Previous research has shown that ethnic background impacts scores on measures of psychological functioning. False positives and false negatives may be obtained as a function of cultural differences. This paper examines the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA), an instrument that might be used clinically to augment…

The lack of systematic psychometric information on the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ) was addressed by investigating the factor structure and reliability of the eight-factor clinical scale model (mental illness, cry for help, right to die, religion, impulsivity, normality, aggression, and moral evil), developed for interpreting responses to…

The Self Description Questionnaire II (SDQ II) was administered to 901 students (11 to 18 years old) in grades 7 through 12 who attended one public coeducational high school. The 11 factors the SDQ II was designed to measure were clearly identified in a conventional/exploratory factor analysis and in a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL.…

Analyses of interscale relations in 235 college students for the Vocational Preference Inventory and Vocational Interest Inventory, based on interest models of Holland and Roe, respectively, suggest that the two-dimensional, circular configuration of occupational or personality types may be an oversimplification which impedes the understanding of…

Based on three independent samples of high school adolescents in central Canada, aged 12 to 18 years, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to identify, test, and cross-validate first-order and second-order factorial structures underlying the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Specifically, the study…

Using instructional variables identified by the literature as important in predicting classroom achievement, a bi-polar rating scale was designed to assess the structure of instruction in resource rooms. The data for 158 elementary school children in four school districts were analyzed. The scale evidenced good reliability, both in terms of…

This paper investigated the reliability and construct validity of a 30-item scale in measuring the attitudes of teachers in Australia toward the integration of handicapped children into regular schools. The Attitude Toward Mainstreaming Scale, which was designed by Larrivee and Cook (1979), has been used in evaluation studies in the United Sates…

This review of the relevant literature in the area of numerical facility attempts to clarify the construct of numerical facility and provide guidance for items tapping this ability. The review is presented in five parts. The first section introduces two approaches that can be used to investigate numerical facility, including factor analysis.…

Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation Behavior Scale for Children (FIRO-BC) is a self-report measure of 9- through 13-year-old children's interpersonal behavior on six dimensions: expressed-inclusion, wanted-inclusion, expressed-control, wanted-control, expressed-affection, and wanted-affection. This investigation examined the factor…

The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) is designed to measure masculinity and femininity independently. It is based on the dualistic, as opposed to the bipolar, nature of masculinity and femininity. The development of measures for sex role research has relied on empirical techniques; item selection has been based on respondents' stereotyped conceptions…

Academic psychology has long been composed of two disciplines, one experimental and one correlational. These two disciplines each developed their own method of studying structure in data: multidimensional scaling (MDS) and factor analysis. Both methods use similar kinds of input data, proximity measures on object pairs. Both represent the object…

A three-year combined sample of 103 master's level counseling students was administered five measures of cognitive complexity, selected on the bases of previous factor analytic research and their potential relevance to counseling research. The instruments were designed to measure the processing of social stimuli, and included the Interconcept…

Because it is difficult to ascertain the dimensionality of a test composed of binary items through the use of factor analysis alone, a method is proposed that combines item characteristic curve (ICC) theory with factor analysis. Factor structure of tetrachoric correlations is distorted by non-normal distribution of ability. Item characteristics…

For a group of 165 fourth- and fifth-grade students, four achievement test scores were correlated with success on nine tests designed to measure three cognitive functions: sustained attention, successive processing, and simultaneous processing. This experiment was designed in accordance with Luria's model of the three functional units of the…