Social intelligence is a construct that has shown promising practical applications, but its use in research and applied settings has been limited by definitional problems and the complexity of most existing measures of social intelligence. The goal of the present study was to adapt the Italian version [Gini & Iotti (2004) "La Tromso…

Researchers and educators continue to try to understand and predict premature post-secondary institutional departure. According to social cognitive theory, self-efficacy beliefs are the gateway to understanding why individuals initiate behavior, the effort they expend in engaging in behavior, and their persistence in the face of obstacles. College…

Attitude measurement has had a somewhat chequered history since the possibility of achieving it successfully was demonstrated by Thurstone in 1929. It has been an important area in science education, particularly in the context of falling uptakes in the physical sciences in many countries, and there have been many attempts to measure learner…

Computerized multistage testing (MST) designs require sets of test questions (testlets) to be assembled to meet strict, often competing criteria. Rules that govern testlet assembly may dictate the number of questions on a particular subject or may describe desirable statistical properties for the test, such as measurement precision. In an MST…

Each of the Major Contribution's articles has traced counseling psychology's rich positive heritage. This reaction assesses this heritage in relation to positive psychology and considers the fundamental question of "To whose agenda are we working?" as psychological practitioners, locating the answer within the impact it has on our practice. The…

Central to the development of culturally competent violence prevention programs for Hispanic youth is the development of psychometrically sound violence risk and outcome measures for this population. A study was conducted to determine the psychometric properties of two commonly used violence measures, in this case for Mexican American adolescent…

The Health Behavior Schedule-II for Diabetes (HBS-IID) is a 27-item questionnaire that was evaluated as a predictor of self-monitoring of blood glucose (SMBG). The HBS-IID was completed by 96 adults with Type 2 diabetes. Recent glycosylated hemoglobin HbA1c and fasting blood glucose results were taken from participants' medical records. Only 31.3%…

With the advent of English as a global language, the ability to write well in English across diverse settings and for different audiences has become an imperative in second language education programmes throughout the world. Yet the teaching of second language writing is often hindered by the great amount of time and skill needed to evaluate…

Although research has been conducted to support the psychometric properties of rating scales used to assess ADHD in adults, little work has been published examining semi-structured interviews to assess ADHD in adults. The present study examined the test-retest reliability and concurrent validity of the Conners Adult ADHD Diagnostic Interview for…

The importance of religion and spirituality for the social work profession is evident in many areas, including social work education. There is little empirical evidence that explores the importance of spirituality and religion for their students. This project surveyed three unique schools of social work in university settings in an attempt to…

High rates of substance abuse and recidivism and limited in-prison and postrelease treatment access and transitional planning complicate community reintegration. Moreover, drug-related health and social problems are related to treatment outcomes. In the framework of risk-responsivity theory and structured, integrated reentry models, this article…

Original formulations of the Work Locus of Control Scale (WLCS) proposed a unidimensional structure of this measure; however, more recently, evidence for a two-dimensional structure has been reported, with separate subscales for internal and external loci of control. The current study evaluates the one- and two-factor models with confirmatory…

Should instruments, such as Likert-type scales, contain both positively worded and negatively worded items within the same scale (i.e. mixed format)? Recent evidence suggests that the use of scales with a mixed format can adversely affect the psychometric properties of scales. In particular, the mean item response to the positively worded items…

The relevance of attachment theory and research for practice has become increasingly clear. The authors describe a series of studies with 3 aims: (a) to validate measures of attachment for use by clinicians with adolescents and adults (b) to examine the relation between attachment and personality pathology, and (c) to ascertain whether factor…

Previous studies have shown that presession attention for problem behavior can serve as an abolishing operation when attention functions as a positive reinforcer. In the current study, we show that the stereotypy of a child with severe disabilities was undifferentiated during standard analogue functional analysis conditions. However, when…