Eight direct scoring indices of written expression were intercorrelated, factor analyzed, and used to predict holistic judgments of writing samples of 172 middle-school students in compensatory/specialized education programs. Strongest predictors of holistic ratings were percentage of words correctly sequenced and percentage of correctly spelled…

Data from a study involving 43 grade 3-6 teachers suggests that teachers are able to differentiate effort and achievement when assigning ratings, and experiential relevance and familiarity are important factors in any grading system that teachers can successfully use. (IAH)

Responding to Field's criticism of the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS), Guglielmino cites evidence supporting the scale's validity and reliability, Long notes gaps in Field's literature review, and McCune critiques Field's approach to factor analysis in testing the scale. (SK)

Addresses common pitfalls in homogeneous scale construction in clinical and social psychology. Offers suggestions about item writing, answer scale formats, data analysis procedures, and overall scale development strategy. Emphasizes effective use of factor-analytic methods to select items for scales and to determine its proper location in…

To examine the magnitude/nature of short-term fluctuations in work values, seven college students completed the Work Values Inventory daily for approximately 100 days. Results of factor analysis cast doubt on the hypothesis that work values behave exclusively as trait-like dimensions and recommend better use of idiographic approaches. (TJH)

Summarizes results of a study designed to identify organizational climate factors in Israel's 29 Bedouin Arab elementary schools and to explore their relation to certain teacher and school-level variables, including sex, educational level, tenure, teachers' origin, school type, and school size. The most important organizational climate factor was…

Discusses the nature, power, and limitations of four multivariate techniques: factor analysis, multiple analysis of variance, multiple regression, and multiple discriminant analysis. Shows how decision trees assist in interpreting results. (SK)

Presents the results of multiple regression analysis, test-retest analysis, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis of the Computer Attitude Scale in order to assess the instrument's predictive ability, construct validity, and reliability. Findings indicate acceptable characteristics, including stability…

Used a teacher rating scale and coded videotaped observations to examine 30 toddlers' emerging social competence in an unfamiliar peer group during a 4-week summer camp. Found a correlation between the prosocial component of the teacher rating scale and observations of children's interactive-functional play and overall rate of interactive play…

The relationship among the nine clinical syndrome scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II) and clinical scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) was studied with 108 psychiatric inpatients. Results indicate convergent validity of only the MCMI-II Axis I scales. (SLD)

This study examined the underlying structure of the Subjective Stress Scale (SSS) by analyzing responses of 221 intellectually disabled adults. Results suggest that, although actual stressors vary, persons with mild intellectual disability are affected by the same major stress dimensions as the general population. Results also found the SSS…

Finds that lay readers respond to the risk implicit in news stories involving science and technology along four factors: (1) the proposition that science and technology are expensive and risky; (2) the idea that science and technology can have negative effects; (3) concerns associated with control and dependency; and (4) fear that science and…

A factor analysis was conducted of scores on the revised Learning Style Inventory of D. A. Kolb from 718 accounting students from 2 large state universities. Results support two bipolar learning dimensions different from those theorized and only one separate learning ability. Caution in interpreting scores is advised. (SLD)

Asymptotic distributions of the estimators of communalities are derived for the maximum likelihood method in factor analysis. It is shown that equating the asymptotic standard error of the communality estimate to the unique variance estimate is not correct for the unstandardized case. Monte Carlo simulations illustrate the study. (SLD)

Uses categorization methodology to investigate the structure of readers' emotional responses to a story. Notes that separate latent partition analysis for two groups of college students yielded category structures that closely matched each other. Suggests that categorization methodology provides a promising technique for investigating the…