Little is known concerning how subtypes of aggression (relational and physical) might be differentially related to preschool-age children's classification in peer sociometric status groups (popular, average, rejected, neglected, and controversial). Furthermore, associations between aggression and sociometric status might vary according to the…

Competency management has attracted much attention, especially between business consultants and human resources professionals. Nevertheless, the lack of a unified framework of generic work competencies has been a significant obstacle for the further development of the field, both in research and in practice. This article discusses the development,…

Studies addressing Black adolescents' social change strategies are nonexistent and might be associated with the absence of social change measures for Black adolescents. In an effort to begin addressing this concern, the 30-item Measure of Social Change for Adolescents (MOSC-A) was designed to measure Black adolescents' first- (i.e., within the…

This article introduces the intersystem model of psychotherapy and discusses its utility as a truly integrative and comprehensive approach. The foundation of this conceptually complex approach comes from dialectic metatheory; hence, its derivation requires an understanding of both foundational and integrational constructs. The article provides a…

Classification "rules" in expert and everyday discourse are usually deficient by formal standards, lacking explicit decision procedures and precise terms. The authors argue that a central function of such weak rules is to focus on perceptual learning rather than to provide definitions. In 5 experiments, transfer following learning of family…

The present study advances a new method for assessing teacher beliefs and priorities. This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of the "Teacher Belief Q-Sort" (TBQ), an assessment technique that examines teachers' priorities and beliefs about discipline practices, classroom practices, and beliefs about children (see…

This study examined certain psychometric properties of the questions about behavioral function (QABF) scale. The QABF was completed on 118 problem behaviours presented by 40 young people with severe intellectual disabilities, and measures of inter-rater reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity were calculated overall and for…

An experiment was performed to investigate the effects of practice and spacing on retention of Japanese-English vocabulary paired associates. The relative benefit of spacing increased with increased practice and with longer retention intervals. Data were fitted with an activation-based memory model, which proposes that each time an item is…

Behavior analysis in general and applied behavior analysis in particular requires a well developed, empirically supported, and useful approach to human language and cognition in order to fulfill its mission of providing a relatively adequate comprehensive account of complex human behavior. This article introduces a series of articles in which the…

The study investigated the prevalence of fear and hyperacusis and the possible connections between fear, hyperacusis and musicality in a Swedish sample of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS). The study included 38 individuals and a cross-sectional design, with no matched control group. Two persons, who knew the participant well, completed a…

Rating scales are commonly used to study voice quality. However, recent research has demonstrated that perceptual measures of voice quality obtained using rating scales suffer from poor interjudge agreement and reliability, especially in the midrange of the scale. These findings, along with those obtained using multidimensional scaling (MDS), have…

This study documents the initial reliability and validity of the Child Suicide Risk Assessment (CSRA) for children under the age of 13. The revised CSRA retained 18 of 20 original items based on item-specific psychometric data from 140 pre-adolescents in out-of-home treatment programs. The CSRA demonstrated adequate internal consistency (alpha =…

The topic of teacher credentials and student performance is revisited in an international setting using the TIMSS-99 data. The lack of consistent positive link between credentials and performance can be explained via three routes: measurement problem of ''teacher quality'' input, measurement problem of ''student outcomes'', and the production…

Despite evidence that the choice of dependent measures can significantly influence design sensitivity, many evaluators default to traditional measures that may be insensitive to intervention effects. This paper describes an innovative set of test development guidelines designed to select items and create aggregate scales that are better able to…

Strong associations between civilian posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) scales and measures of general psychological distress suggest that the scales are nonspecific to PTSD. Three common PTSD scales were administered to 122 undergraduates who had experienced an emotionally salient, nontraumatic event: a college examination. Results indicated…