SCALES FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF INNOVATIVENESS

This paper reports the results of the development of a self-report measure of innovative-ness. The utility of such an instrument in human communication research is discussed, together with issues relating to its reliability, validity, and association with social desirability.     

THE DIVERSITY–VALIDITY DILEMMA: STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING RACIOETHNIC AND SEX SUBGROUP DIFFERENCES AND ADVERSE IMPACT IN SELECTION

Pyburn, Ployhart, and Kravitz (this issue, 2008) introduced the diversity–validity dilemma: that some of the most valid predictors of job performance are also associated with large racioethnic and sex subgroup predictor score differences. This article examines 16 selection strategies hypothesized to minimize racioethnic and sex subgroup differences and adverse impact and, hence, balance diversity and validity. Rather than presenting a highly technical review, our purpose is to provide practitioners with a concise summary, paying particular attention to comparing and contrasting the effectiveness of the strategies and reporting new developments. The paper is organized around 4 key questions: (a) Which strategies are most effective for reducing subgroup differences? (b) Which strategies do not involve a validity tradeoff? (c) What are the major new developments in strategies for reducing adverse impact? (d) What are the major new developments in alternative predictor measurement methods (e.g., interviews, situational judgment tests, assessment centers) for reducing adverse impact? We then conclude with recommendations and caveats for how to best balance diversity and validity. These ideas are developed further in Kravitz (this issue, 2008) , who considers even broader approaches for solving the diversity–validity dilemma.     

PROGRAMMING STRATEGIES AND THE POPULARITY OF TELEVISION PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN

This study investigated the effects of various programming strategies, commonly employed by the networks, on program popularity for children. Viewing data for prime time and Saturday morning programs were collected in the fall, winter, and spring of the ‘75-'76 season. Simple correlations supported the relationship between program popularity and the following programming strategies: counterprogramming by type, block programming by type, inheritance effects, starting time, program familiarity, and character familiarity. Regression analysis, which controlled for relationships among programming strategies, confirmed the effects of program familiarity and starting time only. The results, suggest that children are not highly adventurous viewers. On the contrary, it appears that past experience with a program coupled with availability of the child audience are overriding determinants of program popularity.     

ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS OF ESTABLISHING GUIDELINES FOR THE USE OF BEHAVIORAL TECHNIQUES

Several guidelines surrounding the use of behavioral procedures have recently appeared, the best of which is that of the National Association of Retarded Citizens (NARC). Some issues and implications of the establishment of guidelines are briefly reviewed in the context of the NARC guidelines. Issues include the factual versus opinion bases for guidelines and the need to continue the development of explicit behavioral criteria for assessing staff competence. Implications for programs include the impact of guidelines on professional boundaries, administrative decision-making, and budgeting, together with the dangers of expanding the regulatory bureaucracy. Several miscellaneous impacts are noted, including a potential for curbing innovative behavioral technology.     

THE PRACTICALITY OF BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION SCALES, BEHAVIORAL EXPECTATION SCALES, AND TRAIT SCALES

The practicality of three appraisal instruments were measured in terms of user preference, namely, behavioral observation scales (BOS), behavioral expectation scales (BES), and trait scales. A questionnaire containing items pertaining to differentiating good from poor performers, objectivity, providing feedback, suggesting training needs, and ease of use was administered to managers and their subordinates. In all instances, BOS were preferred to BES, and in all but two instances, BOS were viewed as superior to trait scales. Trait scales were felt to be as good if not better than BES. A second questionnaire administered to attorneys indicated that BOS would be easier to defend in the courtroom than either BES or trait scales.     

AN EXTENSION AND FIELD TEST OF THE RETRANSLATION METHOD FOR DEVELOPING RATING SCALES

The retranslation method for rating scale development was used to develop a scale to evaluate an educational television series designed to teach basal reading skills. This extension of the method, outside the context of job performance rating, was evaluated using both developmental and actual field use data. The results during the developmental stage of the method are generally supportive of the use of the technique in this situation; the results from the field test yielded mixed support.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION SCALES FOR APPRAISING THE PERFORMANCE OF FOREMEN

Behavioral observation scales (BOS) were developed for first line foremen. BOS are similar to behavioral expectation scales (BES) in that both are based on a job analysis procedure known as the critical incident technique. However, the BOS differ from BES in that, in developing BOS, (a) a group of individuals is observed and rated on a five-point scale as to the frequency with which they engage in the behavior described by each incident/statement, (b) a total score for each individual is determined by summing the observer's responses for each behavioral item, and (c) an item analysis (or factor analysis, depending upon the sample size) is conducted to select the most discriminating items. Those items with the highest correlations with the total score on a scale are retained to form one behavioral criterion or scale (BOS).     

真实自豪与自大自豪倾向量表的修订及适用

对Tracy和Robins编制的真实自豪与自大自豪倾向量表进行中文版修订并初步考察我国大学生自豪感的特点,分别选取202名和484名大学生进行问卷预测和正式施测。验证性因素分析表明修订后量表仍保持英文版的双维结构,两分量表的α系数为0.785和0.743,重测信度为0.978和0.952。修订后量表具有良好的心理测量学指标,可以用于我国大学生的测试。进一步发现我国大学生的真实自豪显著高于自大自豪,大学生自豪感不存在性别差异,自大自豪存在显著的年级差异。     

A MODEL FOR THE USE OF ATTITUDE SCALES ACROSS CULTURES

To minimize the verbal content of the attitude measurement situation with Papua New Guinea students, a set of pictorial items was selected for use in the place of verbal items. Initially, 150 pictures related to concepts in the Wilson-Patterson Attitude Inventory (WPAI) were described by a group of 50 students. Seventy of these items, those which were described in a consistent way, were presented to 227 students along with a Papua New Guinea version of the WPAI. A final set of 25 pictures was selected on the basis of their discriminative power, internal consistency, and their content validity. Reliability and validity measures and the rotated factor structure of the 25 item pictorial scale were consistent with the WPAI.     

PATTERNS OF EXPERIENCE AND THE ACQUISITION OF CONSERVATION OF LENGTH

The effects of five procedures on the acquisition of conservation of length were studied. A Müller-Lyer illusion was used to induce apparent changes in length in the test- and practice-situations. Two procedures involved practice on addition-subtraction, one a progressive increase in the strength of the Müller-Lyer illusion, and one the anticipation of the outcome of displacements of the objects. A fifth procedure was a composite of the other four. The results showed some acquisitions in all groups, with highest frequency in the anticipation group, and lowest in the increase-in-illusion group.     

THE PROBLEM OF MAGNITUDE AND CATEGORY SCALES: INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

J unge , K. The problem of magnitude and category scales: interpretation of results. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1962, 3 , 215–218.—It is proposed that three main factors are responsible for the relation between magnitude and category scales: (1) ratio judgments on a transformed category scale, (2) interval judgments, and (3) hybrid judgments. The last term refers to the tentative explanation that magnitude judgments are a cross between pure ratio and interval judgments.     

大学生应付策略的适应性和身心症状

实验在92名大学生被试中调查了应付策略的适应性与身心健康的关系。使用涉及学习、人际关系、社会与家庭三个应激方面的应付策略调查表检查被试应付策略的适应性,使用Beck抑郁量表和症状检核表度量被试的身心症状。实验发现:应付策略的一般非适应性正相关抑郁(r=.396,P<.002)和恐怖(r=.369,p<.002);非适应应付策略的使用在社会与家庭方面与抑郁正相关(r=.373,P<.002),与躯体化正相关(r=.320,P<.002);在人际关系方面与恐怖正相关(r=.323,p<.002);在学习方面没有显示与身心症状的联系(r<.120,df=90,N.S.)。实验还就应付策略适应性的跨情境一致性问题做了讨论。     

BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION SCALES AND THE EVALUATION OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL EFFECTIVENESS

An earlier article by the present authors (Bernardin and Kane, 1980) pointed out a serious flaw in the conceptual basis of Behavioral Observation Scales (BOS). The present article explains this flaw in more detail and shows that its solution would make BOS indistinguishable from other methods already in existence. The focus then shifts from the conception of appraisal methods to their evaluation with the presentation of a discussion of the special problems of error capitalization that arise in the use of item analysis in the development of multi-item rating scales. This discussion proceeds to describe the correct approach to removing the effects of error capitalization in the evaluation of the psychometric properties of such rating scales.     

THE ORIGINS AND ISSUES OF SCEPTICISM, EAST AND WEST

The scepticism of the academicians: the illusions of perception, the frailty of induction, the indecency of deduction, the conundrums of negation, is not the concern of this paper. It is thinkers for whom the human situation is a predicament demanding some kind of resolution who interest me. These are thinkers who see knowledge, philosophy if you will, within the horizon of predicament and resolution, who see knowledge exhausting itself well before any resolution of the human predicament is reached, who hold that knowing is not the model by which to understand how humans relate to the way things really are.     

EVALUATION OF A PARENT-TRAINING MANUAL FOR REDUCING CHILDREN'S FEAR OF THE DARK

We evaluated the effectiveness of a manual to teach parents how to help their children overcome fear of the dark. The primary components of the package included desensitization, reinforcement, and verbal self-control statements. Six fearful children ages 3–11 and their parents participated. A multiple-baseline design across three pairs of matched subjects was used. Outcome measures consisted of the level of nighttime illumination voluntarily set by the child on a rheostat installed in the bedroom and the child's subjective rating of his or her fear level during the night. The data indicated that all children were sleeping all night with the rheostat set at criterion level or lower within 2 weeks after initiation of treatment, without any report of fear. Follow-up measures at 3, 6, and 12 months showed that all children maintained or improved on the reduced fear behaviors achieved during the treatment.     

儿童的直接推理能力及策略的发展

采用文字形式陈述前提,让儿童根据前提内容回答问题,以了解儿童在语言条件下的直接推理能力。并通过事后追问儿童作答的原因,对儿童推理的策略进行分析。结果表明：（1）6岁和7岁儿童初步发展了语言条件下的直接推理能力,8岁儿童形成了这种能力。从6岁到8岁,儿童的这种推理能力随年龄增长而迅速提高。（2）否定前提和肯定前提没有给儿童的直接推理造成影响。而且,反义词的转换,也没有增加任务的推理难度。（3）从6岁到8岁儿童的有效生成能力和使用能力都在明显提高。6岁、7岁儿童在直接推理时有效策略和无效策略并存,但几乎所有的8岁儿童都使用了“重复或解释前提”这一有效策略。     

问卷长度与作答型式的关系

从心理计量的观点来看,作答型式对心理测验及研究采用的问卷的信度和效度,均会构成严重威协。本文介绍了一些常见的作答型式及用来控制作答型式的传统统计方法。随后,我们指出由于这些传统统计方法都预先假定作答型式是稳定不变的,其效度便有疑问了;因为本文报告的研究证实了随着问卷长度的递增,作答型式会趋于刻板和不极端。因此,我们建议研究者在设计研究时,应尽量避免使用冗长的问卷。