PC anxiety: reliability and validity of a brief scale

A brief six-item scale to measure confidence in the use of personal computers showed Cronbach alpha of .76 for internal reliability and construct validity (r(pb)s of -.16, -.18, -.22 for items of behavioral use).     

Social support at university scale, a brief index

A brief, 3-item index of social support among college students, the Social Support at University Scale, is introduced. Its psychometric properties are examined in a sample of 90 college students (51 women, 39 men) and compared with those of an equivalent scale distributed among 100 university staff (67 women, 33 men). The Short-Form Social Support Questionnaire, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale were also administered to each participant. The data suggest that the Social Support at University Scale possesses internal consistency reliability suitable for research (alpha = .68), external validity as indicated by comparisons between the student and staff samples, concurrent validity as indicated by correlations with measures of generic social support, and criterion validity as indicated by associations with known correlates of social support, namely, perceived stress, anxiety, and depression.     

Development of a brief measure of college stress: the college student stress scale

The study included assessment of the psychometric properties of an 11-item measure of perceived stress and control in 273 first-year college students. Results indicated good internal consistency and stability over a 5-week interval, and the total score was highly correlated with another measure of perceived stress. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation indicated two possible factors which explained 55% of the variance. However, given the small number of items and low internal consistency of the second factor (alpha=.60), use of the Total score is recommended.     

Construction of a scale for measuring development of moral judgement

The present research is a part of a study done to develop an objective measure of the development of moral judgement according to Kohlberg's theoretical construct. The Padua Scale of Moral Judgement and the relationship between empirical data and theory are presented. The scale was constructed from responses to the Sociomoral Reflection Measure-Short Form derived from Kohlberg's Moral Judgement Interview. Reliability and validity of the new scale as well as group age and sex differences were examined.     

Reliability and validity of a new scale to measure prejudice: The GRISMS

The goal of the present research was to assess the reliability and validity of the fiftyitem Modified Godfrey-Richman ISM Scale (M-GRISMS). The sample consisted of seventy-one female and sixty male introductory psychology students. Test items included various ethnic groups (Racism subscale), religious groups (Religion subscale), and the Heterosexist and Sexist subscales. Each of these was parsed into various subcategories, e.g., the Racism subscale assessed attitudes toward African-Americans, Asian-Americans, European-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The final version of the M-GRISMS (the M-GRISMS-M) was found to be highly reliable and valid. Eight independent factors traversed two or more “isms.”     

Reliability and validity of a new scale to measure prejudice: The GRISMS

The goal of the present research was to assess the reliability and validity of the fiftyitem Modified Godfrey-Richman ISM Scale (M-GRISMS). The sample consisted of seventy-one female and sixty male introductory psychology students. Test items included various ethnic groups (Racism subscale), religious groups (Religion subscale), and the Heterosexist and Sexist subscales. Each of these was parsed into various subcategories, e.g., the Racism subscale assessed attitudes toward African-Americans, Asian-Americans, European-Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans. The final version of the M-GRISMS (the M-GRISMS-M) was found to be highly reliable and valid. Eight independent factors traversed two or more “isms.”     

Development and validation of a scale measuring attitudes toward smoking

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. J?reskog & D. S?rbom, 1989) methodology revealed that the SAS consists of 4 factors. The overall instrument possesses good internal consistency and adequate construct validity as well.     

Cardiac change scale: A brief, self-report research measure

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief, self-report measure of the degree of perceived change resulting from cardiac illness. Life change has been widely recognized as stressful, but it is usually assessed with generic checklists of events which have been found wanting in terms of reliability and validity. The proposed measure was designed to assess life change in factors commonly reported to be important in recovery from cardiac illness. The Cardiac Change Scale was found to have very good internal consistency and acceptable test-retest reliability. The construct and criterion validity of the Cardiac Change Scale were supported.     

Cardiac change scale: A brief,self-report research measure

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a brief, self-report measure of the degree of perceived change resulting from cardiac illness. Life change has been widely recognized as stressful, but it is usually assessed with generic checklists of events which have been found wanting in terms of reliability and validity. The proposed measure was designed to assess life change in factors commonly reported to be important in recovery from cardiac illness. The Cardiac Change Scale was found to have very good internal consistency and acceptable test-retest reliability. The construct and criterion validity of the Cardiac Change Scale were supported.     

Coping behavior in depression: report on a new scale

The Coping Strategies Scales (COSTS) were developed to provide a means of measuring how depressed persons cope with depression and to identify the behavior which they find to be most or least helpful. Items were rated by eight psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers. Those items achieving 75% level of agreement on scale assignments were included. The COSTS was then administered to 100 depressed outpatients and inpatients currently in psychotherapy. A replication study of 64 patients was also completed. Nine of the 10 scales had acceptable internal reliability, ranging from 0.70 to 0.86. An initial factor analysis of the 10 scale scores showed there to be three primary factors. Internal reliability coefficients for these three factorially-derived scales ranged from 0.86 to 0.91.     

The attitudes toward rape victims scale: Reliability and validity in a chinese context

Two studies were conducted to assess the cross-cultural applicability of Ward's Attitudes toward Rape Victims Scale (ARVS). In the first study, 202 Chinese college students took the ARVS, the Attitudes toward Women Scale, and the Traditionality-Modernity Factor Scale. Reliability and convergent validity were established for ARVS. In the second study, construct validity of the ARVS was further examined, using the known-group method. The scores of four professional groups were compared. Consistent with previous studies, women showed significantly more favorable attitudes toward the rape victims than men. The findings generally suggest that the ARVS is promising in further cross-cultural research and application.     

Validity of the Overcontrolled-Hostility (O-H) Scale: a brief report.

In order to further assess the validity of the MMPI O-H (overcontrolled hostility) Scale, high and low O-H youthful offenders were administered the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study and their responses classified as extrapunitive, impunitive or intropunitive. Results indicated that high O-H subjects were significantly more impunitive than low O-H subjects and conversely, that low O-H subjects were more extrapunitive than high O-H subjects. Such findings are consistent with the O-H personality typology and lend further support to the construct validity of the Scale.