There has been a recent push to extend the construct of psychopathy into adolescence, primarily as a result of the impressive reliability, validity, and utility of this construct in samples of adults. The value of this work rests, however, on creating an equally reliable and valid assessment tool for adolescents. One promising measure is the…

The Kessler 10 Psychological Distress Scale (K10) is a brief 10-item questionnaire designed to measure the level of distress and severity associated with psychological symptoms in population surveys. It is being used widely, including in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey, and as a clinical outcome measure, although little…

Academic self-concept and academic interest are crucial concepts for understanding students' academic achievement. Yet, few questionnaires currently exist that have been used and validated in more than one country. This study aimed at assessing these concepts using an academic self-concept questionnaire (Marsh, 1990) and an academic interest…

Background: This study seeks to identify the cornerstones of personal bests (PBs) in the educational setting. Aims: The study proposes a multidimensional PB model in which students are most likely to attain PBs on tasks/goals that are (1) specific, (2) challenging, (3) competitively self-referenced, and (4) self-improvement based. Sample: The…

Validity data are presented for a new measure of threat appraisals in response to community violence. Adolescents (N = 358; 45% male; 91% African American, M = 12.10 years, SD = 1.63) and their maternal caregivers participated in two waves of a longitudinal interview study focused on the consequences of exposure to community violence. Structural…

The organization of cognitive factors in a sample of older adults was investigated by a joint factor analysis of the subtests from the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Revised (WJ-R) and the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude-Adult (DTLA-A). Two extensive batteries were administered, following R. W. Woodcock's recommendation that in…

Although the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) is being rapidly replaced by the third edition of the WISC, questions concerning the construct validity of the WISC-R have not yet been resolved, including the number of factors it measures and whether the same constructs fit across all age levels. This study sought to…

The Bath County Computer Attitude Scale (BCCAS) has received limited attention concerning its reliability and validity with a U.S. adult population. As developed by G. G. Bear, H. C. Richards, and P. Lancaster in 1987, the instrument assessed attitudes toward computers in areas of computer use, computer-aided instruction, programming and technical…

This study reanalyzed data collected by Heymans and Wiersma in 1908 in response to a questionnaire sent to secondary school teachers in the Netherlands. The 81-item questionnaire asked teachers about the characteristics of the behavior and character of their students (numbering close to 4,000). The reanalysis involved 72 questions that provided…

Subjects participated in a multivariable-multimethod investigation and completed a variety of self-report assessment devices, direct self ratings, and peer ratings. Substantial convergence for three dimensions of interpersonal behavior, Agressive Dominance, Affiliation-Sociability, and Autonomy, was obtained across all modes of measurement.…

The purpose of this research is to examine the factor structure of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), Forms 8, 9, and 10. The ASVAB consists of ten subtests: General Science; Arithmetic Reasoning; Word Knowledge; Paragraph Comprehension; Numerical Operations; Coding Speed; Auto Shop Information; Mathematics Knowledge;…

The purpose of this paper is to further the cause of clarifying construct interpretations of tests, by proposing that non-metric multidimensional scaling may be more useful than factor analysis or other latent structure models for investigating the internal structure of tests. It also suggests that typical problems associated with scaling…

This study reports the results of a pilot study of the relationship between teachers and students. The study used a newly developed measure: The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS). In a sample of 72 kindergarten children, the STRS was found to have three factors: Secure, Change, and Insecure. The total scale and the subscales based on these…

The report addresses the question of the structure of cognitive abilities, i.e., how many different abilities should be identified and the relations between abilities. Models suggested by Spearman, Thurstone, Guilford, Vernon, Cattell-Horn and others are reviewed. By combining features of the Vernon and Cattell-Horn models it is possible to…

Confirmatory maximum likelihood estimation of measurement models was used to evaluate the construct generality of self-report measures of anxiety across male and female samples. These measures included Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Taylor's Manifest Anxiety Scale, and two forms of Endler, Hunt and Rosenstein's S-R Inventory of…