THE IMPLICATIONS OF PROFESSIONAL AND LEGAL GUIDELINES FOR COURT DECISIONS INVOLVING CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY: A REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

Title VII court cases litigated since 1978 were reviewed to assess the implications of the latest professional and legal guidelines for court deliberations regarding the criterion-related validity of paper-and-pencil tests with adverse impact. Major topics important to an understanding of predictor, criterion, procedural, data analysis, and interpretation issues were examined. Among the major findings were the heavy reliance placed on test development procedures and the reluctance of many judges to accept recent research findings, often contained in professional guidelines, which are inconsistent with those in the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (1978). Suggestions are offered throughout to guide employers who are interested in successfully conducting or defending a criterion-related validation study.     

A SIMPLICIAL DESIGN FOR THE ANALYSIS OF CORRELATIONAL LEARNING DATA

The usual matrix of intercorrelations among trials in a study of the learning process produces a superdiagonal matrix with resulting factors which are uninteresting: viz, a factor for the early trials and a factor for the later trials; with perhaps also a factor for the middle trials. By introducing several independent measures of learning for each trial a more meaningful factor structure can be obtained.     

FACTOR STRUCTURE AND VALIDATION OF THE JUNIOR EYSENCK PERSONALITY QUESTIONNAIRE BASED ON A ROMANIAN SAMPLE

A cross-cultural and clinical validity study of Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQ) was performed on a Romanian unselected sample of 865 children and a clinical sample of 387 children aged 10-15. The loading pattern of the original form of JEPQ on Romanian children was compared with the English loading pattern; disagreement was found for 17,6% of P items, 16.6% of E items, 15% of N items, and 15% of L items. Concordance between JEPQ scores and clinical diagnosis (conduct disorders, adjustment reactions, and schizoid disorder of childhood and adolescence) was high for E scale, lower, but acceptable for N scale, and reduced for P scale.     

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF A NEUROTICISM INVENTORY

The Lidvall neuroticism inventory is comprised of 25 questions referring to symptoms presumed to be connected with manifest neurotic anxiety. It was presented to 377 persons, an unscreened group with respect to neurotic symptoms, and a factor analysis with rotation to simple structure was performed.—Four factors could be identified: (1) manifest neurotic anxiety, (2) neurotic difficulties in interpersonal relations, (3) neurasthenic symptoms and (4) obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The factor scales were correlated with Neuroticism and Extraversion in MPI. Neuroticism was shown to be a heterogeneous factor. The correlation between Factor (2) and Extraversion was high.     

THE APPLICATION OF EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS IN APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: A CRITICAL REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

Although factor analysis has been a major contributing factor in advancing psychological research, a systematic assessment of how it has been applied is lacking. For this review we examined the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance , and Personnel Psychology over a ten-year period (1975–1984) and located 152 studies that employed factor analysis. We then analyzed the choices made by the researchers concerning factor model, retention criteria, rotation, interpretation of factors and other issues relevant to factor analysis. The results indicate that choices made by researchers have generally been poor and that reporting practices have not allowed for informed review, cumulation of results, or replicability. A comparison of results by time interval (1975–1979; 1980–1984) revealed minimal differences in choices made or the quality of reporting practices. Suggestions for improving the use of factor analysis and the reporting of results are presented.     

CONVERGENCE AMONG DATA SOURCES, RESPONSE BIAS, AND RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY OF A STRUCTURED JOB ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE

Research examined both the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) and the possible analyst sources for gathering job analysis information. 25 state government jobs were examined using job incumbents, supervisors, job analysts, and a comparison group of college students. Reliability and validity (judge convergence and prediction of present pay levels) information was determined for each of the four analyst categories. Results indicate that there is little difference between analyst sources, including students, in terms of their ability to reliably analyze a job using the PAQ. Convergent validity results showed a high degree of agreement among all judge categories when summing item frequencies across all 25 jobs. The prediction of present pay levels was significant for all judge categories but was noticeably smaller than previously reported studies. This seemed to be primarily due to the restriction in salary range of the present study. An analysis of judge response bias showed that supervisors and incumbents rate all or most PAQ items higher than their analyst counterparts. These findings suggest that who furnishes responses to a job analysis inventory makes little practical difference. The exception is that the determination of pay levels and human requirements for test construction purposes should be viewed with caution when different analyst sources are utilized for different jobs.     

THE USE AND ABUSE OF FACTOR ANALYSIS IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

This paper discusses several decisions that researchers must make in their application of factor analysis to data related to communication phenomena. Several suggestions are provided to aid researchers in reaching appropriate decisions.     

TOWARD THE DEVELOPMENT OF STRUCTURED CRITERIA FOR INTERPRETATION OF FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS DATA

Using functional analysis results to prescribe treatments is the preferred method for developing behavioral interventions. Little is known, however, about the reliability and validity of visual inspection for the interpretation of functional analysis data. The purpose of this investigation was to develop a set of structured criteria for visual inspection of multielement functional analyses that, when applied correctly, would increase interrater agreement and agreement with interpretations reached by expert consensus. In Study 1, 3 predoctoral interns interpreted functional analysis graphs, and interrater agreement was low (M = .46). In Study 2, 64 functional analysis graphs were interpreted by a panel of experts, and then a set of structured criteria were developed that yielded interpretive results similar to those of the panel (exact agreement = .94). In Study 3, the 3 predoctoral interns from Study 1 were trained to use the structured criteria, and the mean interrater agreement coefficient increased to .81. The results suggest that (a) the interpretation of functional analysis data may be less reliable than is generally assumed, (b) decision-making rules used by experts in the interpretation of functional analysis data can be operationalized, and (c) individuals can be trained to apply these rules accurately to increase interrater agreement. Potential uses of the criteria are discussed.     

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF WORKER TRAIT REQUIREMENTS

The purpose of the factor analysis was to reorganize and simplify the sometimes bewildering array of occupational requirements and occupational characteristics that employment counselors and their clients must cope with in their planning. A knowledge of the factor structure of worker trait requirements may enhance the counselor's comprehension of the world of work.