The purpose of the research was to assess the diagnostic efficiency of the Primary Care Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Screen (PC-PTSD) and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL) as clinical screening tools for active duty soldiers recently returned from a combat deployment. A secondary goal was to examine the item-level characteristics…

Analyzed the intercorrelations among the 11 subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) in the nine age groups in the normative sample. Results suggested that the factor structure underlying the WAIS-R is complex and that a large proportion of WAIS-R performance can be explained by a general intellectual factor. (LLL)

A table is provided and described for prorating Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory scales when the entire Form R has not been completed. Good concordance of profile types was found for 300 and 350 completed questions. Interpretations based on 200 items may be suspect. (Author)

Divided the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Pd scale into obvious (O), neutral (N), and subtle (S) subscales. Using college students results were: Pd-O scores were the most powerful predictor of criterion; Pd-S scores made a smaller but unique contribution; and Pd-N scores made no contribution not already in Pd-O criterion…

Considered techniques to assess self-reported drug use. Evaluated the effects of different response options on the distribution, reliability, and validity of scores on drug-use items. Suggests that more quantitative measures are not necessarily more reliable or valid than less quantitative measures of drug use. (Author/KS)

Administered Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) to clinically depressed and nondepressed inpatients, and compared scores from its Depression scale with scores from the Beck Depression Inventory. Demonstrated a positive linear relationship between the two measures and their ability to discriminate between depressed and nondepressed…

The proportion of cross-validated and suggestively discriminating items in the area of preference or aversion for a large variety of activities, most of all of which imply excitement or potential excitement, suggests this as the most important finding from the item analysis done in this study. (Author)

Describes investigation examining item validity and differential item functioning (DIF) on items measuring subjective well-being and coping behavior among respondents representing 338 male and 627 female members of three ethnic groups via use of log-linear models. Results offer strong evidence of item validity and some evidence of DIF. (Author/CRR)

Reliabilities for the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices Test (CPM) are reported for three age groups (ages 5 1/2- 6 1/2, 6 1/2-7 1/2, and 7 1/2-8 1/2 years) and three ethnic groups (Anglo, Black, and Hispanic). Results indicate CPM is not equally reliable for all age groups, but appears equally reliable for the three ethnic groups. (Author)

Examined the discriminant validity, criterion-related validity, and between-spouse agreement for a marital intake interview as a function of interview method and valence of interview items. Results suggested a high degree of discriminant validity, higher interspouse correlations during joint interviews, and higher indices of criterion related…

Examined cultural bias of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) for Anglo-American, Black, and Mexican American children. Minority children responded in the same way as Anglo-American children. No clear pattern to items on the test that were more difficult for minority children appeared. The WISC-R appears to be nonbiased.…

Findings indicated that the judges were not able to determine accurately which items were more difficult for minority students and that there was no significant difference in accuracy between judges of the different ethnic backgrounds. (Author)

Studies hypothesized and tested that a judge's discriminal process is a sample from a normal distribution of all possible discriminal processes for the MMPI stimulus set; that standard deviations of two distributions of binary MMPI decisions are equal; and that discriminative capacities of judges remain fixed from one decision session to the next.…