The development and psychometric evaluation of a new measure of dissociative activities

The psychometric properties of a new measure of dissociative behaviors, the Scale of Dissociative Activities (SODAS), were evaluated. Undergraduates (n = 533) completed the SODAS, 2 other established self-report measures of dissociative behaviors, and a measure of socially desirable responding. A randomly selected subset of participants (n = 100) also participated in an additional reliability and validity follow-up study. The SODAS was found to be internally consistent (a =.95) and temporally stable (r =.77) over an average 38-day interval. The validity of the SODAS was established by a moderately low negative correlation with social desirability, high correlations with other self-report measures of dissociation, and moderate to high correlations with samples of dissociative activities assessed in naturalistic environments with experience sampling methodology. Overall, the SODAS compared favorably to other existing self-report measures of dissociative behaviors. Directions for future research on the SODAS are discussed.     

Assessing the person reliability of an individual MMPI protocol

This study investigated various measures commonly employed to assess the person reliability of an individual Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPB protocol. Specifically, relationships among indices of person reliability and the standard MMPI validity scales were examined using the responses of 82 subjects who completed the MMPI on two occasions separated by 1 week. Person reliability indices were based on within-occasion responses to identical and to psychologically similar items, and on three across-occasion response consistency measures. The validity scales, namely, the L, F, K, and Cannot Say scales, showed higher test-retest stability than the within-occasion person reliability indices. Further, the validity scales and person reliability indices appeared to reflect multiple facets of dependable responding. Interestingly, an individual's tendency to change responses to MMPI items from the test to the retest was significantly predictable. Clinical implications of these findings were derived.     

Assessing problems of cancer patients: psychometric properties of the cancer inventory of problem situations

Evaluated the psychometric properties of the Cancer Inventory of Problem Situations (CIPS), a cancer-specific survey instrument designed to assess day-to-day problems and rehabilitation needs of cancer patients. A heterogeneous group of 479 cancer patients participated in the research. The substructure of the CIPS was investigated using factor-analytic techniques. The CIPS was factored into 31 clinically useful subscales. Further analyses led to five higher order factors representing the physical, psychosocial, medical interaction, marital, and sexual problem areas characteristic of cancer and its treatment. Internal consistency of all the scales was high (mean alpha = .81). The test-retest reliability and validity of the instrument were also studied in a sample of 120 patients. Analyses of items, subscales, higher order factors, and total CIPS scores suggest excellent reliability. The pattern of correlations of the CIPS with other measures (psychological distress; physical, marital, and sexual functioning; and quality of life) provided preliminary evidence of concurrent, discriminant, and convergent validity. The CIPS appears to have sound psychometric properties and fills an important gap in the assessment of cancer patients for both clinical and research purposes.     

Everyday Marital Conflict and Child Aggression

Children's immediate aggressive responding to exposure to marital conflict was examined. Participants were 108 families with 8- to 16-year-old children (53 boys, 55 girls), with diary records of children's reactions to marital conflict in the home completed by 103 mothers (n = 578 records) and 95 fathers (n = 377 records) during a 15-day period. Child responses to analog presentations of marital conflict tactics were also obtained. Exposure to destructive conflict tactics and negative parental emotionality increased the likelihood of aggressive behavior in children when they witnessed marital conflict, whereas constructive conflict tactics and positive parental emotionality decreased the probability of aggression. Conflict topics presumed to be threatening to the child (child- or marital-related) also heightened the likelihood of aggression. Aggressive responding to conflict in both home and laboratory predicted externalizing behavior problems. Fathers' and mothers' separate diary reports, and child responses to analog presentation of conflict, provided generally consistent findings. An exposure hypothesis for marital conflict as an influence on child aggression is discussed.     

The Three Domains of Disgust Scale: factor structure, psychometric properties, and conceptual limitations

This investigation examined the measurement properties of the Three Domains of Disgust Scale (TDDS). Principal components analysis in Study 1 (n = 206) revealed three factors of Pathogen, Sexual, and Moral Disgust that demonstrated excellent reliability, including test-retest over 12 weeks. Confirmatory factor analyses in Study 2 (n = 406) supported the three factors. Supportive evidence for the validity of the Pathogen and Sexual Disgust subscales was found in Study 1 and Study 2 with strong associations with disgust/contamination and weak associations with negative affect. However, the validity of the Moral Disgust subscale was limited. Study 3 (n = 200) showed that the TDDS subscales differentially related to personality traits. Study 4 (n = 47) provided evidence for the validity of the TDDS subscales in relation to multiple indices of disgust/contamination aversion in a select sample. Study 5 (n = 70) further highlighted limitations of the Moral Disgust subscale given the lack of a theoretically consistent association with moral attitudes. Lastly, Study 6 (n = 178) showed that responses on the Moral Disgust scale were more intense when anger was the response option compared with when disgust was the response option. The implications of these findings for the assessment of disgust are discussed.     

Robust dimensions of anxiety sensitivity: development and initial validation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3

Accumulating evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (fear of arousal-related sensations) plays an important role in many clinical conditions, particularly anxiety disorders. Research has increasingly focused on how the basic dimensions of anxiety sensitivity are related to various forms of psychopathology. Such work has been hampered because the original measure--the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI)--was not designed to be multidimensional. Subsequently developed multidimensional measures have unstable factor structures or measure only a subset of the most widely replicated factors. Therefore, the authors developed, via factor analysis of responses from U.S. and Canadian nonclinical participants (n=2,361), an 18-item measure, the ASI-3, which assesses the 3 factors best replicated in previous research: Physical, Cognitive, and Social Concerns. Factorial validity of the ASI-3 was supported by confirmatory factor analyses of 6 replication samples, including nonclinical samples from the United States and Canada, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain (n=4,494) and a clinical sample from the United States and Canada (n=390). The ASI-3 displayed generally good performance on other indices of reliability and validity, along with evidence of improved psychometric properties over the original ASI.     

Do event-contingent diaries about marital conflict change marital interactions?

Recent increase in the use of diary measures has prompted questions about the effect completing diaries has on participants. After extensive training, married couples completed event-contingent diaries about their couple disagreements for 15 days, focusing on emotional and behavioral aspects of marital conflict. Serving as a control for placebo effects of participation, the diary group (n=110) and a non-randomized control group (n=57) also completed brief daily checklists, with minimal training, over the reporting period. Before and after the reporting period, couples engaged in videotaped conflict-resolution tasks that were coded for conflict behaviors and emotions expressed. ANOVAs comparing groups indicated that completing event-contingent diaries for 15 days had no apparent effects on observed husbands' and wives' expressed emotions and behaviors during marital interactions. Parental reports on the brief daily diaries indicated minimal differences between the groups in global measures of marital functioning. At the same time, husbands' self-reports in the home indicated decreasing perceptions of marital quality over the recording period. Thus, although no differences in conflict tactics emerged based on observed marital interactions in the laboratory, certain self-reports of responding suggested potential reactivity effects.     

A measure for the assessment of eating disorders: reliability and validity studies of the Rating of Anorexia and Bulimia interview - revised version (RAB-R)

The Rating of Anorexia and Bulimia interview (RAB) is a Swedish semi-structured interview for clinical and research purposes for a wide range of eating disorder symptoms and related psychopathology. The objectives were to evaluate the reliability and validity of a revised RAB version (RAB-R). The RAB-R was assessed in terms of internal consistency, inter-rater and test-retest reliability, and criterion and convergent validity. Samples included a clinical sample of eating disorder patients (n = 71) and a sample of randomly drawn female controls (n = 31). The RAB-R showed satisfactory internal consistency, inter-rater and test-retest reliability, correlated well with related measures, and discriminated between patients and normal controls. We conclude that the RAB-R is a promising interview instrument and continued evaluation should focus on comparing subgroups of eating disorder patients with other clinical groups.     

Reliability,stability, and factor structure of the Bulimia Test-Revised and Eating Disorder Inventory-2 scales in adolescence

The Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2) and Bulimia Test-Revised (BULIT-R) have demonstrated strong reliability and validity in college students and adults. Although used in adolescent samples, little is known about the psychometric properties of these measures for adolescents. The reliability, factor structure, and mean levels of five EDI-2 scales and the BULIT-R were evaluated over 3 years. Data were collected yearly from two samples of adolescent females, one recruited from three public middle schools (n = 239, mean baseline age = 12.8) and one from two public high schools (n = 119, mean baseline age = 15.9). Results provide strong evidence for the reliability and stability of these measures. Mean levels of both measures appeared remarkably consistent over the 3 years. These results provide evidence of good psychometric performance for these scales in adolescence. The lack of change in these measures raises questions about the developmental trajectory of these variables through adolescence.     

Depressive moods and marital happiness: within-person synchrony, moderators, and meaning

Recent studies using within-persons designs conceptually replicate and substantively extend prior research that has shown marital distress to be a robust risk factor for depression. The present investigation further extends this within-persons research tradition by increasing the frequency of assessments and by adding new moderators and measures in a sample of both newlywed (n = 24) and maritally distressed (n = 31) wives. In both samples, the average within-persons association between 21 daily assessments of wives' depressed mood and marital happiness approximated previous estimates of analogous effects (overall r = -.54). Wives reported worse depressive mood symptoms on days they experienced lower marital happiness, even after accounting for time and between-person variation in marital happiness. Each participant's within-persons mood and marital happiness association was then treated as a dependent variable to be predicted from theoretically relevant individual differences. Multilevel modeling showed that the negative within-person association between daily depressed mood and daily marital happiness was especially strong for women who were relatively high in depressive symptoms, who had avoidant attachment styles, and who were relatively low in marital adjustment.     

Validation of the Life Role Salience Scale in a South African setting

This study aimed to validate the Life Role Salience Scale (LRSS) in a South African context. Respondents were 300 working adults (72.3% = women; 57.9% = non-white; mean age = 35.12 years, SD = 10.25 years; mostly from the finance sector = 35.6%). Confirmatory factor and exploratory factor analyses were conducted to determine the LRSS’s factor structure and reliability of scores from the scale for the South African sample. Results yielded five factors emerging from the analyses: Homecare role reward value and homecare role commitment; marital role reward value and marital role commitment; occupational role commitment; occupational role value reward; and parental role reward value. The reliability of scores from the LRSS ranged from 0.79 (parental role reward value) to 0.95 (homecare role reward value and homecare role commitment). The LRSS shows validity for research use in South Africa.     

Validation of a Community Collective Efficacy Scale in an African Context

The aim of this study was to validate a community collective efficacy scale in an African context. An abridged version of the Community Collective Efficacy Scale was validated in a cross-sectional survey design. Participants (N = 1050) from urban (n = 451) and rural (n = 599) areas completed the CCES and other measures of self-efficacy and psychological well-being. Results indicated a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.72 and satisfactory inter-item correlations ranging between 0.17 and 0.25. Significant correlations between the CCES and other measures of self-efficacy and psychological well-being indicated good criterion-related validity. Construct validity was supported by confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis yielded one factor that relates to a sense of “we-ness”. The CCES thus has good reliability and validity in an African context.     

The assessment of relationship beliefs in a marital context

The current study presents data on reliability and validity of the Relationship Beliefs Inventory (RBI), a 40-item questionnaire which was designed to assess beliefs people hold about intimate relationships. The RBI was administered to clinical and non-clinical couples along with measures of marital functioning, communication, and irrational beliefs. The RBI-scales are relatively unaffected by social desirability and have adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Evidence was provided for its construct validity, but discriminant validity is poor.     

Assessing personality disorders using a systematic clinical interview: evaluation of an alternative to structured interviews

The aim of this study was to assess interrater reliability and provide initial data bearing on the validity of a method of assessing personality disorders (PDs) that does not presume that patients can accurately self-report personality pathology. In a sample of 24 outpatients, two clinician-judges independently applied the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-200 (SWAP-200; Westen & Shedler, 1999a, 2000), a 200-item Q-sort procedure for assessing personality pathology, to data from the Clinical Diagnostic Interview (Westen, 2002), a systematic clinical interview that mirrors and standardizes methods used by experienced clinicians to diagnose personality. In 16 of the 24 cases, the treating clinician also independently described the patient using the SWAP-200 Q-sort, based on longitudinal knowledge of the patient over the course of treatment, blind to the interview data. Interrater reliability was uniformly high, with median correlations between interviewers at r > .80. Interviewer-treating clinician correlations were also high, with median convergent validity coefficients at r > .80. Diagnostic overlap (discriminant validity) was moderate for dimensional DSM-IV diagnoses, reflecting extensive comorbidity among disorders, but minimal for empirically derived diagnoses identified in prior research. Treating clinicians' dimensional PD diagnoses using this method also strongly predicted interviewer-rated measures of adaptive functioning. The findings provide preliminary support for the reliability and validity of an alternative to structured interviews for diagnosing personality pathology, and suggest that the way to improve validity of personality diagnosis may not be to minimize clinical inference but to quantify it using psychometric instruments.     

The inconsistency of inconsistency scales: a comparison of two widely used measures

This study compared the inconsistent responding validity scales of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI)/PPI-Revised (PPI-R) in two correctional samples to determine the extent to which they overlap in identifying invalid profiles. Results revealed substantial differences in the way the inconsistent responding validity scales of these measures performed. In particular, the PAI identified far fewer participants as having responded inconsistently compared with the PPI/PPI-R. We discuss the implications of our findings for clinical practice, and potential concerns with the use of a single measure to identify inconsistent responding in clinical practice and research.     

Development and validation of the Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale: a brief self-report measure of anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating disorder

This article describes the development and validation of a brief self-report scale for diagnosing anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. Study 1 used a panel of eating-disorder experts and provided evidence for the content validity of this scale. Study 2 used data from female participants with and without eating disorders (N = 367) and suggested that the diagnoses from this scale possessed temporal reliability (mean kappa = .80) and criterion validity (with interview diagnoses; mean kappa = .83). In support of convergent validity, individuals with eating disorders identified by this scale showed elevations on validated measures of eating disturbances. The overall symptom composite also showed test-retest reliability (r = .87), internal consistency (mean alpha = .89), and convergent validity with extant eating-pathology scales. Results implied that this scale was reliable and valid in this investigation and that it may be useful for clinical and research applications.     

On the invalidity of validity scales: evidence from self-reports and observer ratings in volunteer samples

Because of the potential for bias and error in questionnaire responding, many personality inventories include validity scales intended to correct biased scores or identify invalid protocols. The authors evaluated the utility of several types of validity scales in a volunteer sample of 72 men and 106 women who completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, 1978/1982) and were rated by 2 acquaintances on the observer form of the NEO-PI-R. Analyses indicated that the validity indexes lacked utility in this sample. A partial replication (N = 1,728) also failed to find consistent support for the use of validity scales. The authors illustrate the use of informant ratings in assessing protocol validity and argue that psychological assessors should limit their use of validity scales and seek instead to improve the quality of personality assessments.     

Incremental validity of spouse ratings versus self-reports of personality as predictors of marital quality and behavior during marital conflict

The personality traits of neuroticism and agreeableness are consistently related to marital quality, influencing the individual's own (i.e., actor effect) and the spouse's marital quality (i.e., partner effect). However, this research has almost exclusively relied on self-reports of personality, despite the fact that spouse ratings have been found to have incremental validity over self-reports for a variety of other important outcomes. In a study of 300 middle-aged and older married couples, we examined the incremental validity of spouse ratings of neuroticism and agreeableness in predicting concurrent levels of self-reported marital quality, observations of behavior during a marital disagreement task, and depressive symptoms. Neuroticism and agreeableness had expected actor and partner effects on each of these outcomes. Spouse ratings of these traits demonstrated incremental validity in estimates of actor and partner effects on marital quality, marital behavior, and depressive symptoms. Results suggest that spouse ratings of personality may be important additions to the typical reliance on self-reports for research and clinical assessment in marriage.     

忘我问卷的编制及其信效度检验

通过文献分析和访谈,阐明忘我的概念与结构,并编制了忘我问卷。采用现场发放和网络问卷的方式对607名被试进行忘我问卷的初测。接着,对357名被试施测正式问卷,进行信度、效度检验。探索性因素分析显示,忘我问卷由3个因子构成; 验证性因素分析表明该量表拟合良好(RMSEA=0.07,NFI=0.95,CFI=0.95,GFI=0.92,AGFI=0.89)。问卷总体一致性系数为0.89,3个因子的内部一致性系数在0.84-0.88之间。问卷总体得分与效标问卷特质焦虑得分呈负相关(-0.51),与安适幸福感、正念觉知的得分呈正相关(分别为0.36、0.31)。忘我问卷具有良好的信度和效度,可在后续的相关研究和实践中作为测量问卷或评估工具使用。