The original Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS; Robitschek, 1998) was unidimensional, despite theory identifying multiple components (e.g., cognition and behavior) of personal growth initiative (PGI). The present research developed a multidimensional measure of the complex process of PGI, while retaining the brief and psychometrically sound…

Explored the validity of the College Self-Expression Scale (CSES) for 144 students in the context of three alternative models of behavior--personism, situationalism, and interactionalism. Results supported the concurrent validity of the CSES and the role of both person and situational, but not interactional, influences on assertion. (WAS)

Type A behavior is an aggregate of behaviors associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease. Two self-administered questionnaires used to determine the presence of Type A behavior, the Jenkins Activity Survey and Framingham Type A Behavior Pattern Scale, were administered to 150 undergraduate students at a midwestern university, along…

Investigated the reliability and validity of Bem and Allen's cross-situational consistency measuring technique. Results showed low reliability for Bem and Allen's test-retest, high reliability for Snyder's Self-Monitoring Scale, and significant correlation between self-reported academic behavior variability and actual grade variability. (WAS)

Psychologists and laymen alike often use the terms "shame" and "guilt" interchangeably. Guilt is an affective state most often associated with a focus on some past behaviors which the subject finds inconsistent with a set of internalized standards which are often, but not necessarily moral in nature. Shame involves less of a…

Compulsivity and obsessiveness are vaguely defined terms which include a broad range of behaviors and cognitions that have been elusive to quantify. To introduce the 22-item Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (OCS) and to perform preliminary validation studies, 114 (46 male, 68 female) college students and 57 counseling clients completed the OCS on two…

Evidence suggests that individual difference measures of personality are limited in their ability to predict cross-situational behavior. This limitation has applied to measures of communication-bound anxiety that have generally been developed as unidimensional instruments. A study explored whether a measurement approach based on individual and…

A study investigated the relationship between levels of communication apprehension (high or low) and eight heterosocial (between sexes) communicative behavior variables--conditioned anxiety, heterosocial skills, heterosocial apprehension, activity, proximity, heterosocial expectations, physical attractiveness, and heterosocial importance. In…

This study evaluated the validity of the Type A behavior pattern as measured by paper-and-pencil questionnaires. The Jenkins Activity Survey, Framingham Type A Scale, Thurstone Activity Scales, a new bipolar adjective Type A measure, and measures of achievement and nurturance needs were completed by 418 students. (Author/BS)

Reporting validity information, this study concludes that the CCAI is a valid and reliable instrument tapping a variety of situations in which students communicate. The method of operationalizing the construct--observation of communication behavior--is clearly superior to self-report methods. (PD)

Forty-one college students participated in a study designed to gather validity and reliability information on a procedure used to measure communication competence, the Communication Competency Assessment Instrument (CCAI). The study, in confirming operationalization validity, found that self-report measures correlated only slightly with…

The Health Locus of Control (HLC) Scale is an area-specific measure of expectancies regarding locus of control developed for prediction of health-related behavior. Two experiments show discriminant validity of the HLC in contrast with Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control Scale. Normative data on the HLC are provided. (Author)

Self-efficacy is defined as the belief that one can successfully perform a behavior. Self-efficacy theory asserts that self-efficacy expectancies exert powerful influence on behavior and behavior change. The Self-efficacy Scale, which was developed to assess generalized self-efficacy expectations, consists of two subscales: general self-efficacy…

The extent to which student questionnaire responses reflect students' active behavior was studied through course attendance patterns of Israeli undergraduates, student completion of a questionnaire rating college lecturers, and interviews with 36 students. In this instance, the questionnaire did not reflect actual behavior. Explanations are…

Generally, role-taking research has focused on the development and correlates of role taking in children. To explore role taking in the relatively overlooked population of young adults, a sociometric instrument, the Peer Role-Taking Questionnaire (PRTQ), was developed and used to measure perceived role-taking behaviors. The results were compared…