Consistency of the adult personality.

Data "… concerning consistency of selected personality variables in the adult personality" were studied in a sample originally composed of 300 engaged couples. "Each of these 600 individuals was assessed with an elaborate battery of techniques including anthropometric measures, blood groupings, a battery of psychological tests, and a 36-variable personality rating scale." Retesting occurred after a lapse of 16 to 18 years. "Our findings indicate that significant changes in the human personality may continue to occur during the years of adulthood. Such changes… are potentially of sufficient magnitude to offer a basis of fact for those who hope for continued psychological growth during the adult years." 20 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interdependence of successive absolute judgments.

The aim was "to determine whether successive absolute judgments of a cognitive nature are interdependent, and if so, to evaluate a method for controlling this bias." The design involved rating populations of countries, with one group of Ss rating a "test" country following rating of a sparsely populated one and a second group following the rating of a populous country. This type of design was used several times in longer lists of words. Results of 8 test items indicated that "ratings tend to be biased in the direction of the previous rating… bias increases as the number of response categories increases." When the Ss were instructed to rate extreme stimuli first, no bias effect was found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relative susceptibility of two rating scales to disturbances resulting from shifts in stimulus context.

A simple and a complex rating scale were compared with respect to their resistance to distorting effects produced by limited and shifting stimulus contexts. These 9-point scales assessed "shifting in the value of common stimuli as a function of context" and "loss of refinement or correlational accuracy." Results favored the detailed rating scale with judgmental equivalence and accuracy. Utility of creating experimental stress tests for rating scale evaluation is implied. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self ratings of fear in a fear-invoking situation.

"Airborne trainees were asked to mark on a self rating scale the amount of fear they felt during mock-tower jumping. One group of trainees rated fear in the mock tower just prior to jumping and the second group completed the rating after they had finished mock-tower training. For both groups, performance was related to the self rating of fear. Those who subsequently passed the Airborne course estimated that they were less afraid than those who failed it… . The study appeared to show the reliability and validity of a self rating on fear." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The general applicability of a scale for rating research productivity.

"The RBD III, a forced-choice rating form to provide scores indicative of a person's productive research behavior in physical science research settings, was administered in a setting other than the one in which it was developed." 50 Ss were selected at random from 168 research engineers. Supervisory judgments of a person's creativity activity indicated its validity. The "RBD III can be used to provide criterion scores for research productivity in other physical science research settings." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychiatric rating scales, "Platonic true scores," and scientific method.

D. F. Klein and T. A. Cleary (see 41:10) did not demonstrate, as they claim, that the "assumptions of classical test theory are . . . untenable for a theory based on Platonic true scores." They showed that when one uses a dichotomous rating scale to measure an assumed dichotomous "true" dimension, then the assumptions of classical test theory will not be met. They overgeneralized their philosophical position. Their essentialistic view is nonheuristic and leads to an emphasis on reducing error in poorly devised rating scales, rather than to a proper attention to the construction of better rating scales. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The consistency of ratings by peers.

In the validation and improvement of rating scales used to study ratings by peers, how important are contextual factors? Although the data is for air force application, Ss were 144 paid college students. "… in each of the two replications of the design, six groups of six men were observed by 36 observers… . the Os and Ss reversed roles after two sets of four sessions each… . The approximately 100,000 ratings were punched on IBM cards and most of the computational work was carried out on IBM machines." A man's rating tended to vary from setting to setting and according to rating instructions and trait definitions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Four semantic rating scales compared.

In the construction of semantic rating scales, what format works best? "The questionnaire used in this investigation consisted of 24 eight-step rating scales… . All the scales were bipolar, and were defined by words or phrases at the scale poles, in the manner of the Semantic Differential… . The ratings were made by approximately 400 housewives… interviewed in their own homes by 11 professional interviewers." Rating and interviewer reports were the criteria. Methods were compared. "Whatever method is chosen, the choice should be made with a thoughtful evaluation of the influences these details of format and administration may have upon results." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

FACTORS DESCRIPTIVE OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF HOSPITALIZED PSYCHOTICS.

"A sample of 423 psychotic patients from five veterans hospitals was observed and rated on behavior in the interview and on the ward. The intercorrelations between 55 of the rating scales were subjected to a multiple group factor analysis. The 11 oblique first order factors were interpreted." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Convergent validation of risk taking measures.

"Eighty-two Ss were administered a battery of response set, questionnaire, experimental gambling, and peer rating measures of risk taking tendencies. The intercorrelations among these measures were generally not significant, indicating a lack of convergent validity." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The scalability of estimated worker requirements.

Construction of rating scales and check lists in job analysis can be done with the help of people who make judgments about dimensions for the categories. Can this scalability be made acceptable, and is doing it a general ability or one that is highly specific to the requirement? "Seven experienced and trained job analysts of the United States Employment Service rated 50 jobs on 33 requirements grouped into three classes: (a) aptitudes, (b) interests, and (c) personality. Analysts were provided with definitions of each requirement, together with 'bench mark' jobs to serve as guiding examples." Most of (a), ? of (b), and about ? of (c) were scalable. "… analyst sensitivity is not a general ability but is highly specific to the requirement." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The construction and analysis of a leadership behavior rating form.

First, an attempt was made to generalize the leadership dimensions of consideration and initiating structure to midwestern middle-management behaviors. Rating and item analysis procedures were used to obtain a rating form. Split-half reliability coefficients for the 2 dimensions were greater than .80. Secondly, scores from the rating form were analyzed in relation to the formal organizational structure of a large firm. "Significant behavioral variations were observed along the horizontal axis of the company, but not up the vertical axis. Some evidence is presented which supports the leadership climate concept." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The predictability of ratings as a function of interrater agreement.

"The hypothesis tested was that high agreement among the ratings assigned the same men by different raters does not necessarily imply predictable ratings." 3 superior officers rated 100 submariners on personal adjustment and technical competence. Each rating group was divided into 4 samples for interrater agreement. Correlations were computed with 3 predictor variables. The results support the hypothesis given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A field survey on the annoyance caused by sounds from large firearms and road traffic

Subjective reactions to artillery sounds were determined for over 400 respondents divided among 17 different residential areas. Also, for the same respondents, the subjective effects of road-traffic sounds were determined enabling a comprehensive comparison of the dose-response relations. For the sake of comparison with other field surveys, the noise dose for the shooting sounds was, among other things, expressed as the yearly average C-weighted day-night level (CDNL) and that for the road-traffic sounds was expressed as the A-weighted day-night level (ADNL). Similarly, for both sound types the community response was expressed as the percentage of respondents being "highly annoyed." From the comparison of the two dose-response relationships it could be concluded that for numerically equal day-night levels, the artillery sounds were more annoying than the road-traffic sounds. Overall, the difference was equivalent to the change in annoyance produced by a 5-dB shift in the yearly average day-night levels of the sounds. With equal day-night levels for "downwind" conditions, the artillery and road-traffic sounds were equally annoying. Results from the present highly controlled field survey provided a new opportunity to optimize the parameter values in Schomer's rating procedure y = (1/beta)(LCE-PNSE) + PNSE, in which the noise exposure for impulsive sounds (y) is expressed as the A-weighted SEL of equally annoying vehicle sounds. PNSE represents the point at which the impulsive and vehicle sounds with numerically equal levels are also equally annoying. With PNSE fixed at 103 dB, an optimal solution was found with slope beta set to 1.3. With the previously recommended slope beta = 0.67, the rating sound level for artillery sounds would be underestimated by almost 12 dB.     

A new series of facial expressions.

Collaboration with a local newspaper "yielded a new set of pictures of facial expressions and enabled us to collect judgments on these expressions from 189 newspaper readers." Data based on responses of the 189 readers to each of the 16 posed pictures and data based on responses of 96 college students are presented in a table. The "agreement between the newspaper readers and the students is striking for both medians and quartiles." Collaboration with both local and national newspapers "might supply a very useful population for a wide variety of research problems." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance vectors: A theoretical and experimental attack upon emphasis, effect, and repression.

"In each trial, 16 pairs of verbal phrases were presented, a pair at a time, in two windows in a perpendicular display panel facing the subject. The subject was asked on the first trial to guess, and then on succeeding trials to learn, which item in each pair was 'correct."' In a "'shock-right' group, the subjects obtained a shock in the original learning whenever they pressed the level and button for the correct item in the case of half of the 16 pairs and no shock for either item in the case of the other 8 pairs. In… a 'shock-wrong' group, the subjects obtained a shock in the original learning whenever pressing the lever and button for the incorrect item in the case of half of the pairs and no shock for the other 8 pairs." A "no-shock" group received no shock in original learning. Data concerning original learning and also relearning are presented. The "notion of emphasis was not here supported." Differences between the 3 groups are believed performance differences; it is assumed that "for all groups… the rate of actual learning was really about the same." The concept of vectors is used in discussing learning and performance. "The simple law of Effect is either out or needs reformulation… . We did find, I think, something like a pale pink simulacrum of 'repression."' If so, "it is obviously a performance and not a learning phenomenon." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A method for determining types of self-esteem.

"The present study describes a method of determining self-esteem. This method is based upon a conbination of (a) the subject's response to the Self-Esteem Inventory; (b) a rating of certain of his behaviors which are presumably related to self-esteem; and (c) information on a constellation of experiential and motivational variables." 22 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a criterion of research productivity.

"A forced-choice rating scale designed to determine the extent of a person's productive research behavior was developed at a Midwestern physical science foundation. Of the two experimental scales developed the better form showed an interrator reliability coefficient of .62 and a validity of .60. When the ratings of two raters were averaged the validity of the scale increased to .74." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Objective compared with subjective measures of the same behavior in groups.

"Discussion behavior was measured objectively by a social analog computer, while subjective assessments were made by observers and participants aided by a check list… . There tended to be agreement between the two different methods of measurement… . Observers and participants had difficulty in inferring private events that took place during the discussion. The difficulty of rating private events suggests that observers' ratings are most appropriate for overt events. Yet the successful study of covert events require reliance on objective measurement." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)