A Non-Verbal Technique for Assessing Frustration Response in Pre-School Children

The present study represents a report of the initial development of a picture method for assessing response to frustration in preschool children. Study 1 (N = 91) included the initial development of the picture materials; it also produced some validational support for the picture method in the form of significant correlations between picture choices and extensive behavior observations. Study 2 (N = 49) was designed to be essentially a replication of Study 1. In addition, further validational support was sought through the correlation of picture choices with global teacher ratings of the behaviors of interest.     

A Factor-Analytic Model for Assessing Individual Differences in Response Scale Usage

This article proposes a factor-analytic model, intended for graded-response or continuous-response personality and attitude items, which includes an additional multiplicative person parameter that models the individual's response mapping process. The model, which is a modification of Spearman's (1904) factor analysis (FA) model, is parameterized as both an FA model and an item response theory (IRT) model and is fully developed to the extent that it can be used in applications. Procedures for (a) calibrating the items and assessing data fit, (b) obtaining individual estimates of both person parameters, (c) determining measurement precision, and (d) assessing differential predictability are proposed and discussed. The potential advantages of the proposal, its practical relevance, and its relations with other approaches are also discussed. Its functioning is assessed with a simulation study and 3 empirical examples in the personality domain.     

Assessing Item Fit for Unidimensional Item Response Theory Models Using Residuals from Estimated Item Response Functions

Residual analysis (e.g. Hambleton & Swaminathan, Item response theory: principles and applications, Kluwer Academic, Boston, 1985; Hambleton, Swaminathan, & Rogers, Fundamentals of item response theory, Sage, Newbury Park, 1991) is a popular method to assess fit of item response theory (IRT) models. We suggest a form of residual analysis that may be applied to assess item fit for unidimensional IRT models. The residual analysis consists of a comparison of the maximum-likelihood estimate of the item characteristic curve with an alternative ratio estimate of the item characteristic curve. The large sample distribution of the residual is proved to be standardized normal when the IRT model fits the data. We compare the performance of our suggested residual to the standardized residual of Hambleton et al. (Fundamentals of item response theory, Sage, Newbury Park, 1991) in a detailed simulation study. We then calculate our suggested residuals using data from an operational test. The residuals appear to be useful in assessing the item fit for unidimensional IRT models.     

Assessing MMPI Constructs Through the Measurement of Response Latencies

Responses to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) were assessed with respect to their relevance to schema theory. The relation between scores on self-reported personality dimensions and the speed of processing test items associated with each dimension was examined. With previously derived factor analytic content scales, negative correlations were obtained between scale scores and mean latencies for endorsing relevant items, and positive correlations were found between scale scores and mean latencies for rejecting relevant items. A similar analysis completed on the traditional clinical scales revealed no such pattern. Results were interpreted as supporting the conceptualization of item responding as a content-based, schema-relevant process.     

Testing for Association Using Multiple Response Survey Data: Approximate Procedures Based on the Rao-Scott Approach

This article discusses approximate tests of marginal association in 2-way tables in which one or both response variables admit multiple responses. Although multiple-response questions appear in all fields of research, including sociology, education, and marketing, the development of association tests that can be used with multiple-response data is very recent. A simple test procedure proposed by Agresti and Liu (1999) is extended to tests of association between 2 multiple-response variables, and it is shown that the procedure is a member of the first-order Rao-Scott family of corrected chi-squared statistics. A second-order Rao-Scott version of this procedure is developed. The Type I error control of both first- and second-order procedures is examined through calculation and simulation.     

Procedures for computerized testing

The concept of tailored testing is defined in general terms and in terms of its major components: item calibration, item selection, and ability estimation. Each of the components is described and the available methods are summarized. The end result is a 12-category classification scheme based on the component parts. Four specific procedures are described. References are presented to suggest that the more adaptive procedures are capable of more precise measurement.     

Procedures for synthesizing ratio judgements

Requirements which seem reasonable for functions synthesizing judgements (quantities or their ratios), in particular separability, associativity or bisymmetry, cancellativity, consensus, reciprocal or homogeneity properties are investigated and all functions satisfying them are determined.     

Assessing Parental Response Patterns in the Treatment of Noncompliance in Children

Child noncompliance is one of the most frequently reported behavior problems in clinic-referred children. One difficulty with treating noncompliance in the clinic is that the demand characteristics of the situation may alter the rates of child compliance. The observation of parent-child interactions, with an emphasis on parent behaviors, may be a more meaningful way to assess parent training programs. In the current study, the parents of three children each showed a distinctive pattern in their responding to their children's compliant and noncompliant behaviors. An in vivo direct instruction procedure, that involved the therapist working directly with the parent to provide immediate consequences was used. Following training, improvements in correct responding were evident for al parents. Particularly noteworthy was that child compliance was not an accurate indicator when assessing parents' initial skill levels.     

An Attempt to Predict Change in Mood in Response to Velten-Like Mood Induction Procedures

College student subjects were rated high or low in cognitive and behavioral depression proneness, based on their scores on a screening battery that included the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (Hollon & Kendall, 1980), the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (Weissman, 1979), the Intemality-Extemality Scale (Rotter, 1966), the Pleasant Events Schedule and the Unpleasant Events Schedule (Lewinsohn & Amenson, 1978). The students were subsequently exposed to one of two different Velten-like depressive mood inductions, one based on Beck's (1974) model of depression, and the other based on Lewinsohn's (1974) model. We hypothesized that subjects who scored higher on the cognitive measures would tend to become more depressed when exposed to the Beck statements and that those who scored higher on the behavioral measures would tend to become more depressed when exposed to the Lewinsohn statements. The hypothesis was not supported. Instead, pre-existing cognitively or behaviorally defined depression proneness appeared to be unrelated to subjects' susceptibility to one or the other model of depression as defined by the two mood inductions. However, the inductions themselves were found to produce a significant lowering of mood, and both inductions were equally effective in lowering mood.     

The Startle Pattern in Infants in Response to Non-Auditory Stimuli

Abstract

Goldstein, K. Human Nature in the Light of Psychopathology. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1940. Pp. 258 Reviewed by Frederick Wyatt. Reviewed by Frederick Wyatt

Katona, G. Organizing and Memorizing. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1940. Pp. 318. Reviewed by Livingston Welch     

Acceptance of Labels for Behavioral Response-Reduction Procedures and the Users of Those Procedures

The Psychological Record - The acceptability of labels for behavioral response-reduction procedures and the users of those procedures was evaluated. Introductory psychology students read a lesson...     

Assessing the Incremental Algorithm: A Response to Krahmer et al.

This response discusses the experiment reported in Krahmer et al.’s Letter to the Editor of Cognitive Science. We observe that their results do not tell us whether the Incremental Algorithm is better or worse than its competitors, and we speculate about implications for reference in complex domains, and for learning from ‘‘normal” (i.e., non‐semantically‐balanced) corpora.     

New Procedures for Analyzing Relational Communication

The purpose of this paper is to present a system for describing and indexing patterns of communication at the relational level, primarily in dyadic systems. Relational communication refers to the control aspects of message exchanges that define an interactor's relationships with others. The reciprocal definition of each individual's role at a given moment in the interaction is reflected in the relative control each individual has and/or is given by the other individual. The control-defining aspects of communication, rather than other information such communication may convey, is the focus of the coding system to be described. Further, the analysis deals with sequences of messages rather than individual messages, and attempts to index the control dimensions of those messages according to their similarity or difference. While previous interaction analysis techniques have been predominantly monadic in nature, i.e., single-message coding schemes, the present approach is based on a systems level of analysis. ¹ 1 See Rogers ( 9 ) for a detailed review and critique of existing interaction coding schemes.
     

Assessing Stimulus Control in a Discrimination Task with Compound Stimuli: Evaluating Testing Procedures and Tracking Eye Fixations

The Psychological Record - Experiments with pigeons have suggested that the way stimuli are arranged in tests affects the demonstration of the stimulus control established during training. The...     

Simple Procedures to Estimate Chance Agreement and Kappa for the Interrater Reliability of Response Segments Using the Rorschach Comprehensive System

When determining interrater reliability for scoring the Rorschach Comprehensive System (Exner, 1993), researchers often report coding agreement for response segments (i.e., Location, Developmental Quality, Determinants, etc.). Currently, however, it is difficult to calculate kappa coefficients for these segments because it is tedious to generate the chance agreement rates required for kappa computations. This study facilitated kappa calculations for response segments by developing and validating formulas to estimate chance agreement. Formulas were developed for 11 segments using 400 samples, cross-validated on 100 samples, and applied to the data from 5 reliability studies. On cross-validation, the validity of the prediction formulas ranged from .93 to 1.0 (M = .98). In the 5 reliability studies, the average difference between estimated and actual chance agreement rates was .00048 and the average difference between estimated and actual kappa values was .00011 (maximum = .0052). Thus, the regression formulas quite accurately predicted chance agreement rates and kappa coefficients for response segments.     

Procedures for identifying evidence-based psychological treatments for older adults

The authors describe the methods used to identify evidence-based psychological treatments for older adults in this contribution to the special section. Coding teams were assembled to review the literature on several problems relevant to mental health and aging. These teams used the manual developed by the Committee on Science and Practice of the Society for Clinical Psychology (Division 12) of the American Psychological Association that provided definitions of key constructs used in coding. The authors provide an overview of the process followed by the review teams and of some of the issues that emerged to illustrate the steps involved in the coding procedure. Identifying evidence-based treatments is a fundamental aspect of promoting evidence-based practice with older adults; such practice is advocated by most health care disciplines, including psychology.