Examines why profile analysis "adds spurious specificity and misarticulated authority to quasi-diagnostic statements." Concludes that the difficulties inherent in diagnostic reading tests suggest that they are best utilized in comparing a child's performance with a norm group. (JM)

Because of limitations in simple gain scores, pychometrists have proposed alternate methods for measuring change, two of which are residualized difference and base-free change. This paper provides large sample empirical estimates of the reliability these change measures. It checks theoretical predictions derived from inequalities involving all…

An instrument designed to measure teacher job satisfaction was developed using randomly selected elementary, junior high school, and senior high school teachers. Factor analysis was undertaken as an exploratory technique to help discover underlying factors and as a psychometric procedure for the development and refinement of the instrument.…

Comments on Kerwin et al.'s article on Covariance Structure analysis (LISREL). Concerns include assumptions about requirements for causal inferences, psychometric properties of measurement scales, validity of the indicators of each latent variable, completeness of the structural model, linearity of the latent variables, and the joint distribution…

A questionnaire to assess verbal and visual learning styles was developed based on the Verbalizer-Visualizer Questionnaire and analyzed, using a total of 477 college students in three studies. The three scales developed had adequate reliability and construct validity. The verbal learning style was most strongly correlated with verbal ability, but…

The authors tested the validity and reliability of a set of three assessment instruments for generalizable communications skills on a population of handicapped students who were enrolled in regular secondary vocational programs. Data suggest that these instruments are highly consistent internally, homogeneous, and precise measures of generalizable…

Describes Family Task Interview (FTI), multiple task interview administered by tape recorder and designed to elicit clinically relevant family interaction. Notes that results from studies conducted to evaluate FTI's validity, reliability, and acceptability suggest the FTI is well-standardized, easily administered instrument for assessment of…

The "Issues in Disability Scale" is a new instrument developed to measure both the cognitive and affective components of attitudes toward the physically disabled. The method by which the instrument was constructed is presented, along with preliminary data supporting both the reliability and validity of the scale. (Author/DB)

Reliability and validity data are reported for the Motivation Assessment Scale, a 16-item questionnaire designed to identify variables maintaining self-injurious behavior in persons with autism and other developmental disorders. Results indicated that interrater reliability and test-retest reliability among teachers was good and that ratings…

The scores of 11 non-handicapped kindergarten children on the Pragmatic Protocol (used in assessing language-handicapped children) were correlated with their ratings by five experienced judges on a 7-point equal-appearing interval scale of communicative competence. The concurrent validity of the Protocol and interobserver reliability were…

The degree of convergent validity among four methods of identifying vocational preferences is assessed via the decision theoretic paradigm. Vocational preferences identified by Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI), a rating procedure, and ranking were compared with preferences identified from a policy-capturing model developed from an…

Kindergarten children (N=103) were administered three tests of visual-motor integration: Bender Gestalt Test, Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration and Geometric Design subtest of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. Issues discussed include interscorer reliabilities, correlations among scores, correlations…

Investigated the relaionships among the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised (PPVT-R) alternate forms and the relationship of each PPVT-R form with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R). All correlations with both forms of the PPVT-R were significant. PPVT-R mean scores did underestimate significantly all WAIS-R mean scores.…

Examined whether popular self-report measures of depression could be distinguished from self-report measures of anxiety and social desirability response style. Correlation coefficients indicated strong relationships between measures of depression and anxiety. However, pairs of anxiety and depression measures correlated almost as strongly. All…

Reports on the development of two forced-choice, self-report scales for adolescents: Pseudoautonomy and Peer-Group Dependence. Results indicated both scales were significant predictors of group membership (hospitalized or nonhospitalized); the overall classification attempt was correct 73 percent of the time; and the correlation between the scales…