Self-discrepancy and distress: The role of personal growth initiative.

Higher levels of personal growth initiative (PGI; C. Robitschek, 1998) are associated with lower negative and higher positive affect (e.g., C. Robitschek & S. Kashubeck, 1999; C. Robitschek & C. L. M. Keyes, 2004). Two hypotheses that have been suggested for such findings are that (a) PGI moderates the relation between problems and affect and (b) successful resolution of potential problems mediates the relation between PGI and affect (C. Robitschek & S. Kashubeck, 1999). The current research tested these two hypotheses, using self-discrepancies (E. T. Higgins, 1987) as problems or sources of distress. Using a sequential design and a sample of predominantly European American college students (N = 134), the authors found that PGI was associated with lower social anxiety and negative affect, higher positive affect, and lower self-discrepancies. No support for the first (moderation) hypothesis was found. However, there was partial support for the second (mediational) hypothesis. The results suggest that those higher in PGI experience less social anxiety in part by maintaining lower self-discrepancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and psychometric properties of the Early Development Instrument (EDI): A measure of children's school readiness.

The Early Development Instrument (EDI), a teacher-completed measure of children's school readiness at entry to Grade 1, was designed to provide communities with an informative, inexpensive and psychometrically sound tool to assess outcomes of early development as reflected in children's school readiness. Its psychometric properties at individual level were evaluated in two studies. Five a priori domains--physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and communication, and cognitive development and general knowledge--were tested in a factor analysis of data on over 16,000 kindergarten children. The factor analyses upheld the first three domains, but revealed the need to develop two new ones, resulting in the final version of the EDI consisting of: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, communication skills and general knowledge domains. These final domains showed good reliability levels, comparable with other instruments. A separate study (N = 82) demonstrated consistent agreements in parent-teacher, interrater reliabilities, concurrent validity, and convergent validity. These results establish the EDI as a psychometrically adequate indicator of child well-being at school entry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing worry in older adults: Confirmatory factor analysis of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire and psychometric properties of an abbreviated model.

The assessment of worry among older adults typically has involved measures designed with younger cohorts. Because of special concerns in assessing older adults, modifications to existing instruments may be necessary. Addressing equivocal factor analytic data on the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) among younger adults, the authors conducted confirmatory factor analyses to evaluate the generalizability of previous models to older adults with generalized anxiety disorder. Data fit poorly with established single- and two-factor models. The single-factor model was modified, resulting in the elimination of 8 items, strong fit indices, high internal consistency, adequate test-retest reliability, and good convergent and divergent validity. Further psychometric work is required to assess whether the revised model is a more parsimonious method to assess late-life anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing readiness for change in the eating disorders: The psychometric properties of the readiness and motivation interview.

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Readiness and Motivation Interview (RMI), a symptom-specific measure of readiness and motivation for change in the eating disorders. For 4 symptom domains, the RMI assesses the extent to which individuals are in precontemplation, contemplation, and action/maintenance, and the extent to which change is made for internal versus external reasons. Ninety-nine individuals with eating disorders completed the RMI and measures to assess convergent, divergent, and criterion validity. RMI profiles revealed differences in readiness and motivation across symptom domains. The RMI demonstrated good reliability and construct validity, and RMI scores predicted anticipated difficulty of recovery activities, completion of recovery activities, decision to enroll in an intensive symptom-reduction program, and treatment dropout. The RMI may have important clinical applications by providing much-needed information on client readiness for action-oriented treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Focus on therapeutic alliance: The psychometric properties of six measures across three treatments.

The psychometric properties of six measures of therapeutic alliance (California Psychotherapy Alliance Scales; Penn Helping Alliance Rating Scale; Vanderbilt Therapeutic Alliance Scale; and the Working Alliance Inventory- therapist, client, and rater versions) were compared in a sample of 60 substance-dependent individuals participating in a randomized clinical trial of three psychotherapies. Internal consistency, interrater reliability, and intercorrelations among the instruments were evaluated. Results supported the construct validity of the therapeutic alliance and indicated that all six measures had acceptable reliabilities. Correlations between observer and participant measures were comparatively low. Reliabilities did vary, however, by treatment condition, suggesting that psychometric properties, and by extension alliance-process-outcome relationships, may vary across treatments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trends in reporting psychometric properties of scales used in counseling psychology research.

Reports of reliability and validity estimates are necessary to determine the adequacy of scales' psychometric properties. In this study we examined the frequency of reports of psychometric properties for scales described in the 1967, 1977, and 1987 volumes of the Journal of Counseling Psychology. The results indicated that researchers have increasingly provided reference citations for scales and reliability estimates as well as reliability estimates for their samples. At the same time the majority of the scales in the 1987 volume had no reported sample or cited reliability estimates. The modal number of items per scale over the 3 time periods remained at 1. A set of guidelines for reporting scale characteristics is proposed, and potential explanations for researchers' frequent omission of psychometric data are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Child Attachment Interview: A psychometric study of reliability and discriminant validity.

While well-established attachment measures have been developed for infancy, early childhood, and adulthood, a "measurement gap" has been identified in middle childhood, where behavioral or representational measures are not yet sufficiently robust. This article documents the development of a new measure--the Child Attachment Interview (CAI)--which seeks to bridge this gap. The CAI is a semistructured interview, in which children are invited to describe their relationships with their primary caregivers. The coding system is informed by the Adult Attachment Interview and the Strange Situation Procedure, and produces 4 attachment categories along with a continuous measure of attachment security based on ratings of attachment-related dimensions. The main psychometric properties are presented, including interrater reliability, test-retest reliability, and concurrent and discriminant validities, both for normally developing children and for those referred for mental health treatment. The CAI correlates as expected with other attachment measures and predicts independently collected ratings of social functioning. The findings suggest that the CAI is a reliable, valid, and promising measure of child-parent attachment in middle childhood. Directions for improvements to the coding system are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychometric properties and utility of the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale (SSIS).

Sadistic personality disorder (SPD) has been underresearched and often misunderstood in forensic settings. Furthermore, personality disorders in general are the subject of much controversy in terms of their classification (i.e., whether they should be categorical or dimensional). The Sadistic Attitudes and Behaviors Scale (SABS; Davies & Hand, 2003; O'Meara, Davies, & Barnes-Holmes, 2004) is a recently developed scale for measuring sadistic inclinations. Derived from this is the Short Sadistic Impulse Scale (SSIS), which has proved to be a strong unidimensional measure of sadistic inclination. Through cumulative scaling, it was investigated whether the SSIS could measure sadism on a continuum of interest, thus providing a dimensional view of the construct. Further, the SSIS was administered along with a number of other measures related to sadism in order to assess the validity of the scale. Results showed that the SSIS has strong construct and discriminant validity and may be useful as a screening measure for sadistic impulse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Family Almost Perfect Scale: Development, psychometric properties, and comparing Asian and European Americans.

This article describes two studies related to the development and psychometric evaluation of the Family Almost Perfect Scale (FAPS), which measures the perceived level of perfectionistic standards and evaluation from one's family. In Study 1 (N = 283), exploratory factor analysis was used to determine the FAPS scale items. In Study 2, the FAPS was cross-validated through confirmatory factor analyses with an Asian/Asian American sample (N = 252) and a European American sample (N = 386). These two samples were compared on study variables and Asians/Asian Americans reported modestly higher personal and family discrepancy and lower self-esteem. Participants were also grouped into different perceived perfectionistic family types. Those that perceived having maladaptively perfectionistic families reported greater depression and lower self-esteem. Implications for counseling and future directions for research are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A psychometric re-analysis of the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale.

Drawing upon existing theory and research on attitudes to towards people with disabilities, L. Gething (1991) used Australian samples to develop the Interaction with Disabled Persons (IDP) Scale, which reflects 4 key attitude components (e.g., fear of becoming disabled). The IDP scale was used with a sample of 231 Canadian management undergraduates (aged 19-51 yrs) to examine the IDP scale's psychometric properties; to test Gething's (1994) 6-factor model; and to test D. MacLean and P. M. Gannon's (1995) 2-factor model using confirmatory factor analysis. Overall, the findings did not support the 6- or 2-factor models. There was poor to moderate internal consistency reliability for most scales, and small social desirability effects. Results show that further refinement to the IDP scale is required to improve its factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and to minimize correlations with social desirability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Utility of telephone assessments in an older adult population.

Telephone assessments are commonly used in mental health research and may be especially beneficial in older populations. The current study assessed the psychometric properties of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (T. J. Meyer, M. L. Miller, R. L. Metzger, & T. D. Borkovec, 1990) and the Beck Depression Inventory--II (A. T. Beck, R. A. Steer, & G. K. Brown, 1996), when administered over the telephone in an older adult population. Results indicate no differences in mean symptom level or internal consistency across two modes of administration. Correlations between the in-person and telephone-administered measures and diagnostic categories suggest adequate validity of the telephone-administered measures. With this demonstrated evidence, the telephone assessment method can be applied in a variety of research and clinical settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictive validity of psychometric evaluations of supervisors.

31 higher level employees in 1 firm and 26 in another were assessed by objective test batteries. Clinical interpretations of test data, test scores, and other predictors were analyzed with reference to criterion personality ratings and management decisions at a follow-up point of 3? yr. for the 1st sample and 7 yr. for the 2nd. Predictive validity of test assessments was generally satisfactory in the 1st sample, although not pragmatically superior to that of certain objective data. Prediction was less satisfactory in the 2nd sample, but more unique to test data. A matching study indicated some correspondence of test reports and criterion personality sketches in the 2nd sample. Uninterpreted test scores were not generally valid except as measures of intelligence. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychometric properties of reverse-scored items on the CES-D in a sample of ethnically diverse older adults.

Reverse-scored items on assessment scales increase cognitive processing demands and may therefore lead to measurement problems for older adult respondents. In this study, the objective was to examine possible psychometric inadequacies of reverse-scored items on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) when used to assess ethnically diverse older adults. Using baseline data from a gerontologic clinical trial (n = 460), we tested the hypotheses that the reversed items on the CES-D (a) are less reliable than nonreversed items, (b) disproportionately lead to intraindividually atypical responses that are psychometrically problematic, and (c) evidence improved measurement properties when an imputation procedure based on the scale mean is used to replace atypical responses. In general, the results supported the hypotheses. Relative to nonreversed CES-D items, the 4 reversed items were less internally consistent, were associated with lower item-scale correlations, and were more often answered atypically at an intraindividual level. Further, the atypical responses were negatively correlated with responses to psychometrically sound nonreversed items that had similar content. The use of imputation to replace atypical responses enhanced the predictive validity of the set of reverse-scored items. Among older adult respondents, reverse-scored items are associated with measurement difficulties. It is recommended that appropriate correction procedures such as item readministration or statistical imputation be applied to reduce the difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Demonstrating specific cognitive deficits: A psychometric perspective.

Cognitive deficits associated with psychopathology often do not occur in isolation. Consequently, identifying a specific deficit in a disorder requires comparing the magnitude of group differences on theoretically relevant measures with those on control tasks measuring other constructs. L. J. Chapman and J. P. Chapman (1973) noted that common forms of such Group?×?Task interactions are theoretically ambiguous unless performance measures have comparable discriminating power. The principles of psychometric matching for discriminating power developed in the Chapmans' research program are reviewed, and both criticisms and alternative psychometric approaches are evaluated. Psychometric matching can be mindful of threats to the construct validity of measures and frequently remains methodologically necessary. Otherwise, interactions involving measures that vary in sensitivity to individual differences may be misinterpreted as evidence for specific deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal constructs and the semantic differential.

"In accord with Kelly's (1955) emphasis on the importance of personal meaningfulness to the subject in psychological measurement, the possibility of employing personal constructs within the semantic differential technique was investigated. A direct relationship was predicted between the personal meaningfulness of scales and the degree to which the concepts rated by the scales are saturated with meaning. The prediction was supported. Furthermore, increased saturation does not appear to occur at the expense of 'distortion' in the semantic field." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4HE33M. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparison of the psychometric properties of three measures of dietary restraint.

A subscale of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ), a subscale of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), and the Revised Restraint Scale (RS) were administered to 901 undergraduates. Test–retest reliability (on 34 Ss) was highest for the RS (r?=?.95) and roughly equal for the DEBQ (r?=?.92) and the TFEQ (r?=?.91). Internal consistency was highest for the DEBQ (α?=?.95), moderate for the TFEQ (α?=?.90), and lowest for the RS (α?=?.82). The DEBQ was the most homogeneous scale, with a single principle component accounting for 68.2% of the variance. A single factor accounted for only 39.1% and 34.6% of the variance in the RS and TFEQ, respectively. The DBEQ had the most stable factor structure across genders, weight categories, and random samples. The TFEQ had the greatest discriminant validity with respect to social desirability. Finally, the TFEQ was least susceptible to dissimulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale for Children: A psychometric evaluation.

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) has contributed to our understanding of excessive worry and adult anxiety disorders, but there is a paucity of research on IU in child samples. This gap is due to the absence of a psychometrically sound measure of IU in youth. The present study adapted parallel child- and parent-report forms of the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS) and examined the internal consistency, convergent validity, and classification properties of these forms in youth aged 7–17 (M = 11.6 years, SD = 2.6). Participating youth (N = 197; 100 girls, 97 boys) either met diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder (n = 73) or were nonreferred community participants (n = 124). The child-report form (i.e., IUS for Children, or IUSC), and to a lesser extent the parent-report form, demonstrated strong internal consistency and convergent validity, evidenced by significant associations with anxiety and worry (and reassurance-seeking in the case of the child-report form). Children diagnosed with anxiety disorders scored higher than nonreferred community youth on both forms. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis demonstrated acceptable overall utility in distinguishing the 2 groups of youth. Findings provide preliminary support for use of the IUSC for continuous measurement of children’s ability to tolerate uncertainty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and Preliminary Validation of the Physiological Hyperarousal Scale for Children.

Considerable empirical support exists for the positive affect and negative affect components of the tripartite model of anxiety and depression proposed by L. A. Clark and D. Watson (1991); however, less attention has been paid to the physiological hyperarousal component of the model. The development of the Physiological Hyperarousal Scale for Children (PH-C; J. Laurent, S. J. Catanzaro, & T. E. Joiner Jr., 1995) is described. The psychometric properties of items are examined using students in Grades 6-12 (N = 398). Initial scale validation includes a joint factor analysis with the Positive and Negative Affect Scale for Children (PANAS-C; J. Laurent et al., 1999; J. Laurent, K. Potter, & S. J. Catanzaro, 1994). The relationship between the PH-C and existing measures that tap related constructs is examined. Together, the PH-C and PANAS-C provide a means to assess tripartite model constructs useful in differentiating anxiety and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescent reasons for quitting smoking: Initial psychometric evaluation.

Most adolescent smokers report intentions to quit, and the majority attempt cessation. However, little is known regarding the relationship between adolescent motives for cessation and smoking cessation efforts. To this end, the present study describes an initial evaluation of the psychometric characteristics of the Adolescent Reasons for Quitting scale (ARFQ), a measure of adolescent motives for smoking cessation. Participants were 109 current smoking high school students assessed at baseline and 6-month follow-up. The ARFQ item content and format was developed in a separate qualitative study with 36 high school students who had previously attempted to quit smoking. Exploratory factor analyses of ARFQ items yielded 3 subscales: Short-Term Consequences, Social Disapproval, and Long-Term Concerns. Validation analyses were conducted in relation to concurrent intentions to stop smoking and prospective smoking cessation attempts, providing evidence of concurrent, predictive, and discriminant validity. In particular, the Social Disapproval and Long-Term Concerns subscales significantly predicted subsequent cessation attempts. As such, the ARFQ may prove valuable for informing interventions to encourage adolescent smoking cessation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Methodological determinants of peculiar personal constructs.

This experiment investigated the effects of variations in instructions and variations in triads on the number of peculiar personal constructs produced on the Role Construct Repertory Test (RCRT). Significant differences were found between maximizing and minimizing conditions in each instance. The results suggest that standard instructions and standard triads should be used in the clinical application of the RCRT. The results also suggest that, in some instances at least, peculiar constructs reflect the use of 2 dimensions to describe a triad rather than a single, idiosyncratic dimension. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)