A short scale to measure self-righteousness

Two studies were conducted which created and tested a scale to measure self-righteousness. Self-righteousness was defined as the conviction that one's behaviors or beliefs are correct, especially in contrast to alternate behaviors or beliefs. In the first study, a 4-item scale to measure general self-righteousness was derived which demonstrated adequate levels of internal consistency and was related to dogmatism and ambiguity intolerance. In the second study, the items were worded to be specific to running a race. This study succeeded in demonstrating that the scale possessed predictive validity. This study also demonstrated the usefulness of rewording the general items to make them specific about the content of self-righteousness.     

Measuring grief: A short version of the perinatal grief scale

Despite a considerable number of studies, there are two major drawbacks in the literature on grief and bereavement. One is a lack of adequate and generally agreed upon measures for assessing grief. The second is a lack of ability to predict from existing measures the likelihood of what has been termed chronic or pathological grief reactions. This paper reports the results of the development of a bereavement measure for the study of perinatal loss which attempts to address these gaps. The measure is specific to a pregnancy-related loss, although it has the potential for adaptation to use for other types of loss. Analysis of responses from 138 women has resulted in the reduction of the original measure from 104 to a more manageable and almost equally comprehensive and reliable 33 items. In addition, a factor analysis has produced three factors, two of which indicate the possibility for longer-term and more severe grief reactions. Because of its sound psychometric qualities and interesting factor structure, the measure shows promise of being useful for both research and clinical purposes.This research was funded by National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Grant R01 H18431-04, with additional assistance from the Center for Social Research at Lehigh University. Dr. Potvin is supported by the Quebec Health Research Fund.     

Development and validation of the statistical anxiety scale

Nowadays, there is a great deal of evidence to suggest that personality variables can play an important role in the prediction of academic performance. However, many authors have mentioned that the differences in the prediction power of broad and narrow personality measures must be taken into account. We develop and validate a scale to assess the anxiety encountered when taking a statistics course. We designed the inventory as a set of 24 positive sentences that measure three subscales: Examination Anxiety , Asking for Help Anxiety and Interpretation Anxiety . In addition, as the three dimensions correlated with each other, they were considered related subscales from an overall scale, which measures statistical anxiety. Results show that these specific measures of anxiety about statistics have a significant relationship with academic performance in statistics whereas broader measures of anxiety or neuroticism do not.     

A test of two different revelation effects using forced-choice recognition

The revelation effect refers to the finding of an increased propensity to classify recognition test probes as old when they are preceded by a problem solving task. Recent research indicates that revelation effects are dissociable based on whether the revelation task involves an item that is the same as or different than the subsequently presented recognition probe. Using a two-alternative forced-choice design, we found a revelation effect for both words (Experiment 1) and nonwords (Experiment 2) in the condition where the revealed item was the same as the target item (same revelation condition), but no effect when the revealed item was different than either test alternative (different revelation condition). These results were replicated using a mixed list design containing both words and nonwords (Experiment 3). Results support Verde and Rotello’s (2004) two-factor account of the revelation effect, which proposes that changes in memory sensitivity underlie revelation effects in the same revelation condition, and that changes in the decision criterion are responsible in the different revelation condition.     

Measurement tool for preoperative anxiety in young children: The yale preoperative anxiety scale

To develop a preoperative anxiety scale (YPAS) for children undergoing surgery, 21 specific behaviors indicating anxiety were defined within five domains (activity, emotional expressivity, state of arousal, vocalization, and use of adults). A reliability Kappa analysis revealed that inter-observer agreement ranged from .66 to .94, while intra-observer Kappa ranged from .66 to .91. Validity analysis between a Visual Analog Scale and the YPAS revealed an r of .59 for entering the operating room. Multiserial analysis comparing the YPAS to the Vernon Anxiety Scale ranged from .61 to .64. Showing good to excellent observer reliability and validity, the YPAS proves to be an appropriate tool for studying children's responses in preoperative settings. As such, the new assessment instrument should be of interest to clinical and research neuropsychologists who need to assess a child's anxiety level prior to the undertaking of a given surgical procedure.     

Taste-quality recognition and forced-choice response

The Collings (1974) procedure for measuring taste-quality recognition thresholds controls adequately for bias caused by variation in the willingness of subjects to report perceiving a taste quality. However, it fails to control for bias due to the preference of subjects for one response over another. In the present study, preferential selection among the response alternatives was reflected in the disproportionate occurrence of the four taste-quality names among incorrect responses. Response preferences were idiosyncratic and grew stronger with repeated testing. They were not eliminated by informing subjects of the correctness of their responses. Use of this procedure for measuring recognition thresholds is discouraged.     

A comparison of method-of-adjustment and forced-choice procedures in frequency discrimination

Reported estimates of the frequency difference limen (DL) for tones show considerable variability. To determine the extent that the differences are dependent on psychophysical method, three estimates of the DL at 1,000 Hz were obtained from the same subjects for each of three psychophysical procedures. The three estimates were: (1) the standard deviation of final settings in a methbd of adjustment, (2) the average of several reversals in an adaptive two-interval forced-choice procedure, and (3) the 76%-correct point in a two-interval forced-choice procedure using constant stimuli. The two forced-choice procedures yielded very similar DLs. The adjustment procedure yielded significantly smaller estimates. Possible reasons for the different values produced by adjustment procedures and the nature of the underlying decision process are discussed.     

A forced-choice adaptive procedure for measuring auditory thresholds in children

A modification of the two-down/one-up tracking procedure was used to estimate thresholds of audibility in 46 children (ages 3 to 6 years) and 10 adults. A two-alternative forced-choice version (26 children, 5 adults) of this method was successful in estimating thresholds of audibility in 5-year-olds, but not in 3- and 4-year-olds. A single-interval version of the procedure was successful in estimating thresholds of audibility for all the children. Measures from the children of between- and within-subjects variability, psychometric functions, and response bias all indicate that the procedure enables one to estimate thresholds that are in close agreement with those obtained from adults and with results of other investigators.