Development and preliminary validation of a semi-structured interview for the screening of law enforcement candidates

A standard practice among most law enforcement agencies is to include psychological screening in the selection of job candidates. Although the use of personality tests in predicting job performance of law enforcement officers has received empirical support (e.g., the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Inwald Personality Inventory), there is a conspicuous absence of data regarding the reliability and validity of interview procedures. The present study represents the first step in the development of a standardized, semi-structured interview for use in the screening of law enforcement personnel. This interview, the Law Enforcement Candidate Interview, was constructed using content areas drawn from measures used in the screening of law enforcement personnel (e.g., Inwald Personality Inventory) and assessment of personality functioning (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders). This interview was then administered by two doctoral students to a group of law enforcement academy cadets (n=34). A modest degree of inter-rater reliability was achieved, although internal consistency was somewhat lacking. Interview scores were correlated with measures of academy performance (final grade-point average and peer and supervisor ranking of academy performance). Results of these analyses suggest the LECI is a modest predictor of academy performance. Potential uses of the LECI and future research indications are outlined.     

The Assessment of Hyperactivity and Attention (AHA): development and preliminary validation of a brief self-assessment of adult ADHD

A brief self-rating scale, the Assessment of Hyperactivity and Attention (AHA), was developed and validated using a "gold standard" DSM-based semi-structured interview. The sample consisted of 101 smokers (74% male, 73% Caucasian)-38.6% with no DSM-IV ADHD diagnosis, 10.9% with a childhood diagnosis only, and 50.5% with an adult diagnosis (requiring childhood diagnosis as well). The mean age SD was 33.7 9.7; participants smoked a mean of 19.0 5.6 cigarettes/day. Results indicate that the AHA has utility as a screening tool and as a self-report assessment of ADHD with sensitivity of .80, specificity of .60, positive predictive power of .67, negative predictive power of .75, kappa of .40, odds ratio of 6.15, and an area under the curve (receiver operating characteristic analysis) of .79. Given the high rate of ADHD among smokers, the AHA may be useful in identifying smokers who may need more in-depth clinical evaluation for attentional problems.     

Development and validation of a brief form of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire

The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, 1982, in press) provides for a comprehensive analysis of personality at both the lower order trait and broader structural levels. Its higher order dimensions of Positive Emotionality, Negative Emotionality, and Constraint embody affect and temperament constructs, which have been conceptualized in psychobiological terms. The MPQ thus holds considerable potential as a structural framework for investigating personality across varying levels of analysis, and this potential would be enhanced by the availability of an abbreviated version. This article describes efforts to develop and validate a brief (155-item) form, the MPQ-BF. Success was evidenced by uniformly high correlations between the brief- and full-form trait scales and consistency of higher order structures. The MPQ-BF is recommended as a tool for investigating the genetic, neurobiological, and psychological substrates of personality.     

Development and validation of a brief self-report measure of trauma exposure: the Trauma History Screen

Although information about individuals' exposure to highly stressful events such as traumatic stressors is often very useful for clinicians and researchers, available measures are too long and complex for use in many settings. The Trauma History Screen (THS) was developed to provide a very brief and easy-to-complete self-report measure of exposure to high magnitude stressor (HMS) events and of events associated with significant and persisting posttraumatic distress (PPD). The measure assesses the frequency of HMS and PPD events, and it provides detailed information about PPD events. Test-retest reliability was studied in four samples, and temporal stability was good to excellent for items and trauma types and excellent for overall HMS and PPD scores. Comprehensibility of items was supported by expert ratings of how well items appeared to be understood by participants with relatively low reading levels. In five samples, construct validity was supported by findings of strong convergent validity with a longer measure of trauma exposure and by correlations of HMS and PPD scores with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The psychometric properties of the THS appear to be comparable or better than longer and more complex measures of trauma exposure.     

The development and initial validation of the Multicultural Environmental Inventory: a preliminary investigation

This article describes the development and initial validation of the Multicultural Environmental Inventory (MEI). The MEI is an instrument designed to measure an individual's perceptions about the degree to which graduate counseling programs address multicultural issues within curriculum, supervision, climate, and research. This investigation was conducted using the data from 208 students and faculty from counseling psychology graduate programs across the United States approved by the American Psychological Association. By using techniques of exploratory factor analysis, a 4-factor solution was determined to account for the relationships among the items on the MEI. The instrument was modified from 53 to 27 items on the basis of the items' effectiveness in measuring the underlying constructs of interest, and internal consistency information is provided on the final revised instrument (MEI-R). The factors underlying the MEI-R are discussed within the context of a multicultural environment in graduate counseling programs, and directions for future research are considered.     

Development and validation of the Eating Disorders Screen for Athletes (EDSA): A brief screening tool for male and female athletes

ObjectivesTo develop and validate the Eating Disorders Screen for Athletes (EDSA), a brief eating disorders screening tool for use in both male and female athletes. Methods: Data from Division I athletes at a Midwestern university (N = 434) were used to conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA) by gender. Data from athletes competing at various levels at universities across the United States (N = 862) were then used to conduct confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis by gender. Athletes from a range of lean and non-lean sports were included. Gender-specific empirically derived cut-offs on the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire were used to classify high eating disorder risk for ROC curve analysis. Measurement invariance by gender, level of competition, and sport type was also examined. Results: A six-item, one-factor structure for the EDSA was supported by EFA and CFA in both genders, and internal consistency was good for both male (α = 0.80) and female athletes (α = 0.86). ROC curve analyses indicated that the EDSA was highly accurate in predicting eating disorder risk status and identified a score of 3.33 as the optimal cut-off for both male (sensitivity = 0.96, specificity = .80) and female athletes (sensitivity = 0.96, specificity = .64). Results also supported strong measurement invariance for the EDSA by gender, level of competition (Division I versus club), and sport type (lean versus non-lean). Conclusions: The EDSA shows promise as a brief screening tool to identify male and female athletes at risk for eating disorders.     

Measuring faking in the employment interview: development and validation of an interview faking behavior scale

An Interview Faking Behavior (IFB) scale is developed and validated in 6 studies (N = 1,346). In Study 1, a taxonomy of faking behavior is delineated. The factor structure of a measure is evaluated and refined (Studies 2 and 3). The convergent and discriminant validity of the measure is examined (Study 4). The IFB scale consists of 4 factors (Slight Image Creation, Extensive Image Creation, Image Protection, and Ingratiation) and 11 subfactors (Embellishing, Tailoring, Fit Enhancing, Constructing, Inventing, Borrowing, Masking, Distancing, Omitting, Conforming, and Interviewer Enhancing). A study of actual interviews shows that scores on the IFB scale are related to getting a 2nd interview or a job offer (Study 5). In Study 6, an experiment is conducted to test the usefulness of the new measure for studying methods of reducing faking using structured interviews. It is found that past behavior questions are more resistant to faking than situational questions, and follow-up questioning increases faking. Finally, over 90% of undergraduate job candidates fake during employment interviews; however, fewer candidates engage in faking that is semantically closer to lying, ranging from 28% to 75%.     

The psychoanalytic research interview: preliminary suggestions

Psychoanalytically informed interview techniques and interview analysis can yield useful psychoanalytic insights about a particular research subject within the space of a few interviews. Basic hermeneutic principles, often used to understand the research interview, are not sufficient for understanding unconscious meaning and intrapsychic processes; they pay little attention to the particular theoretical and technical aspects of the interview needed to create the best conditions for understanding unconscious meaning. The portability of psychoanalytic concepts and their applicability outside the therapeutic setting are considered, after which four epistemological principles are outlined, derived mainly from the narrative tradition in psychoanalysis, that can inform interview technique and the analysis of the interview. Careful attention to feeling states, the search for core narratives, and the exploration of identifications and object relations are isolated as key analytic tasks in the interview analysis. A brief verbatim interview is used to illustrate this process, and methods are suggested to prevent the "wild analysis" of the interview encounter.     

Development and validation of a brief mental health screening instrument for newly incarcerated adults

The authors report the development and initial psychometric evaluation of gender-specific brief screening instruments to identify undetected psychiatric impairment on incarceration. Women and men completed the Correctional Mental Health Screen (CMHS), a 56-item screen derived from validated measures. Representative subsamples completed structured diagnostic interviews within 5 days. An 8-item screen for women and a 12-item screen for men identified inmates with current Axis I psychiatric disorders with 83% to 100% accuracy on the basis of cut points chosen to maximize negative predictive power. The CMHS showed evidence of incremental predictive utility compared with two previously validated correctional mental health screening measures with White and Black men and White women. Incremental validity was not supported with Black women, for whom the CMHS performed well in identifying true cases but not in ruling out noncases. Analyses of internal consistency, interrater, and retest reliability and convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity supported the psychometric status of the CMHS.     

The Adultcentrism Scale in the educational relationship: Instrument development and preliminary validation

The term “adultcentrism” refers to a paradigm of thought that leads adults to provide inadequate or distorted responses to children’s needs (Furioso, 2000), despite the belief of acting in children’s best interest. Our understanding of adult-child relationship could be subjected to such adultcentric bias, thus preventing the acknowledgement of the deeply reciprocal qualities of the encounter between the culture of adults and the one of children. Several authors have focused on the importance of making an effort in recognizing the partiality of such adult-centered perspective (Goode, 1986; Petr, 1992; Furioso, 2000; Mackay, 1973, 2003; Biancardi, 2002; Foti, 2004), but no research tools have been proposed so far.The Adultcentrism Scale, a questionnaire of 27 items, has been developed and administered to 326 university students during a pilot study. Three factors emerged from ML EFA (Oblimin rotation): “Child as an empty box”, “Child without agency”, and “Competent Child”. The factorial structure resulted corroborated by CFA, with the exception of one item that has been therefore excluded. The final version of the Adultcentrism Scale has been administered to a sample of 910 parents of primary school-age children. Results indicate that the Adultcentrism Scale could help in the detection of the construct of adultcentrism in caregivers, particularly in large-scale studies. The three factors extracted and the tendency of response distributions appear consistent with the reference literature. Reflecting on adultcentrism can bring positive implications in designing interventions focusing on the improvement of adult-child relationship quality.     

Personality and alienation of creative writers: a brief report

The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and an alienation scale were administered to 100 creative Indian writers. Creative writers appeared to be introverted, high on neuroticism and psychoticism, and more alienated; they also had higher L scores.     

Borderline Personality Disorder: towards a systemic formulation

The diagnostic label, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), is rapidly gaining currency in the UK. Although many systemic practitioners are skilled and experienced at working with the clinical difficulties associated with the diagnosis, there is little systemic literature on the topic. This paper discusses some of the difficulties for systemic practitioners in engaging with the concept of BPD and offers some pointers for the development of systemic practice in this area.     

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.     

Validity of a brief interview for assessing reflective function

The Reflective Function Scale was developed by Fonagy and colleagues (1998) to empirically measure the capacity to mentalize thoughts, intentions, feelings, and beliefs about oneself and others. Reflective Function (RF) has been reliably measured by the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI; Main and Goldwyn 1998), but its length (45-90 minutes) and the labor required to administer, transcribe, and code for RF may be prohibitive for many research studies. The present study measured the reliability and validity of the Brief Reflective Function Interview (BRFI; Rudden, Milrod, and Target 2005) by administering it to 27 undergraduate participants previously assessed using the AAI in another research study (Morrison 2010). The BRFI was coded reliably by two independent raters (ICC = .79) and yielded a highly significant positive correlation (r = .71) between RF scores obtained by BRFI and by AAI. The average administration time of the BRFI (M = 24.15 minutes) was significantly shorter than that of the AAI (M = 44.65 minutes). These findings suggest that the BRFI may offer a reliable, valid, and streamlined alternative to the AAI as a measure for coding RF.     

The Trauma Memory Quality Questionnaire: preliminary development and validation of a measure of trauma memory characteristics for children and adolescents

It has been suggested that post-traumatic stress is related to the nature of an individual's trauma memories. While this hypothesis has received support in adults, few studies have examined this in children and adolescents. This article describes the development and validation of a measure of the nature of children's trauma memories, the Trauma Memory Quality Questionnaire (TMQQ), that might test this hypothesis and be of clinical use. The measure was standardised in two samples, a cross-sectional sample of non-clinic referred secondary school pupils (n=254), and a sample participating in a prospective study of children and adolescents who had attended a hospital Accident and Emergency department following an assault or a road traffic accident (n=106). The TMQQ was found to possess good internal consistency, criterion validity, and construct validity, but test-retest reliability has yet to be established.     

The development and validation of a measure of character: The CIVIC

The present research study sought to develop and validate a character scale – the Comprehensive Inventory of Virtuous Instantiations of Character using a total sample size of 3679 across five studies. In Study 1, character trait items were generated using an integrative classification system. In Study 2, character trait scales were further refined and their factor structure examined, revealing eight higher-order character dimensions or character cores: appreciation, intellectual engagement, fortitude, interpersonal consideration, sincerity, temperance, transcendence, and empathy. Study 3 established convergent validity of character traits with extant measures and discriminability from personality facets, social desirability, and moral cognitive development. Study 4 revealed that character cores were more strongly related to evaluative constructs than personality dimensions. Study 5 demonstrated that character cores predicted performance and psychological well-being outcomes above and beyond personality. The implications of our findings for the assessment and taxonomy of character are discussed.