Toward more clinically relevant assessment research.

The purpose of this article is to encourage the design and conduct of more clinically relevant assessment research. The discussion focuses on the distinction between research design elements that are appropriate to the examination of validity versus utility issues in assessment. This was addressed in 2 ways. The first part of the article summarizes the results of an informal methodological review of 108 empirically based articles published in 3 major assessment journals (Assessment, Journal of Personality Assessment, & Psychological Assessment) during the period of September 1998 through August 1999. The results indicated that studies published in these journals demonstrated appropriate sensitivity to some aspects of utility but not others. For example, none of the articles addressed the process of interpretation in clinical settings or the reactions of stakeholders to assessment. Recommendations for enhancing the integration of validity and utility issues in the design of research are discussed. These include methodological issues and topics in need of further study. A particularly important example of the latter is the need for research identifying factors that foster positive impressions of psychological assessment.     

The making of meaning: comments on Hofstee and Ten Berge

Hofstee and Ten Berge (2004/this issue) outline a method of scale transformation that places scores on a common absolute scale. This contrasts with traditional relative methods of transformation, which involve scaling in relation to a sample mean. Their primary intention seems to be to produce a scale that is intrinsically meaningful. This issue of scale meaning is discussed in some detail, including reference to an alternate approach to absolute scaling offered by Cohen, Cohen, Aiken, and West (1999). Ultimately, neither approach to absolute scaling seems completely satisfactory as a resolution to this problem. It is suggested that the lack of meaning inherent to many psychosocial measures is a natural product of traditional aggregative practices in scale development and may be invulnerable to statistical correction.     

Enhancing accuracy in observational test scoring: the comprehensive system as a case example

Inaccuracies in administration and scoring can potentially compromise the validity of any standardized psychosocial measure. The threat is particularly pertinent to methods involving behavioral observation, a category that includes many intelligence tests, neuropsychological measures, personality assessment instruments, and diagnostic procedures. Despite evidence and conjecture that errors in testing procedure are common for at least some of these measures and that these errors are often severe enough to influence interpretation, the topic has received relatively little attention. In particular, the absence of any safeguard against inaccurate test use in clinical situations can put the respondent at risk and violates ethical standards for the use of tests. In this article, I review some issues surrounding accuracy in testing procedures, including a discussion of what is known about the problem, an evaluation of several approaches to improving testing practices, and a review of recommendations for the statistical evaluation of rater accuracy. In this article, I use the Rorschach Comprehensive System (Exner, 1993) to demonstrate the concepts discussed.     

A comparison of the PAI and MMPI-2 as predictors of faking bad in college students

Both the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher et al., 2001) and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) offer a large set of scales devoted to the identification of response styles. This study directly compared the effectiveness of the 2 inventories as indicators of overreporting. The 2 measures were administered to 52 college students instructed to fake bad under conditions describing either a forensic (n = 24) or psychiatric (n = 28) setting as well as to 432 psychiatric patients. Results indicated that the MMPI-2 F - K index and Fp Scale were the best single indicators of a faking bad response style and that the MMPI-2 scales were the better indicators as a set. However, the PAI scales demonstrated a significant level of incremental validity over the MMPI-2 indicators in every analysis conducted. The findings suggest that either inventory offers an effective approach to the detection of overreporting, and administering both inventories can enhance the accuracy of prediction further.     

Cuing interacts with perceptual load in visual search

We tested the strong form of the perceptual-load hypothesis, which posits that the amount of perceptual load is the only factor determining whether attention can be effectively focused. Participants performed a visual search task under conditions of low and high load and with either a 100% valid spatial cue or no spatial cue. With no cue, participants showed evidence of processing to-be-ignored stimuli when perceptual load was low but not when it was high, consistent with the perceptual-load hypothesis. However, with a 100% valid spatial cue, participants showed little evidence of processing to-be-ignored stimuli, even when perceptual load was low. These results suggest that although perceptual load may be an important factor in attentional selectivity, load alone is not sufficient to explain how and when selective attention is effective.     

Incremental validity of selected MMPI-A content scales in an inpatient setting

To date, relatively few studies have been published evaluating the validity or incremental validity of the content scales from the adolescent version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-A; J. N. Butcher et al., 1992). A sample of 629 psychiatric inpatient adolescents who had completed the MMPI-A was used to evaluate the ability of selected clinical and content scales to predict conceptually related clinical variables. Criteria were based on clinician ratings, admission and discharge diagnoses, and chart reviews. Results from hierarchical multiple and logistic regression analyses indicated the content scales offered incremental validity over the clinical scales and supported the use of the content scales as an adjunct to the traditional clinical scales.     

Development of an Infrequency-Psychopathology scale for the MMPI-A: the Fp-A Scale

This article describes the development and initial validation of the Infrequency-Psychopathology scale, Fp-A, for the MMPI-A (Butcher et al., 1992). The scale parallels the Infrequency-Psychopathology scale, F(p), that has been developed for the MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989). Results demonstrated that the 40-item Fp-A scale is superior to the F scale at discriminating between faking-bad and accurate reports of psychopathology, although the improvement over F was modest, particularly when compared to the improvement found for the F(p) scale. The difference seemed to reflect the superiority of the MMPI-A F scale to the MMPI-2 F scale. Even so, the findings suggest that the identification of overreporting on the MMPI-A could potentially be enhanced by using Fp-A as an adjunct to the F scale.     

The structure of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale: Theoretical and methodological considerations

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS; Zigmond - Snaith, 1983) is widely used; however, its factor structure is unclear, with studies reporting differing unidimensional, two-factor and three-factor models. We aimed to address some key theoretical and methodological issues contributing to inconsistencies in HADS structures across samples. We reviewed existing HADS models and compared their fit using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We also investigated methodological effects by comparing factor structures derived from Rasch and Principal Components Analysis (PCA) methods, as well as effects of a negative wording factor. An Australian community-dwelling sample consisting of 189 females and 158 males aged 17–86 (M = 35.73, SD = 17.41) completed the 14-item HADS. The Rasch Analysis, PCA and CFA all supported the original two-factor structure. Although some three-factor models had good fit, they had unacceptable reliability. In the CFA, a hierarchical bifactor model with a general distress factor and uncorrelated depression and anxiety subscales produced the best fit, but the general factor was not unidimensional. The addition of a negative wording factor improved model fit. These findings highlight the effects of differing methodologies in producing inconsistent HADS factor structures across studies. Further replication of model fit across samples and refinement of the HADS items is warranted.     

Moral Identity Predicts Adherence to COVID-19 Mitigation Procedures Depending on Political Ideology: A Comparison Between the USA and New Zealand

Reducing the spread of infectious viruses (e.g., COVID-19) can depend on societal compliance with effective mitigations. Identifying factors that influence adherence can inform public policy. In many cases, public health messaging has become highly moralized, focusing on the need to act for the greater good. In such contexts, a person's moral identity may influence behavior and serve to increase compliance through different mechanisms: if a person sees compliance as the right thing to do (internalization) and/or if a person perceives compliance as something others will notice as the right thing to do (symbolization). We argue that in societies that are more politically polarized, people's political ideology may interact with their moral identity to predict compliance. We hypothesized that where polarization is high (e.g., USA), moral identity should positively predict compliance for liberals to a greater extent than for conservatives. However, this effect would not occur where polarization is low (e.g., New Zealand). Moral identity, political ideology, and support for three different COVID-19 mitigation measures were assessed in both nations (N = 1,980). Results show that while moral identity can influence compliance, the political context of the nation must also be taken into account.