We present considerations for validity when a population outside of a normed sample is assessed and those data are interpreted. Using a career group counseling example exploring life satisfaction changes as evidenced by the Quality of Life Inventory (Frisch, 1994), we showcase qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore how normative data…

This study used 1994 data from the California Community College System cohort of first-time freshmen to identify that part of University of California (UC) or California State University (CSU) transfer performance that is determined by factors outside the control of college administrators. The idea was to "level the playing field" when…

In the late 1970s, the Department of Defense requested that the reference population for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) be changed and updated to reflect the current youth population. Analyses of new data collected in 1980 indicated that speeded subtest scores of the new sample were atypically low and that the sample might…