A Criterion-Related Validity Study of the OASIS-2 Interest Schedule

A total of 36 rising high school seniors who were participating in a summer program designed to encourage interest in attending college were administered the Self-Directed Search (SDS) and OASIS-2 Interest Schedule. Correlational analyses identified statistically significant relationships between SDS and OASIS-2 scales. In most cases, scales one would expect to find related to one another correlated significantly and at a level many would consider to be acceptable for establishing criterion-related validity. Implications of the results for those practitioners using the OASIS-2 Interest Schedule are discussed.     

Relationship Between the OASIS-2 Aptitude Survey and Grades in College English and Psychology Classes

A total of 36 rising high school seniors (between the 11th and 12th grades), who were taking college classes in English and psychology as part of their participation in a summer program designed to encourage interest in attending college, were administered the OASIS-2 Aptitude Survey, Correlational analyses identified statistically significant relationships between grades in both classes and the general and verbal aptitude measures on the OASIS-2. No statistically significant relationships were identified between other OASIS-2 aptitude measures and grades. Implications for use of the OASIS Aptitude Survey are discussed.     

A System for Tailoring Change Measures to the Individual Family

The focus of this project is the problem of evaluating change in families. Prior work has tended to limit itself to anecdotal or self-report data. By and large, the studies that have evaluated a family intervention by observing family interactions have failed to demonstrate change. A major drawback in such studies has been the assumption that the few interaction variables selected (e.g., amount of silent time) have roughly the same salience and meaning for all the families studied. The measurement system described here was developed to fulfill four methodological requirements: (a) to represent the family as a whole; (b) to be sensitive to change; (c) to contain multiple measures; and (d) to be adaptable to the variation among families. The solution to these requirements, presented here, is a system for tailoring measures to individual families.     

ON THE INTERCHANGEABILITY OF OBJECTIVE AND SUBJECTIVE MEASURES OF EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE: A META-ANALYSIS

A meta-analysis of studies containing both objective and subjective ratings of employee performance resulted in a corrected mean correlation of .389. This value, although significantly greater than zero, indicates that objective and subjective performance measures should not be used interchangeably. Moreover, in no moderator subgroup examined did the correlation suggest convergent validity. After discussing issues related to resolving the previous anomalies of primary and meta-analytic results, a secondary analysis suggested that objective and subjective measures of the same construct at the same level may be used inter-changeably. The secondary analysis, however, was based on a very limited sample. Future research should address the appropriate dimensionality of employee performance.     

RELIABILIST JUSTIFICATION (OR KNOWLEDGE) AS A GOOD TRUTH-RATIO

Abstract:  Fair lotteries offer familiar ways to pose a number of epistemological problems, prominently those of closure and of scepticism. Although these problems apply to many epistemological positions, in this paper I develop a variant of a lottery case to raise a difficulty with the reliabilist's fundamental claim that justification or knowledge is to be analyzed as a high truth-ratio (of the relevant belief-forming processes). In developing the difficulty broader issues are joined including fallibility and the relation of reliability to understanding.