Examines some issues raised in Gavin and Wamboldt's (1992) recent study on Family-of-Origin Scale (FOS). Discusses unresolved concerns regarding validity and utility of FOS and unsubstantiated and potentially misleading claims made by Gavin and Wamboldt. Makes case for conceptual and methodological precision in study of family phenomena.…

Letter series and number series tests of items based on identical rules were administered to 160 male and 160 female undergraduates to determine comparability by testing equality of means, variances, and validity coefficients. Results indicate that letter and number series tests are not equivalent. Number series tests are easier, probably because…

Conducted four studies in attempt to determine reliability and validity of state and trait versions of Depression Adjective Check Lists (DACL) with college students. Findings revealed that the DACL reliability and validity were sufficiently high to justify use of Depression Adjective Check Lists in research with college students. (Author/NB)

Provides a history of validation in language testing, discusses current approaches to validation in language testing (hypothesis about testing outcomes, relevant evidence for testing the hypothesis, developing a validity argument), and gives an overview of current challenges in language-test validation (defining the language construct to be…

A study involving 96 gifted adolescents examined internal and external validity of the Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI) within the framework of Sternberg's (1988) theory of mental self-government. Results provided evidence of the external discriminant validity but lent only partial support to the internal validity of the instrument. (Author/CR)

Explores the structure of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (2nd ed.) Low Self-Esteem Content Scale using principal components analysis. Associations with other measures provide evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/GCP)

Describes the development of an instrument designed to measure abuse characteristics and severity. The first study surveys professionals to determine rankings for abuse severity; the second examines interrater reliability; and the third study evaluates construct validity. Findings suggest that the instrument's scales can be reliably coded from…

Converging lines of evidence suggest that attorneys are influencing data relied on by psychological experts in forensic cases, usually by advising clients how to respond to psychological tests or by prompting them in other ways. This article alerts psychologists to this threat to the validity of psychological and neuropsychological evaluations.…

To determine the effects on test performance and test validity of releasing essay topics before an examination, 300 prospective graduate students wrote essays on a released and an unreleased topic. Analyses did not reveal any statistically significant effect of topic release. (SLD)

Uses the Dumont-Faro short form to estimate the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children-III (WISC-III) Full Sale IQ scores for 45 special education students. Results demonstrate that IQ scores were positively correlated with the WISC-III Full Scale scores. However an IQ miscalculation rate of 44% challenges the utility of the Dumont-Faro short…

Investigated the reliability and validity of the Student Activities Interest Questionnaire, developed to relate student interests to available campus activities using Holland's (1997) vocational interest categories. Found the instrument to be sufficiently reliable and valid for use as an informal means of prioritizing campus activities. (EV)

The Career Assessment Diagnostic Inventory evaluates six career indecision factors: family conflict, emotional independence, decision-making anxiety, identity development, career information, and career self-efficacy. Factor analysis and convergent validity results of scores of 539 students supported the instrument's validity. (SK)

A study examined reliability and validity of the Test of Playfulness (ToP) with 25 children who have physical disabilities but no cognitive limitations, comparing their scores with those of able-bodied peers and examining patterns of difference in test items between groups. The mean ToP scores of the two groups did not differ. (Contains 33…

This study examined the usefulness of the Infant-Toddler and the Early Childhood forms of the HOME (Home Observation for Measurement of Environment) Inventory as applied to children who are visually impaired. Results indicated that families of children (n=31) with visual impairments scored about the same as did families in the norm groups.…

Standard and supplementary scales designed to detect underreporting of symptoms on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the MMPI-2 were studied with 50 individuals who completed the MMPI-2 under fake-good instructions and 50 who had standard instructions. Two supplementary scales were valuable in discriminating standard from…