Investigation of the stability of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Revised scores of 25 college students over a 4-year period found that global and subtest scores were highly stable. Subtest scores tended to be higher on the retest, but global scores were not despite four years of educational experiences between test administrations. (Author/DB)

Tested Bugen's Coping with Death Scale. Individuals who had written wills, planned estates and funerals, and signed organ donor cards scored higher on the Coping with Death Scale. Because Coping with Death scores were more consistently different in those who prepared for death, this scale may help in efforts to predict those who will engage in…

Studies in five senior medical school classes at Southern Illinois University investigated whether using multiple standardized patients to simulate the same case in postclerkship medical student evaluation affects the measure's reliability. Results of three studies show little or no effect on reliability of total, checklist, or written test…

Investigated referral question bias on school psychologists' classification decisions across different types of cases. Findings from 175 school psychologists who classified 5 case studies on basis of scores from intelligence, achievement, and behavioral measures revealed lack of congruence among respondents' classification decisions that was more…

Created College Classroom Environment Scales (CCES), instrument with six subscales (Cathectic Learning Climate, Professorial Concern, Inimical Ambiance, Academic Rigor, Affiliation, and Structure) to assess social climate of college classrooms. Findings from four studies estimating CCES' reliability and validity suggest it is sufficiently reliable…

Twenty-one language tests that included norms for children ages 4 and 5 were reviewed for information on 10 psychometric criteria. Administration of the 4 tests meeting the most criteria to 20 preschool children with specific language impairments and 20 controls found that only 1 (the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test) provided…

Developed and validated Job Satisfaction Scale (JSS) in series of studies from 1980 to 1991 involving over 600 helping professionals. Across administrations, alpha reliabilities ranged between 0.83 and 0.91, and reliabilities of intrinsic and organizational satisfaction subscales ranged from 0.85 to 0.90 and 0.78 to 0.90, respectively. (Author/NB)

Summarizes the principles of instrument validity and reliability and identifies deviations from these principles in a random sample of 55 research studies published in 1989 in 5 refereed nursing journals targeted toward practicing clinicians. Provides documentation, justification, and suggestions for nursing educators, journal editors, and…

Presents an attempt to cross-validate a widely used set of standard credibility scales. Finds that the Meyer modification of the Gaziano-McGrath scales appears to validly and reliably measure credibility per se but that a second set of scales posited to measure community affiliation is not sufficiently reliable in its current form for use without…

Parent Role Questionnaire (PRQ), recently developed instrument to study individual perceptions of parent role, was piloted, revised, and studied psychometrically. Results from first (n=118) and second (n=94) administrations of test to graduate students in school psychology revealed that PRQ had relatively high internal consistency, moderate…

Reviews six instruments developed to assess the psychological processes associated with experiences of racism among African Americans. Recommendations for modifications, revisions, and additional reliability and validity evidence are presented for each of these relatively new measures. (SLD)

Examined knowledge of mothers with children from 6 to 58 months regarding which item in play and language pairs was more advanced developmentally. Found that mothers' orderings matched those established in developmental literature and were stable over two weeks. Language knowledge was stronger than, and unrelated to, play knowledge. Accuracy was…

A study investigated the usefulness of cerebral magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in detecting possible child abuse in 12 children with unexplained neurologic findings. MRI findings were diagnostic for physical abuse in eight cases. A diagnosis of child abuse was made in two more cases by a combination of MRI and survey findings. (Author/CR)

This study estimated the reliability and construct validity of the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning (GARF) Scale, a preliminary tool for assessing relationship functioning. Therapist interns (n=29) and clinical supervisors (n=6) independently rated 94 client families using the scale. (Author/MKA)

Centers on the development of an art test for determining subjects' preferences for simple and complex design, particularly the Uduehi preference test. Finds that this test truly represents elements of design from least to most complex; subjects preferences for designs increases with complexity; and the test is suitable for cross-cultural studies.…