The Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP) is a personality assessment instrument designed for use by expert clinical assessors. Critics have raised questions about its psychometrics, most notably its validity across observers and situations, the impact of its fixed score distribution on research findings, and its test-retest reliability. We…

Method effects often occur when constructs are measured by different methods. In traditional multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) models method effects are regarded as residuals, which implies a mean method effect of zero and no correlation between trait and method effects. Furthermore, in some recent MTMM models, traits are modeled to be specific to a…

Because research has shown that principals' practices can significantly impact teaching and learning in their schools through multiple avenues, it is critical to understand the validity of tools that measure principal practice. While the field has relied heavily on self-report surveys, little is known about their validity. This study compares…

One of the most consistent findings in rating scale research with children and adolescents is the modest agreement among different informants' ratings. The present study systematically explored patterns of agreement among teachers, parents/caregivers, and students in domains of social skills and problem behaviors using the Social Skills…

The Distress Disclosure Index (DDI; J. H. Kahn & R. M. Hessling, 2001) is a brief self-report measure of one's tendency to disclose personally distressing information. The purpose of this article was to summarize what is known about the DDI, present new validity evidence, and make recommendations for use of the DDI. This article reviews research…

The authors examined the dimensionality of the VARK learning styles inventory. The VARK measures four perceptual preferences: visual (V), aural (A), read/write (R), and kinesthetic (K). VARK questions can be viewed as testlets because respondents can select multiple items within a question. The correlations between items within testlets are a type…

This article examines 4 approaches for explaining shared method variance, each applied to a longitudinal trait-state-occasion (TSO) model. Many approaches have been developed to account for shared method variance in multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data. Some of these MTMM approaches (correlated method, orthogonal method, correlated method minus one,…

Two studies extended psychometric research on the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) with kindergarten and preschool children (N[subscript 1] = 60-7[subscript 1]; N[subscript 2] = 35) and their teachers. These studies used a multi-method approach to replicate and extend previous findings concerning the convergent validity of the STRS…

The purpose of this study was to compare multiple regression with canonical analysis in order to introduce a new, policy relevant methodology to the literature on production functions. Findings from this study confirmed the results of past inquiries that found a relationship between the inputs to schooling and measures of student achievement. A…

Approaches to the evaluation of multitrait-multimethod data in which there are multiple indicators of each trait-method combination are explored. A first-order factor defined by multiple indicators is posited for each trait-method combination, and method and trait factors are posited as second-order factors. (SLD)

Standardized rating scales remain the primary mechanism through which child behaviors are recorded. Despite the many advantages of such systems, the documented lack of agreement among different informants' ratings of the same child remains a pervasive problem for clinicians. This study examines the degree to which observed behavior ratings were…

The criteria for assessing convergent and discriminant validity proposed by D. T. Campbell and D. W. Fiske (1959) are shown to be inadequate for either the additive or multiplicative structures of data in a multitrait-multimethod matrix. Model-specific criteria are more promising for assessing convergent and discriminant validity. (Author/SLD)

An equal-level approach is proposed for investigating multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrices with respect to other organizational units that contain additional information concerning a MTMM matrix's validity. The approach requires equality in "data level" before coefficients are submitted for evaluation. Disaggregation is central to…

Common approaches to examining the relationship between multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) data and variables outside the MTMM data are compared: averaging various means of each trait and estimating LISREL computer program models, and estimating only relationships between MTMM traits and the outside variables. Problems of correlational bias are…

To examine the utility of a self-report scale of sexual assault trauma, 223 female victims were interviewed with the 43-item Sexual Assault Symptom Scale II (SASS II) at 1, 3, 7, 11, and 15 months postassault. Factor analyses using principal-components extraction with an oblimin rotation yielded 7 common factors with 31 items. The internal…