Toward a hierarchical model of criminal thinking: evidence from item response theory and confirmatory factor analysis

Item response theory (IRT) methods were applied to items from the 80-item Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS; G. D. Walters, 1995) to determine how well they measure the latent trait of criminal thinking in a group of 2,872 male medium security prison inmates. Preliminary analyses revealed that the 64 PICTS thinking style items, 32 PICTS proactive criminal thinking items, and 24 PICTS reactive criminal thinking items were sufficiently unidimensional to meet the local independence requirements of IRT. The PICTS was fitted to a 2-parameter logistic-graded response IRT model, the results of which showed that the 8 items measuring denial of harm (Sentimentality) displayed weak discrimination (a < 0.5), whereas most of the proactive and reactive items displayed moderate to good discrimination (a > 1.0). Information function analysis revealed that all 3 components of a hierarchical model of criminal thinking--PICTS total scale, PICTS proactive factor, and PICTS reactive factor--displayed greater precision at higher rather than lower levels of the trait dimension. The study findings indicate that items from the PICTS Sentimentality scale do a poor job of measuring general criminal thinking, whereas items from the other 7 PICTS thinking style scales provide their most precise estimates at the upper end of the trait dimension.     

The Relationship Between Masculinity,Femininity, and Criminal Thinking in Male and Female Offenders

The 4 factor scales of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) were correlated with the Femininity and Masculinity scales of the Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) in 100 adult male (33% Caucasian, 44% African American, 21% Hispanic, 1% other) and 100 adult female (50% Caucasian, 30% African American, 8% Hispanic, 12% other) federal prison inmates. It was hypothesized that the BSRI Masculinity scale would correlate negatively with the PICTS problem avoidance scale and positively with the PICTS self-deception/assertion scale, and that the BSRI Femininity scale would correlate negatively with the PICTS interpersonal hostility scale and positively with PICTS denial of harm scale. In male inmates, as predicted, the BSRI masculinity scale correlated negatively with the PICTS problem avoidance scale and positively with the self-deception/assertion scale, although the latter coefficient fell short of statistical significance. In the case of female inmates the BSRI femininity scale correlated positively with denial of harm but failed to correlate significantly with interpersonal hostility. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Construct validity of the psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles in relationship to the PAI, disciplinary adjustment, and program completion

We evaluated the convergent and discriminant validity of the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS; Walters, 1995) in a group of 199 maximum security prisoners. As anticipated, the PICTS Confusion scale correlated with the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) Negative Impression scale, whereas the PICTS Defensiveness scale paralleled the PAI Positive Impression scale. Also as predicted, a greater portion of the PICTS thinking style scales correlated with the PAI Antisocial Features scale than correlated with the PAI Somatic Complaints, Anxiety, Depression, Mania, Paranoia, and Schizophrenia scales. When the PICTS composite scales were converged onto behavioral indexes, modest statistically significant relationships surfaced between the PICTS Reactive scale and a record of disciplinary infractions and between the PICTS Proactive scale and program completion.     

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS): a review and meta-analysis

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) is an 80-item self-report measure designed to assess crime-supporting cognitive patterns. Data from men (N = 450) and women (N = 227) offenders indicate that the PICTS thinking, validity, and content scales possess moderate to moderately high internal consistency and test-retest stability. Meta-analyses of studies in which the PICTS has been administered reveal that besides correlating with measures of past criminality, several of the PICTS thinking and content scales are capable of predicting future adjustment/release outcome at a low but statistically significant level, and two scales (En, CUR) are sensitive to program-assisted change beyond what control subjects achieve spontaneously. The factor structure of the PICTS is then examined with the aid of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the results of which denote the presence of two major and two minor factors.     

Standardization of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised in a Spanish prison sample

This investigation examined the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) in male adult Spanish prison populations (n = 117). The interrater reliability and internal consistency coefficients were high, and similar to those obtained in other countries. This data provides support for the homogeneity and unidimensionality of the psychopathy construct in Spanish male prison samples. The analysis of factor structure also replicated the two factor solution of previous studies. The two factors showed different patterns of intercorrelations with several self-report measures of personality, demographic, and criminal history variables, which confirmed the construct validity of PCL-R. The results confirm the psychometric properties of the PCL-R as a measure of psychopathy in Spanish male inmates, and suggest that psychopathy is a construct also observed in Southern European countries.     

Incremental validity of the psychological inventory of criminal thinking styles as a predictor of continuous and dichotomous measures of recidivism

Postrelease recidivism data were collected on 137 male inmates released 1 to 72 months after completing the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) in follow-ups lasting 6 to 55 months. When a dichotomous measure of recidivism (0, 1+ arrests) was employed, Entitlement (En) was the only PICTS thinking-style scale to achieve significance after age, prior arrests, time at risk in the community, and the PICTS Superoptimism (So) scale were controlled in a binary logistic regression analysis. Both the Cutoff (Co) and En scales proved significant in predicting a continuous measure of recidivism (range = 0 to 6) after age, prior arrests, time at risk, and the So scale were controlled in a sequential linear regression analysis. Whereas the En scale displayed mixed incremental validity results relative to the Co scale, the Co scale failed to achieve incremental validity relative to the En scale.     

Exploring maternal touch in the infant’s first 18 months of Life: A study on an Italian sample

Affective touch is a crucial component of caregiving in early life and constitutes a key factor with a significant impact on infant later-life outcomes. The Parent-Infant Caregiving Touch Scale (PICTS) allows to quantify and qualify the caregiver's self-perception of touch in the first months of an infant’s life. In the current study, we contributed to validation of the PICTS in the Italian language in order to explore whether early maternal touch would be associated with maternal emotional state, maternal history of affective touch experiences throughout the lifespan, and infants’ sex and age. Data analyses were run on a sample of 377 Italian mothers (mean age = 33.29; SD = 4.79) participating in an online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied. A three-dimensional structure of PICTS (i.e., stroking, affective communication, and holding) after removing one item out resulted in the best model in our sample. Maternal emotional state did not affect PICTS factor scores while maternal comfort and amount of affective touch experienced during adulthood was significantly associated with the stroking, affective communication, and holding factors. Regarding infants’ dimensions, infants’ sex and age were not associated with PICTS factor scores. Findings suggest that the PICTS Italian version is a good measurement of caregiver's self-perception of touch in early infancy and that maternal history of touch is associated with a mother’s current use of touch.     

The Spiritual Transcendence Index: An Item Response Theory Analysis

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to measure understudied dimensions of spirituality, recent efforts have focused on the transcendent dimension of spirituality. The Spiritual Transcendence Index (STI) was developed to assess a perceived experience of the sacred that affects one’s ability to transcend life’s difficulties. The main focus of the current study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the STI by utilizing the microscopic item-level examination tools unique in item response theory (IRT), as well as its scale-level exploration devices for psychometric properties of an assessment measure. IRT analyses were conducted to investigate the STI’s psychometric properties across samples (N = 712) including how well the measure assesses the latent construct, spiritual transcendence, from the low to high range of the construct. The findings confirm that the 8-item index is a single factor that assesses the latent construct, spiritual transcendence. Instead of the original 6-category version, these findings support a 4-category response version; the 3 categories of disagreement may be collapsed into a single category. These findings not only inform the refinement of the STI but also highlight an important psychometric approach for the refinement of spirituality/religiousness measures, especially those with ceiling effects.     

The Development and Testing of a New Version of the Cognitive Reflection Test Applying Item Response Theory (IRT)

The cognitive reflection test (CRT) is a short measure of a person's ability to resist intuitive response tendencies and to produce a normatively correct response, which is based on effortful reasoning. Although the CRT is a very popular measure, its psychometric properties have not been extensively investigated. A major limitation of the CRT is the difficulty of the items, which can lead to floor effects in populations other than highly educated adults. The present study aimed at investigating the psychometric properties of the CRT applying item response theory analyses (a two‐parameter logistic model) and at developing a new version of the scale (the CRT‐long), which is appropriate for participants with both lower and higher levels of cognitive reflection. The results demonstrated the good psychometric properties of the original, as well as the new scale. The validity of the new scale was also assessed by measuring correlations with various indicators of intelligence, numeracy, reasoning and decision‐making skills, and thinking dispositions. Moreover, we present evidence for the suitability of the new scale to be used with developmental samples. Finally, by comparing the performance of adolescents and young adults on the CRT and CRT‐long, we report the first investigation into the development of cognitive reflection. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spanish adaptation of the scale of psychological empowerment in the workplace

The objective of this study is to adapt and translate into Spanish Spreitzer's Psychological Empowerment Scale (1995a). A process of translation and reverse-translation was applied to the scale's items, whose psychometric properties were then examined using a sample of 272 professional nurses at public hospitals in the province of Seville. The data were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis. The significance of the factor loadings demonstrated the need to create a new model eliminating one item. The 11-item model was shown to possess adequate construct validity and internal consistency. The results confirm the original, four-factor structure obtained by Spreitzer, with the exception of item 10, and support the utilization of the Spanish version of this scale in the workplace. Future research should more extensively investigate its construct validity, and test the nomological network of the operationalized construct within the field of psychological well-being and in the context of the workplace.     

Fewer reasons for staying alive when you are thinking of killing yourself: The brief reasons for living inventory

The Linehan Reasons for Living Inventory is a 48-item scale on which respondents rate how important each item would be for living if suicide were contemplated. The inventory possesses good psychometric properties and can distinguish suicidal from nonsuicidal people among shoppers, psychiatric inpatients, college students, and adolescents. As its length limits its utility in many institutional and screening settings, the purpose of this study was (1) to develop a brief form of the Reasons for Living Inventory appropriate for clinical use and (2) to examine the predictive validity of this brief measure, named the Brief Reasons for Living Inventory (BRFL), to distinguish suicidal from nonsuicidal prison inmates. Results indicate that the brief form was as good as either the Beck Depression Inventory or the Beck Hopelessness Scale at predicting suicidality in this population. Further study is needed to validate the BRFL with different institutionalized and other populations as well as to assess its ability to discriminate suicide ideators from those engaging in overt suicidal behavior.Support for this project was provided in part by the New York State Office of Mental Health Bureau of Forensic Services and the New York State Department of Correctional Services.     

Automatic Generation of Rasch-Calibrated Items: Figural Matrices Test GEOM and Endless-Loops Test EC

The future of test construction for certain psychological ability domains that can be analyzed well in a structured manner may lie—at the very least for reasons of test security—in the field of automatic item generation. In this context, a question that has not been explicitly addressed is whether it is possible to embed an item response theory (IRT) based psychometric quality control procedure directly into the process of automatic item generation. Research in this area was conducted using 2 item generators (for the 2 domains of reasoning and spatial ability) that were developed and based on relevant models of cognitive psychology. During the course of the 4 studies reported here, those parts of the generators that check for possible violations of psychometric quality ("constraints") were improved. The main findings indicate that quality control procedures can be embedded in automatic item generators depending on (a) the degree to which the domain to be measured can be structured; (b) item-specific, content-based analyses; and (c) the degree to which the constraints can be implemented in software. Furthermore, beyond the global check of given model fit via IRT, the content-based analysis of items may be valuable in terms of finding such item properties that may lead to violations of psychometric quality.     

Severe intimate partner violence risk prediction scale-revised

The aim of this study was to describe the psychometric properties of the Severe Intimate Partner Violence Risk Prediction Scale and to revise it in order to ponderate the 20 items according to their discriminant capacity and to solve the missing item problem. The sample for this study consisted of 450 male batterers who were reported to the police station. The victims were classified as high-risk (18.2%), moderate-risk (45.8%) and low-risk (36%), depending on the cutoff scores in the original scale. Internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=.72) and interrater reliability (r=.73) were acceptable. The point biserial correlation coefficient between each item and the corrected total score of the 20-item scale was calculated to determine the most discriminative items, which were associated with the context of intimate partner violence in the last month, with the male batterer's profile and with the victim's vulnerability. A revised scale (EPV-R) with new cutoff scores and indications on how to deal with the missing items were proposed in accordance with these results. This easy-to-use tool appears to be suitable to the requirements of criminal justice professionals and is intended for use in safety planning. Implications of these results for further research are discussed.     

A comparison of two estimation algorithms for Samejima’s continuous IRT model

This study compares two algorithms, as implemented in two different computer softwares, that have appeared in the literature for estimating item parameters of Samejima’s continuous response model (CRM) in a simulation environment. In addition to the simulation study, a real-data illustration is provided, and CRM is used as a potential psychometric tool for analyzing measurement outcomes in the context of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) in the field of education. The results indicate that a simplified expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm is as effective and efficient as the traditional EM algorithm for estimating the CRM item parameters. The results also show promise for using this psychometric model to analyze CBM outcomes, although more research is needed in order to recommend CRM as a standard practice in the CBM context.     

The contribution of short-term memory for serial order to early reading acquisition: evidence from a longitudinal study

Early reading acquisition skills have been linked to verbal short-term memory (STM) capacity. However, the nature of this relationship remains controversial because verbal STM, like reading acquisition, depends on the complexity of underlying phonological processing skills. This longitudinal study addressed the relation between STM and reading decoding acquisition by distinguishing between STM for item information and STM for order information based on recent studies showing that STM for item information, but not STM for order information, recruits underlying phonological representations. If there is a specific link between STM and reading decoding acquisition, STM for order information should be an independent predictor of reading decoding acquisition. Tasks maximizing STM for serial order or item information, measures of phonological abilities, and reading tests were administered to children followed from kindergarten through first grade. We observed that order STM capacity, but not item STM capacity, predicted independent variance in reading decoding abilities 1 year later. These results highlight the specific role of STM for order in reading decoding acquisition and argue for a causal role of order STM capacity in reading acquisition. Mechanisms relating STM for order information and reading acquisition are discussed.     

Domain‐General and Domain‐Specific Creative‐Thinking Tests: Effects of Gender and Item Content on Test Performance

The study examined the effects of gender and item content of domain‐general and domain‐specific creative‐thinking tests on four subscale scores of creative‐thinking (fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration). Chinese tenth‐grade students (234 males and 244 females) participated in the study. Domain‐general creative thinking was measured by using two domain‐independent items—box and newspaper. Domain‐specific creative thinking was measured in the domain of history by two history‐specific items—school uniform and health food—that were part of lessons in modern Chinese history. Domain‐general creative‐thinking scores were not different across gender in any of the four subscales. In domain‐specific creative thinking, female students produced more responses (fluency) and more categories of ideas (flexibility), and more detailed answers (elaboration) on both items than did males. Gender difference was not found in originality. Item effects were significant in both general and specific creative‐thinking scores, with higher fluency, flexibility, and elaboration for the newspaper than the box item, and higher fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration for the school uniform than the health food item. The findings on both gender and item effects support the contention that personal interest and life experience influence the generation of creative solutions. The finding that gender did not differ in domain‐general creative‐thinking was expected, as the two general items (box and newspaper) are experienced similarly by both genders. As most of the creative‐thinking tests are influenced by individuals' experience beyond creative‐thinking ability, judicial evaluation and use of creative‐thinking scores are underscored.     

The differential responding of male prisoners to subtle and obvious MCMI subscales.

We investigated the differential responding of 100 male inmates to subtle and obvious MCMI scale items; subtlety was determined by judgments by college students. It has been predicted that item subtlety would be positively correlated with item endorsement. This prediction was supported across all 175 MCMI items, as well as across items on 7 of 8 personality and 8 of 12 clinical scales. It had also been predicted that education and intelligence would moderate the relationship between subtlety and endorsement, with inmates higher in education and intelligence demonstrating a greater tendency than other inmates to avoid obvious items. Modest support was obtained for this prediction, with statistically significant results found for 4 personality and 5 clinical scales. The significance of the subtle-obvious distinction is discussed, especially when employing the MCMI with an inmate population.     

计算机适应性测验条件下认知设计项目预测参数的影响

自动化项目生成(Automatic Item Generation)中的项目参数是基于认知项目设计的刺激特征集预测的, 在不确定性来源上较之用经验数据标定的参数更为复杂。文章通过实证研究分析了在计算机适应性测验条件下基于认知设计系统法生成的抽象推理测验(ART)项目预测参数对能力参数估计的精确性。研究表明, 项目预测参数比相应标定参数分布更为趋中。这种回归效应既影响到能力参数估计误差大小, 也导致适应性测验过程中项目选择的差异。在控制了项目选择差异之后, 能力参数估计误差较之基于项目标定参数的能力估计误差大, 但差别并不明显。两者相应的能力估计值相关很高, 对应能力值之间的差异很小, 且几乎贯彻整个能力分布区间。