By focusing on school-based behaviors, this study examined the validity of a lay assumption that peers match, and even surpass, parents in terms of their importance as socialization agents by early adolescence. Self-reported academic and social behaviors, peer group norms, and perceived parent values were assessed among fourth, sixth, and eighth…

Self-efficacy is an important cognitive predictor of substance abuse treatment outcome. Although measures of coping self-efficacy are related to substance use relapse in adults, their properties are not well-known in adolescent populations. The present study examined 223 adolescents while in treatment for substance abuse and comorbid psychiatric…

Diagnosing autism and PDD-NOS at very early ages has become a major priority in the field of mental health. More recently, researchers have also come to realize the importance of identifying co-occurring conditions of psychopathology in this population. In the present study, 309 children between 17 and 37 months of age who had been identified as…

Battered women's stages of change (SOCs) are examined in this study. First, confirmatory factor analysis and latent profile analysis were conducted on 754 battered women's responses on the Problems in Relationship Scale (Brown, 1998). Factor loadings were strong, and latent variable mixture modeling produces a two-class solution. Second,…

In this commentary, the author addresses what is referred to as the deterministic input, noisy "and" gate (DINA) model. The author mentions concerns with how this model has been formulated and presented. In particular, the author points out that there is a lack of recognition of the confounding of profiles that generally arises and then discusses…

Rupp and Templin (2008) do a good job at describing the ever expanding landscape of Diagnostic Classification Models (DCM). In many ways, their review article clearly points to some of the questions that need to be answered before DCMs can become part of the psychometric practitioners toolkit. Apart from the issues mentioned in this article that…

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a self-reported inventory tapping current feelings only. A short form was published in 1972 consisting of 13 items from the original BDI, called the BDI-SF. In 1978 the original version was modified to eliminate double negative statements and alternative ways of asking the same question and then referred to…

The reliability of a taxonomy of humor was tested in two studies. The first study involved rater identification of nine categories for humorous incidents excerpted from television comedy programs (wordplay, exaggeration/understatement, contrast, audience knowledge, aggression, emotion, taboo, pratfall/slapstick, and repetition). The second study,…

THE PROBLEM IS INTRODUCED IN ITS HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. THE SUBSTRATA-FACTOR THEORY IS PRESENTED WITH ITS STATISTICAL MODEL, ITS ASSUMPTIONS, AND THEIR RATIONALE. A CRITICISM OF THE LAST STEP IN SUBSTRATA ANALYSIS IS ENTERTAINED, REJECTED AS IRRELEVANT, AND, THEREFORE, INVALID BECAUSE EXPLANATIONS OF THE CAUSE OR CAUSES OF A CORRELATION MUST…

CONDITIONS OF SEMANTIC SATIATION WERE INVESTIGATED, WHICH LEAD TO "LAPSE OF MEANING" IN THE PRESENCE OF VERBAL REPETITION. RATE AND AMOUNT OF REPETITION AFFECT THE SHAPE OF THE MEANING CURVE, AND VERBAL REPETITION OF A DETERMINED AMOUNT AND RATE MAY GENERATE VARYING AMOUNTS OF REACTIVE INHIBITION WHEN INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ARE…

A gradient method is used to obtain least squares estimates of parameters in constrained multidimensional scaling in N spaces. Features and constraints of the method and two applications of the procedure are presented. (Author/JKS)

For the ALSCAL multidimensional scaling computer program, it is reported that (1) a new coordinate estimation routine is superior to the original; (2) an oversight in the interval measurement level case has been found and corrected; and (3) a new initial configuration routine is also superior to the original. (Author/JKS)

Despite certain limitations, factor analysis aids in the identification and characterization of cognitive processes. Variables manipulated for this purpose must be well constructed psychometrically, and it is desirable to dissect tasks into hypothesized components and to use factor analysis in conjunction with other techniques. Well-known…