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…

A computer program simulated guessing on multiple-choice test items and calculated deviation IQ's from observed scores which contained a guessing component. Extensive variability in deviation IQ's due entirely to chance was found. (Author/LMO)

Job-naive raters provided with job descriptive information made Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) ratings which were validated against ratings of job analysts who were also job content experts. None of the reduced job descriptive information conditions enabled job-naive raters to obtain either acceptable levels of convergent validity with…

Investigated accuracy of responses to biodata questionnaire using a test-retest design and informed external observers for verification. Responses from 237 subjects and 200 observers provided evidence that many responses to biodata questionnaire were accurate. Assessed sources of inaccuracy, including social desirability effects, and noted…

A three subscale inventory designed by Fenigstein, Scheier, and Buss to measure self-consciousness was administered to 297 college students. Fenigstein et al.'s representation was found to fit the data in its original form. Items on the subscales differ nearly as much statistically as they do substantively. (Author/LMO)

Assesses the suitability of existing measures of emotional and behavioral disorders among children for use in general populations. Focuses on the definition of emotional and behavioral disorder, measurement approaches, and guidelines for choosing which disorders to study. Seven measurement instruments are evaluated using the folowing criteria:…

Discusses the need to include studies of reliability and maintainability during the design of any system. Topic areas addressed include availability calculations, complex systems and standby redundancy, availability and malfunction levels, design techniques, fault trees, functional maintenance, and others. (DH)

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…

A new system for conceptualizing college students' problems, which is more comprehensive and practical than those based solely on DSM-III psychiatric diagnosis, is proposed. Preliminary reliability and validity data for the Inventory of Common Problems are presented, and advantages of the new system are discussed. (Author/MT)

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…

A factor analysis was conducted on Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME) item scores of low-income black and white urban mothers of infants 13 to 30 months of age to determine the extent to which the existing subscales were evident in this factor analysis.