This volume contains 10 original papers discussing methodologies applicable to performing psychosocial research on substance abuse, particularly abuse with drugs. Eight data analysis strategies are discussed by the authors: automatic interaction detection, actuarial prediction, cluster and typological analysis, path analysis, factor analysis,…

The factor-analytic history of the isolation and identification of the mental ability construct known as verbal comprehension is traced through the psychometric literature. Examples of the most important item types which have been found to measure this factor--defined as the ability to understand the English language--are discussed. It has been…

This paper presents a study in which three separate factors with substantial face validity were replicated, factor analyzing 74 attitudes-toward-women items with two college samples of 159 and 195 subjects. Three sex-role attitudes scales based on the factor analyses were related to 10 personality variables. The relationsips supported the…

Identification and explication of construct relationships, under conditions of extraneous variable control in multiple regression and its multivariate analog, canonical analysis, were studied. Several data models were generated as a function of the interaction of partial correlation and orthogonal linear transformations on nursing examination…

Sixty videotaped lessons from six fourth-grade classes were used to examine, first, to what extent instructional processes differ from each other in relation to other properties of the teaching process during lessons belonging to varying activity forms or content types; and, secondly, to what extent differences within the instructional process are…

The inter-rater and test-retest reliabilities of the (DESB) Rating Scale were found to be satisfactory when averaged over two raters. Two separate factor analyses of the eleven subscales revealed three broadband factors: Classroom Management Problem, Self-Reliant Learner, and Seeks Teacher Approval. (Author)

On the basis of an instrument designed to detect changes in teachers' attitudes as a result of a drug education course, trial results on 200 teachers indicate the instrument does measure changes in attitude. These changes reflect a move from punitive to rehabilitative measures in response to major drug incidents. (Author)

Results support Sherman's hypothesis that sex differences in tests of field independence, such as Witkin's Rod-and-Frame Test and Embedded Figures Tests, are artifacts of the well-known sex differences in space perception and are therefore not evidence that females are less analytical than males. (Author/BJG)

The development of The Psychosocial Maturity Inventory, an attitude inventory based on an interdisciplinary model of psychosocial maturity, is described. It is a self-report instrument comprised of nine subscales and is suited for the assessment of youngsters in the approximate age range 11-18. (Author/BJG)

Results obtained from scaling the "Drug and Alcohol Survey" (DAS), a questionnaire that assesses the drug involvement of secondary school students are documented. The scales are evaluated in terms of their psychometric properties, their compatability with a change model, and their utility as outcome measures of substance abuse prevention…

The Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) was examined for instances in which the item performance of examinees with comparable scores differed according to their native languages. A chi-square procedure, sensitive to deviations of less than ten percent from the expected frequencies of correct item responses across several language groups,…