Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Attitudes Toward Smoking

Abstract

The authors developed the Smoking Attitudes Scale (SAS) and administered it to 2 samples of U.S. students who were smokers or nonsmokers. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis with LISREL (K. G. Jöreskog & D. Sörbom, 1989) methodology revealed that the SAS consists of 4 factors. The overall instrument possesses good internal consistency and adequate construct validity as well.     

Measuring Social Peer Rejection during Childhood: Development and Validation

This article defines the construct of social peer rejection and describes the development of the Social Peer Rejection Measure. Social peer rejection entails being rejected, excluded, ostracized, or criticized by one's peers; lack of active sympathy and active dislike on the part of one's peers; ignoring; preventing access to friends, playtime activities, toys, or important information; verbal aggression; commands; and blaming the rejected child. Evidence for the validity and reliability of the scale is presented. Results indicated strong content validity, construct validity, and criterion-referenced validity. Differences were found between females and males in terms of insult, accusation, and reported levels of physical attack.     

Measuring associations between social anxiety and use of different types of social media using the Swedish Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users: A psychometric evaluation and cross-sectional study

Research on the association between social anxiety and social media usage remains inconclusive: despite the preference for computer-mediated communication there is currently no clear empirical support for social anxiety being associated with longer duration of social media use. Self-report measures for social anxiety that are adapted for the context of social media could facilitate further research. The current study aimed to develop a Swedish version of the recently developed Social Anxiety Scale for Social Media Users (SAS-SMU), evaluate its psychometric properties, and explore associations between different uses of social media and social anxiety. Three factors were retained for SAS-SMU with excellent internal consistency. SAS-SMU evidenced convergent validity with measures of social anxiety, negative convergent validity with satisfaction with life, and divergent validity with measures of obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Results indicated that higher levels of social anxiety were associated with passive and active use as well as longer duration of social media use in general, which is at odds with a previous study where passive use remained the only significant predictor for social anxiety.     

企业社会责任活动中感知伪善的结构与量表开发

不当的企业社会责任(Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR)表现会让消费者感知企业伪善, 从而产生极负面的影响。但“伪善”概念刚经由社会心理学引入营销学领域, 亟需准确定义和科学的量表。为此, 将以中国文化为背景, 通过系列研究, (1)探究CSR活动中消费者感知企业伪善的内涵并与相关概念区分; (2)揭示企业伪善的构成结构, 开发多维度的企业伪善量表并进行严格的信度、效度检验; (3)探索其前因后果, 特别是实证检验其对消费者态度和行为三个层面的影响。     

Measuring Political Thinking: Development and Validation of a Scale for “Deliberation Within”

Compared to the concept of interpersonal deliberation, little is known about the underlying and preceding cognitive processes of citizens' deliberative discussions. The aim of this article is to develop a psychometric measurement for these processes, which—following an idea advanced by Goodin ( 2000, 2003 )—may be called “deliberation within.” The measurement is constructed based on theoretical definitions of the concept and further normative criteria of citizen deliberation. In three empirical studies using independent samples, the psychometric properties of the measurement are assessed, and evidence for its reliability as well as structural and criterion validity is offered. The resulting scale may serve as a useful instrument not only for deliberation research, but also for further communication research related to political processes.     

中学生社会适应量表的编制

本研究编制的中学生社会适应性量表是针对预初(小学6年级)到高三7个年级的学生,有效样本3595名(男1728名,女1867名)。通过量表的编制、初测、修改和再测,确定了量表的4个维度:内容特质、预测控制、心理调节和动力支持,并获得了较高的信度和效度。内在一致性信度达到0.97,相容效度和效标效度也达到0.65和0.68左右,均比较理想。通过量表编制发现中学生的社会适应在总体上存在性别差异,即女生显著高于男生。中学生的社会适应会随着年级的提高而发生变化,但不同步增加。中学生的社会适应性是一个动态的发展过程,它也是中学生人格发展的一部分,并与个体的学习压力以及经历的生活事件有密切的关系。     

The Development and Validation of the Multicomponent AIDS Phobia Scale

The development, reliability, and validity of a new instrument, the Multicomponent AIDS Phobia Scale (MAPS), is described. Based on a sample of 181 university students, the results indicate that the MAPS has strong internal consistency and moderate test-retest reliability. In addition, an assessment of concurrent and discriminant validity indicates statistically significant correlations with other self-report measures of anxiety, hypochondriasis, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and fear of AIDS. The results of a factor analysis indicate that the scale consists of two factors: Fear of Infection and Fear of Others/Avoidance. Although further research with the MAPS in a clinical population is warranted to investigate the generalizability of this study's results, the instrument appears to be a reliable and valid measure of AIDS Phobia and may prove useful for improving clinical assessment and documenting treatment outcome.     

The Perceived Leadership Communication Questionnaire (PLCQ): Development and Validation

The Perceived Leadership Communication Questionnaire (PLCQ) is a short, reliable, and valid instrument for measuring leadership communication from both perspectives of the leader and the follower. Drawing on a communication-based approach to leadership and following a theoretical framework of interpersonal communication processes in organizations, this article describes the development and validation of a one-dimensional 6-item scale in four studies (total N = 604). Results from Study 1 and 2 provide evidence for the internal consistency and factorial validity of the PLCQ's self-rating version (PLCQ-SR)—a version for measuring how leaders perceive their own communication with their followers. Results from Study 3 and 4 show internal consistency, construct validity, and criterion validity of the PLCQ's other-rating version (PLCQ-OR)—a version for measuring how followers perceive the communication of their leaders. Cronbach's α had an average of.80 over the four studies. All confirmatory factor analyses yielded good to excellent model fit indices. Convergent validity was established by average positive correlations of.69 with subdimensions of transformational leadership and leader–member exchange scales. Furthermore, nonsignificant correlations with socially desirable responding indicated discriminant validity. Last, criterion validity was supported by a moderately positive correlation with job satisfaction (r =.31).     

小学生社会技能家长评定量表编制与适用研究

研究旨在编制针对小学生社会技能的家长评定量表。有效样本1027名(男484名,女543名)。通过量表的编制、预测、修改和再测,确定了量表的3个层次,9个因素,量表的内在一致性信度为0.88,分半信度为0.76,量表总分与效标分数(同伴正提名分)相关显著(P<0.01)。量表编制发现:小学生社会技能在总体上存在性别和年级差异,女生显著高于男生,三年级显著低于二年级、五年级和六年级。     

中国青少年积极发展量表（简版）的编制：基于一个大样本数据

中国青少年积极发展量表是一个多维度的测评青少年发展过程中积极特性（即品格、能力、自信和联结）的量表,共98个项目。为提高量表的应用推广性,本研究基于一个大样本数据（n=16317, M_年龄=13.13岁, SD=2.52岁）创建了一个该量表的简化版本。通过一系列的验证性因素分析、项目筛选、信效度检验以及交叉验证,简化后量表共48个项目。结果显示,简版量表与原始完整版量表有足够的概念重合度和剖面相似性,且具有可以接受的信效度和测量结构的等值性。     

Critical Consciousness: An Alternative Pathway for Positive Personal and Social Development

This paper presents a conceptual model of the integrative psychological construct of critical consciousness (CC), defined as a moral awareness which propels individuals to disembed from their cultural, social, and political environment, and engage in a responsible critical moral dialogue with it, making active efforts to construct their own place in social reality and to develop internal consistency in their ways of being. The ontogeny of CC is analyzed in terms of the synergistic interaction between its two main components, structural developmental and moral motivation. The paper describes the cross-cultural interview research which allowed the elaboration of the CC developmental pathway. It posits the dimension of moral motivation as distinguishing the CC pathway, and illustrates the continuum between predominantly moral and expediency motivation through brief case vignettes. The paper differentiates three developmental macrolevels of CC, and illustrates through case vignettes two alternatives of social consciousness at the level of conventional morality—CC and non-CC. Some possible sources of moral motivation in personal history and biography are discussed.     

Measuring Myths about Domestic Violence: Development and Initial Validation of the Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance Scale

The past 2.5 decades have seen explosive growth in research and practice in the area of intimate partner violence (IPV), especially of perpetrators. In the present paper, the author reflects on his observations of key developments in the field and examines research that has increased our understanding of batterers, who they are, and how we might best work with them to end IPV. Issues and controversies that surround batterer treatment and research with batterers are also examined. The author calls for continued development of an empirical base to guide theory development and practice standards, as well as increased dissemination and translation of research into formats that are useful to clinicians.     

Development and Initial Validation of a Scale Measuring the Beliefs of Educators Regarding Response to Intervention

This article presents information on the development and initial validation of the 16-item Response to Intervention (RTI) Beliefs Scale. The scale is designed to measure the extent to which educators working in schools hold beliefs consistent with the tenets of RTI. The authors administered the instrument to 2,430 educators in 62 elementary schools in the fall of 2007 and 2,443 educators in 68 elementary schools in the spring of 2008. Exploratory, single-level confirmatory, and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis procedures were used to examine construct validity. Results supported a correlated 3-factor model (Academic Abilities and Performance of Students with Disabilities, Data-Based Decision Making, and Functions of Core and Supplemental Instruction) at both the school and educator levels of analysis. Furthermore, the factor scores derived from the model demonstrated significant, positive relations to RTI implementation. Reliability estimates for two of the three factor scores exceeded.70. Implications for research on educator beliefs and implementation of RTI as well as implications for school psychologists supporting RTI implementation are discussed.     

Development and validation of the Eyewitness Metamemory Scale

Metamemory can be defined as the knowledge about one's memory capabilities and about strategies that can aid memory. In this paper, we describe the development and validation of the Eyewitness Metamemory Scale (EMS), tailored specifically for use in face memory and eyewitness identification settings. Participants (N = 800) completed the EMS and other measures on general metamemory. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed good factorial validity, internal consistency, and content validity. The EMS items emerged into three distinct factors: memory contentment, memory discontentment, and memory strategies. The EMS is a brief and easily administrable questionnaire that might be used to assess self‐ratings of face recognition capacity and use of strategies to encode faces.     

Associations Between Religious Behavior and Attitude to Christianity Among Australian Catholic Adolescents: Scale Validation

Abstract

In a sample of 1,166 Catholic high school students (age = 13–18 years), the author used confirmatory factor analysis to validate a 30-item instrument that assesses 6 dimensions of attitude to Christianity (viz., attitude to prayer, attitude to God, attitude to Jesus, attitude to the Bible, attitude to Christian practice, attitude to social justice). Goodness-of-fit indices for the proposed measurement model revealed that the model fitted the data very well, thus confirming the instrument's structure. A correlation analysis revealed associations between religious behavior and attitude to Christianity.     

The Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Global Social Power Based on French and Raven's Power Taxonomy1

A measure of global power was developed based on French and Raven's (1959) definition of social power as the potential of an agent to influence a target. A sample of 346 graduate students responded to a questionnaire assessing their perceptions of the power of their supervising professors in paid assistantship duties. Power was measured using established scales of the French and Raven 5 power bases in addition to the newly developed global power measure. Results indicate that the global power scale (a) has strong internal consistency, (b) is significantly related to each of the 5 individual power bases, and (c) significantly accounts for additional variance in compliance beyond the measures of the 5 power bases, beyond the sum of the bases, and beyond a measure of resistance and control.     

社会面子意识、冲突处理策略与人际关系满意度

以大学生为对象,采取整群取样的方式,研究了大学生社会面子意识、冲突处理策略与人际关系满意度之间的关系。结果,大学生社会面子意识与人际关系满意度呈显著负相关,社会面子意识与协作策略呈显著负相关,协作式冲突处理策略与人际关系满意度呈显著正相关; 协作型冲突处理策略能正向预测大学生人际关系满意度,社会面子意识负向预测人际关系满意度; 低社会面子意识大学生在协作策略上的得分显著高于高争面子意识、高护面子意识和高社会面子意识大学生。     

Possible Selves in Adolescence: Development and Validation of a Scale for their Assessment

Possible selves (PSs) have a significant role in adolescents' development. For this reason, it is of great importance to have adequate measures to operationalize them. The aim of this work is to present the construction and validation of a scale to assess PSs at the end of high school in multiple domains. Participants were adolescents (n = 320) of both sexes (female = 51.3%) from high-schools in Buenos Aires City, Argentina (age, M = 14.9, SD = 1.5). The scale was developed based on a literature review and a previous qualitative study. Expert judges' assessment revealed that it has good content validity. The scale's structure was studied with exploratory factor analysis and a 5-factor structure with theoretical meaning was found. Spearman's correlations between current and future self-perceptions show evidence of convergent validity. Mann-Whitney U test shows that the scale can discriminate by sex and age. The scale shows adequate to very good internal consistency. These results show that the scale has adequate psychometric properties to assess PSs in Argentine adolescents. The advantages of this scale relative to existing measures of PSs are discussed. Scale development allows us to know more about how adolescents think they will be during a significant life transition such as the end of high school. This is particularly important for planning interventions that focus on motivation and behavior regulation.     

Measuring adult indirect aggression: The development and psychometric assessment of the indirect aggression scales

This paper describes the development of a psychometric measure of indirect aggression for use in an adult population. Items were generated from a series of qualitative interviews. Two versions of the scale were developed; the Indirect Aggression Scale Aggressor version (IAS‐A) and Target version (IAS‐T). Both versions of the scale were administered to separate samples (n_A=294; n_T=294). Scales were analysed using item analysis of internal consistency, as well as exploratory factor analysis. Both versions were found to have the same consistent three sub‐scales: social exclusion, use of malicious humour, and guilt induction. Preliminary psychometric evaluation suggests that the scales are both sufficiently reliable (with Cronbach's alphas ranging from .81 to .89) and valid. There were no gender differences in either using or being the victim of indirect aggression, and the behaviour was significantly negatively correlated with age. Future validation and potential usage of the measures are discussed. Aggress. Behav. 31:1–14, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.