Validity and values: Monetary and otherwise.

Comments on the G. J. Meyer et al (see record 2001-00159-003) summary of evidence and issues associated with psychological assessment. D. A. Smith states that the force of their claim that medical and psychological tests are equally valid is undermined by a discrepancy with the data from which the claim purportedly derives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applied Psychology in Action: Comment on Word Meaning.

Comments on "The non-directive approach in advertising appeals" by H. D. Hadley (1953) and the distinction between credibility and credulity in the text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Incremental Validity of Psychological Testing and Assessment: Conceptual, Methodological, and Statistical Issues.

There has been insufficient effort in most areas of applied psychology to evaluate incremental validity. To further this kind of validity research, the authors examined applicable research designs, including those to assess the incremental validity of test instruments, of test-informed clinical inferences, and of newly developed measures. The authors also considered key statistical and measurement issues that can influence incremental validity findings, including the entry order of predictor variables, how to interpret the size of a validity increment, and possible artifactual effects in the criteria selected for incremental validity research. The authors concluded by suggesting steps for building a cumulative research base concerning incremental validity and by describing challenges associated with applying nomothetic research findings to individual clinical cases. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability and Technical Meaning of Personality Questionnaire Scales.

Comments on the article Comments on The Brain Watchers, written by K.S. Nickerson, that remarks on the Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (see record 2005-11489-001.) The author of this comment mentions several objections to the article written by Nickerson. First, since Nickeron's main theme is the recent attacks by laymen on psychological testing--such as those of Gross (1962), Hoffman (1962), and the popular weekly Life--his mentioning the 16 PF would naturally suggest to a reader that it was one of the tests under attack. The 16 PF, as far as anyone can ascertain, was not among the several tests pilloried by these gentlemen and Life. More seriously, when Nickeson flings the term "impossible" at a 16 PF item, he is simply pontificating, not responsibly bringing evidence as would be expected in a scientific journal. When, by the equally unconsidered term "esoteric," Nickerson objects to technical terms in psychology for precise research concepts, he is, again, scarcely on the side of progress. The author of this comment concludes a psychologist may actually be showing more psychometric wisdom in using, in many testing situations, the 16 PF Form C alone, contrary to Nickerson's dismissal of a six-item scale. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"The Problem of Validity in Field Studies of Psychological Disorder": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by Bruce P. Dohrenwend and Barbara Snell Dohrenwend (Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1965, 70[1], 52-69). The footnote identification in Table 6 (page 62) in the original article is incorrec. The correct version is given here. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1965-08281-001.) Results of over 25 attempts to count untreated cases of psychological disorder in community populations are reviewed, and the problem of validity in the measures of disorder is analyzed. Evidence of validity is found to be scant. The position is taken that, with no generally accepted criteria available, and no universe of content agreed upon, construct validity takes on added importance. A lead to 1 possible nomological net for the construct of psychological disorder is the consistent finding that the lowest socioeconomic stratum has the highest rate of symptomatology. This lead is developed with reference to the transcience of symptomatology found in extreme situations, in contrast to the persistence of symptomatology observed in patients and in studies of experimental neurosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological testing and psychological assessment: A closer examination.

Comments on the G. J. Meyer et al (see record 2001-00159-003) summary of evidence and issues associated with psychological assessment. J. Hunsley states that Meyer et al failed to address two major issues at the very heart of psychological assessment practices in a consistent and sufficient manner: the crucial distinction between testing and assessment and the critical importance of incremental validity in both testing and assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incremental Validity in the Psychological Assessment of Children and Adolescents.

Incremental validity in the process of psychological assessment of children and adolescents is explored. The authors highlight the dependence of the incremental validity of assessment information on factors such as goal of assessment, other information available, base rate of the problem or outcome, age or gender of the child, and type of problem being assessed. The authors discuss the incremental validity of assessment information from alternate sources, methods, and constructs. In view of the limited number of studies directly relevant to incremental validity in child clinical assessments, the authors call for more clinically relevant research. To have the greatest impact on child and adolescent services, this research must be readily generalized and immediately relevant to actual clinical practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Scientific Attack on Brown v. Board of Education, 1954-1964.

Psychologists' work was cited in the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education (1954). One criticism of the citation was that psychology could be used to overturn the Brown decision and return the country to segregation. A historical examination of such an attempt to overturn Brown in the early 1960s on the basis of new psychological knowledge shows that psychology was not persuasive in the face of the civil rights movement. The failure of segregationists to overturn Brown with psychological experts underscores how psychology is ineluctably bound to the larger society. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparison of medical and psychological tests.

Comments on the G. J. Meyer et al (see record 2001-00159-003) summary of evidence and issues associated with psychological assessment. H. N. Garb et al conclude that Meyer et al did not establish that psychological test validity is comparable to medical test validity. By focusing on meta-analyses, they ignored results for most medical tests and psychological test scores. Furthermore, although it may appear that they routinely summarized results from meta-analyses, in some cases they actually calculated their own effect sizes. For at least some studies, their effect sizes appear to be misleading, making their review of the literature difficult to interpret. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Construct Validity: Issues of Method and Measurement.

Fifty years ago, L. J. Cronbach and P. E. Meehl (1955) advocated for the concept of construct validity, noting that psychologists study hypothetical, inferred entities and that validating measures of such entities involves basic theory testing. Three important developments in clinical assessment following that seminal article are noteworthy. First, clinical research has benefited from greater theoretical integration and subsequent differentiation among related constructs. Second, implementation of ongoing, critical evaluation of all aspects of the construct validity process, including theory development, hypothesis specification, research design, and empirical evaluation, has improved clinical assessment. Third, improvement in evaluating fit between hypotheses and observations has been sought. Improved means of evaluating multitrait, multimethod designs, and ways to increase their clinical representativeness, are one encouraging development. Ongoing efforts to improve the construct validity process reflect the legacy of L. J. Cronbach and P. E. Meehl. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Taking the theorizing in personality theories seriously: Comment.

Comments on "A tale of two visions: Can a new view of personality help integrate psychology?" by J. D. Mayer (see record 2005-05480-001). Mayer's attempt to find ways to use personality emphases as integrative tendencies in psychology is welcome. Certainly, it would help if the research and practice efforts of psychologists were coordinated more clearly than they are now. The comment author finds Mayer's rather ambiguous and scattered suggestions to be disconcerting. The comment author proposes alternatives he hopes will further Mayer's goals. He believes that emphasizing core, developmental, and peripheral statements is important in envisioning the personality system. The comment author does not agree with Mayer's (2005) assertion that emphasizing existing personality theories is necessarily damaging because of their specific content disagreements. There are, of course, many personality theories, but their diversity can be reduced to a more manageable level by inducing from them the basic models of personality theorizing. When the comment author engages in this process, what emerges is the conflict, fulfillment, and consistency models, each with two subtypes. Psychologists need to collaborate with each other in formulating comparative analytic research that can resolve the fundamental issues arising from the differences between these three models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Concept of Validity.

This article advances a simple conception of test validity: A test is valid for measuring an attribute if (a) the attribute exists and (b) variations in the attribute causally produce variation in the measurement outcomes. This conception is shown to diverge from current validity theory in several respects. In particular, the emphasis in the proposed conception is on ontology, reference, and causality, whereas current validity theory focuses on epistemology, meaning, and correlation. It is argued that the proposed conception is not only simpler but also theoretically superior to the position taken in the existing literature. Further, it has clear theoretical and practical implications for validation research. Most important, validation research must not be directed at the relation between the measured attribute and other attributes but at the processes that convey the effect of the measured attribute on the test scores. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reply to Noller and Shum: Couple version of FACES III: Validity and reliability.

Replies to the article by Noller and Shum (1990; see record 1990-27249-001), which focused on the couple version of FACES III. I want to commend Noller and Shum for their well-done validity and reliability analysis which provided norms and replication of the couple version of FACES III. Since FACES III was primarily developed using family data, Noller and Shum provide a useful service by using the couple version of FACES and providing norms based on Australian couples. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Amplifying issues related to psychological testing and assessment.

Responds to comments by D. A. Smith (see record 2002-10716-011), H. N. Garb et al (see record 2002-10716-012), R. Fernández-Ballesteros (see record 2002-10716-013), J. Hunsley (see record 2002-10716-014) regarding the G. J. Meyer et al (see record 2001-00159-003) summary of evidence and issues associated with psychological assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Two Cultures and Contemporary Psychology.

It is to be hoped that the recent statement by Koch (American Psychologist, 1961, 16, 629-639) to the effect that psychology must be open to both scientific and humanistic approaches to knowledge will take hold. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Incremental Validity Principles in Test Construction.

The authors articulate 5 basic principles for enhancing incremental validity, both among elements within a test and between tests, during test construction: (a) careful, precise articulation of each element or facet within the content domain; (b) reliable measurement of each facet through use of multiple, alternate-form items; (c) examination of incremental validity at the facet level rather than the broad construct level; (d) use of items that represent single facets rather than combinations of facets; and (e) empirical examination of whether there is a broad construct or a combination of separate constructs. Using these principles, the authors offer specific suggestions for modifications in 3 classic test construction approaches: (a) criterion keying, (b) inductive test construction, and (c) deductive test construction. Implementation of these suggestions is likely to provide theoretical clarification and improved prediction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Canadian feminism and psychology: The first decade.

The history of the Canadian Psychological Association's recognition of the validity of a feminist perspective in psychology is outlined, and the current status of women psychologists in the nation is discussed. Documenting the development of a "psychology of women" speciality, a selected review is presented of the research conducted by psychologists in Canada dealing with sex roles, sex differences, achievement, feminism, and psychobiology. In the applied areas of the discipline, analogous developments have occurred in terms of the establishment of a link between sex roles and psychopathology, the critical appraisal of traditional therapies, the creation of alternative therapy approaches, and the generation of ethical standards pertinent to the provision of psychological services to women. The interdisciplinary quality of the psychology of women is discussed and an overview of this new field is provided. (French abstract) (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constructing knowledge: The role of graphs and tables in hard and soft psychology.

Because graphs provide a compact, rhetorically powerful way of representing research findings, recent theories of science have postulated their use as a distinguishing feature of science. Studies have shown that the use of graphs in journal articles correlates highly with the hardness of scientific fields, both across disciplines and across subfields of psychology. In contrast, the use of tables and inferential statistics in psychology is inversely related to subfield hardness, suggesting that the relationship between hardness and graph use is not attributable to differences in the use of quantitative data in subfields or their commitment to empiricism. Enhanced "graphicacy" among psychologists could contribute to the progress of psychological science by providing alternatives to significance testing and by facilitating communication across subfields. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Toward a Psychology of the Scientist.

Reviews the book, Toward a Psychology of the Scientist by Sonja C. Graver (1981). The major themes of this highly condensed 92 page book are that all sciences are philosophic and that psychological research provides insight into how scientists formulate and revise theories. The author further contends that the development of science would be enhanced if all scientists (including psychologists) understood the primary importance of the role of theory, imagination and creativity in experimentation. The scientific model suggested is that progress in science occurs by way of reformulations of arbitrary world views, and that scientific activities would be enhanced if the subjective and psychological, particularly cognitive, aspects were stressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mary L. Tenopyr (1929-2005).

Presents an obituary for Mary L. Tenopyr, one of the most influential and active practitioners in the field of industrial and organizational psychology. Her specialty was psychological measurement, and she held numerous positions involving testing and personnel selection. In addition, she served in many roles in the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Division 14 (the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology--SIOP) and Division 5 (Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics), including being the president of SIOP in 1979-1980 and the president of Division 5 in 1994-1995. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)