Predictive validity of the medical specialty preference inventory

Medical schools can assist students by providing them with quality career counseling to help them choose a medical specialty. Many schools use interest inventories to help identify students’ specialty interests. This study examined the predictive validity of one such inventory, the Medical Specialty Preference Inventory (MSPI). In a longitudinal design, we used discriminant function analysis to examine how well students’ scores on the MSPI fit their chosen medical specialty one year later. The MSPI correctly predicted students’ future medical specialty choice 58.1% of the time. These results can help career advisors interpret MSPI scores, and identify students’ most likely medical specialty choice, as well as their second most likely choice.     

Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: Two Studies of Convergent Validity

As the field of mental health services shifts its focus to early intervention, the need to develop valid and reliable measures of young children's behavioral functioning is clear. Traditional assessment instruments have focused on deficits, problems, and pathologies to the exclusion of strengths and competencies. However, assessing child strengths provides parents, direct service providers, and educators with a more holistic view of the child's functioning and an understanding of skills from which individualized treatment and education plans may be written. The Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS; Epstein & Sharma, 1998) is a strength-based instrument designed to identify children's behavioral and emotional strengths. The psychometrics of the BERS has been demonstrated through several studies; however, the focus has mainly been on older age students. We sought to assess the convergent validity of the BERS with kindergarten children. The results of these two studies provide further support of the psychometric characteristics of the BERS and indicate its appropriateness with young children.     

The reliability and construct validity of scores on the Japanese version of an academic self‐concept scale for a sample of college students1

Abstract: This study investigated the internal consistency, reliability, and construct validity of scores on the Japanese version of the Dimensions of Self‐Concept (DOSC) academic self‐concept scale for a sample of 177 students at a small Japanese private college. Confirmatory factor analyses showed promising support for the construct validity of scores on the six factor subscales (Level of Aspiration, Anxiety, Academic Interest and Satisfaction, Leadership and Initiative, Identification versus Alienation, and Stress), representing the six hypothesized constructs of academic self‐concept. Internal consistency reliability of scores on the six subscales ranged from 0.82 to 0.87.     

Work behavior in the school psychology service: Conceptual framework and construct validity approached by two different methodologies

A conceptual framework for work behavior (WB) in the school psychology service (SPS) in Norway is discussed, focusing on differences at the individual and the systemic level. A four-factor measurement model of selected tasks was hypothesized and empirically assessed by joint application of generalizability (G) theory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Self-reported WB was investigated among 190 SP counselors in Study 1 and 470 SP counselors within 121 offices in Study 2. The hypothesized four-factor solution was supported. In accordance with international findings, G studies demonstrated that the SPS as a whole allocates different priorities to aspects of WB, in favor of traditional child-centered work when approaching existing problems. A two-level model of factor analysis was tested, indicating little difference between offices in service delivery. On the contrary, the generalizable differentiation between the four hypothesized WB categories as provided by the G framework indicated individual differences among SP counselors in their priorities to aspects of WB. Because higher priority to prevention and systems intervention have been requested in general, future research should explore possible variables that may have an effect on SP counselors choice of different aspects of WB, as well as differences in the associations between aspects of WB on the one hand and important behavioral and attitudinal outcomes among jobholders on the other.     

Validation of the Dutch version of the aggression questionnaire in adolescent male offenders

This study examined the construct validity of the Dutch version of Buss and Perry’s Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) in 73 adolescent male offenders aged 12 to 18 years who were participating in a residential rehabilitation program. There was a strong positive association between the Hostility subscale of the AQ and psychological and physical symptoms. The nature of this connection was discussed. It was argued that the Hostility subscale measures some unique aspect of aggression that is not incorporated by the Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression, or Anger subscales of the AQ. As expected, the AQ scales correlated significantly with trait anger, social desirability, and age. Furthermore, staff ratings of physical violence, verbal aggression, anger, and negative attitude were obtained for each subject. Correlations between the AQ scales and these ratings were low. Possible explanations for this unexpected finding are discussed. Finally, normative and internal structure data are presented. Aggr. Behav. 28:87–96, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Biodata Validity Decay and Score Inflation with Faking: Do Item Attributes Explain Variance Across Items?

Rating scales were developed to assess the biodata dimensions offered by Mael (1991). Biodata items assessing conscientiousness were administered under honest-responding and faking-good conditions. Item attributes were examined to determine their value in predicting item validity for honest respondents and item validity for faking respondents. Analyses were also conducted to determine whether the degree of item faking was related to item attributes. Item attributes associated with item validity for honest respondents are not the same as the item attributes indicative of item validity for the faking respondents. We suggest that this makes it very difficult to develop a biodata questionnaire which will be equally valid for both honest and faking respondents.     

Understanding Self-Report Bias in Organizational Behavior Research

Self-report and mono-method bias often threaten the validity of research conducted in business settings and thus hinder the development of theories of organizational behavior. This paper outlines a conceptual framework for understanding factors that influence the motivation of an employee to bias his or her responses to questions posed by organizational researchers. Using a longitudinal, multitrait-multimethod dataset, we illustrate various aspects of the problem and argue that traditional approaches for controlling self-report bias do not adequately prevent the problem. The results suggest the need for developing a theory of method effects and companion analytic techniques to improve the accuracy of psychological research in business settings.     

Speaking Your Mind: Large Inarticulateness Constitutional and Circumstantial

When someone is asked to speak his mind, it is sometimes possible for him to furnish what his utterance appears to have omitted. In such cases we might say that he had a mind to speak. Sometimes, however, the opposite is true. Asked to speak his mind, our speaker finds that he has no mind to speak. When it is possible to speak one's mind and when not is largely determined by the kinds of beings we are and by the kinds of resources we are able to draw upon. In either case, not speaking one's mind is leaving something out whose articulation would or could matter for the purposes for which one was speaking in the first place. Inarticulation is no fleetingly contingent and peripheral phenomenon in human thinking and discourse. It is a substantial and dominant commonplace. In Part One I attempt to say something about what it is about the human agent that makes inarticulateness so rife. In Part Two, I consider various strategies for making the unarticulated explicit, and certain constraints on such processes. I shall suggest, among other things, that standard treatments of enthymematic reconstruction are fundamentally misconceived.     

Cue competition between elementary trained stimuli: US miscuing, interference, and US omission

The present series of experiments was designed to assess whether rule-based accounts of Pavlovian learning can account for cue competition effects observed after elemental training. All experiments involved initial differential conditioning training with A-US and B alone presentations. Miscuing refers to the fact that responding to A is impaired after one B-US presentation whereas interference is the impairment of responding to A after presentation of C-US pairings. Omission refers to the effects on B of A alone presentations. Experiments 1-2a provided clear evidence for miscuing whereas interference was not found after 1, 5 or 10 C-US pairings. Moreover, Experiments 3 and 3a found only weak evidence for interference in an A-US, B ∣ C-US, D ∣ A design used previously to show the effect. Experiments 4 and 5 failed to find any effect of US omission after one or five omission trials. The present results indicate that miscuing is more robust than is the interference effect. Moreover, the asymmetrical effects of US miscuing and US omission are difficult to accommodate within rule-based accounts of Pavlovian conditioning.     

Validité de construit d’une épreuve de jeu de rôle dans le cadre d’un centre d’évaluation chez des officiers de marine.

The present study was designed to obtain validity estimates for a role-play test. Participants were 125 french Navy officers who were rated by a pool of professional assessors and psychologists. All the assessors received reccurring training sessions, focusing on the behavioral checklist, on rating errors, and on share frame of reference. The assessment procedure included role play exercise, cognitive ability scale (g factor) and personality scale (big five factors). First, exploratory factor analyses were conducted on the data gathered, and four factors were identified (authoritarianism, oral communication, consideration with others and frankness). In a nomological perspective, we also analysed the links between the exercises dimensions, personality inventorie and intelligence scale. The findings suggest that role play dimension, personality and intelligence seem to measure different thinks.