ability test. Conversely, predictive validity perceptions did not appear to account for any substantial portion of the racial subgroup differences in test performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Single-group validity, differential validity, and differential prediction.

The controversial topics of single-group and differential validity have been the subject of several recent articles. In line with the critiques of the original articles, it is argued that differential validity is too narrow a focus. Differential prediction and considerations of bias in selection procedures are more critical issues and require more than a comparison of correlation coefficients. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distortions of construct validity in multiple regression analysis.

Contends that interpreting the results of multiple regression analyses in terms of the constructs reflected by variables originally entered into the analyses is hazardous because the statistics of interest produced by the analysis (e.g., regression coefficients) are computed using residualized scores. These scores reflect constructs that differ from those described by the original raw scores. Interpretive hazards are demonstrated with a simple fabricated set of data and then with actual data from a study by the author and R. W. Marx (1981) relating 118 schoolchildren's self-concept to their achievement. It is recommended that anchor variables not of direct interest in a research study be measured and correlated with residualized variables. This supplementary analysis sheds light on changes to construct validity that must be known before interpreting multiple regression analyses. (French abstract) (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavioral development and construct validity: The principle of aggregation.

Hypothesized that many null findings in behavioral development (presumed to be unrelated because of repeated failures to obtain substantial correlations) have often been due to failures to aggregate. The principle of aggregation states that the sum of a set of multiple measurements is a more stable and representative estimator than any single measurement. This greater representation occurs because there is inevitably some error associated with measurement. By combining numerous exemplars, such errors of measurement are averaged out, leaving a clearer view of underlying relationships. The usefulness of this principle is illustrated in 12 major areas of developmental research in which the issue of negligible correlations figures prominently: (a) the validity of judges' ratings, (b) the cross-situational consistency of moral character and personality, (c) the longitudinal stability of personality, (d) the coherence of stages of cognitive development, (e) metacognition, (f) the attitude–behavior relationship, (g) the personality–behavior relationship, (h) the role-taking/altruism relationship, (i) the moral-judgment/altruism relationship, (j) the legitimacy of the construct of attachment, (k) the existence of sex differences, and (l) the assessment of emotionality in animals. (109 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relative efficacy of differential response latencies for detecting faking on a self-report measure of psychopathology.

Investigated whether differential response latencies for items on a structured self-report test of psychopathology could be used to detect faking in a sample of maximum security prison inmates. Test item response times were statistically adjusted to reflect item latencies in relation both to the person and to the item; discriminant function analysis indicated that such times could significantly differentiate among standard responding, faking good responses, and faking bad responses. Furthermore, classification hit rates with differential response latencies compared favorably with those rates found with more traditional response dissimulation scales. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the construct validity of open-field measures.

This article is a supplement to the summary by R. N. Walsh and R. A. Cummins (1976) of the current status of open-field measures of emotionality. The relevant factor-analytic and multifactor-experimental evidence is summarized. It is concluded that 3 lower order invariant factors underlie the 5 most extensively investigated open-field measures. Latency to move, locomotor activity, and penetration to the center are primarily indices of motor discharge. Open-field defecation is primarily an index of autonomic balance, and open-field urination is primarily an index of territorial marking. It is also concluded that the higher order factor of emotional stability is common to the 3 lower order factors. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Construct validity in psychological tests.

"Construct validation was introduced in order to specify types of research required in developing tests for which the conventional views on validation are inappropriate. Personality tests, and some tests of ability, are interpreted in terms of attributes for which there is no adequate criterion. This paper indicates what sorts of evidence can substantiate such an interpretation, and how such evidence is to be interpreted." 60 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aggregation, moderator variables, and the validity of personality tests: A peer-rating study.

A study with 85 college fraternity members investigated the effects of aggregation and moderator variables on the validity of personality tests. Aggregation over items and raters yielded an average self–peer correlation of .44 for ratings on 4 personality dimensions. The combination of social communication skill and self-knowledge produced significant moderating effects. Ss high on the Acting subscale and high on a composite of Private Self-Consciousness and Personal Identity scales had stronger agreement between self- and peer ratings than did those low on these measures. Results for 4 specific moderator variables (the importance, variability, and observability of each rating dimension) were in the predicted direction, although weaker than expected. It is concluded that aggregation and the use of moderator variables are both important techniques for obtaining convincing validity coefficients in personality research. (75 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantifying construct validity: Two simple measures.

Construct validity is one of the most central concepts in psychology. Researchers generally establish the construct validity of a measure by correlating it with a number of other measures and arguing from the pattern of correlations that the measure is associated with these variables in theoretically predictable ways. This article presents 2 simple metrics for quantifying construct validity that provide effect size estimates indicating the extent to which the observed pattern of correlations in a convergent-discriminant validity matrix matches the theoretically predicted pattern of correlations. Both measures, based on contrast analysis, provide simple estimates of validity that can be compared across studies, constructs, and measures meta-analytically, and can be implemented without the use of complex statistical procedures that may limit their accessibility. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)