Notes that the assessment of stressful life events during adolescence is important to both research and clinical practice. Reviews self-report inventories which have been developed in recent years to measure life events for adolescents, emphasizing conceptual and methodological issues which created problems in earlier inventories. (Author/NB)

Introduces Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (SB4) as an attempt to revitalize Stanford-Binet by maintaining links with previous editions while simultaneously incorporating more recent developments found in other popular tests of intelligence. Discusses the SB4's theoretical foundation, materials and administration, scaling,…

Studied 82 family caregivers to identify positive and negative factors associated with caregiving. Instruments included two new scales designed to measure perceived positive and negative events in previous month. For new scales, only items significantly correlated with depressive symptomatology were retained. Findings suggest scales may be useful…

Illustrates how career counselors can integrate results of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII) to enhance client's decision-making ability. Includes detailed description of MBTI and brief explanation of SCII and discussion of how both instruments can be used jointly to promote career decision making.…

Notes that, by guessing, children may score within normal range on tests by chance alone. Describes one process, random guessing, for estimating "true blind guessing score" (range of scores) that, if known, would result in missing fewer at-risk children. Sensitizes test administrators to tests that do not address or have suspicious corrections for…

Drug Misuse Scale (DMS) and Substance Abuse Proclivity Scale (SAPS), both of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, were compared using adolescent sample used to develop the DMS. Found that the SAP scale could not discriminate between different levels of drug use in this nontreatment sample. Concluded that DMS may be superior at…

Analyzed Suicide Intent Scale using data from 98 psychiatric inpatients who had attempted suicide. Analysis resulted in two-factor solution: Lethal Intent factor contained items pertaining to subjective level of lethal intent; Planning factor contained items related to objective planning for attempt. Findings suggest that Suicide Intent Scale can…

According to 422 responses from 840 adult basic education teachers, (1) they perceive formal testing effective in fulfilling planned functions; (2) its chief problems are students' affective responses and discrimination against special learning needs; and (3) teacher background variables were not related to responses, that is, advanced education…

Discusses a serious problem that has existed for years in language research with regard to the use of the inferential statistic known as the t test. (12 references) (JL)

Analyzed the Vocational Identity (VI) scale items of My Vocational Situation for entering college freshmen (n=4,378). Identified four major clusters suggesting that vocational identity as measured by the VI scale is not a unitary construct. (Author/ABL)

Examined relative efficacy of individual scale scores of college students (n=331) on Career Factors Inventory (CFI) and two calculations of Career Decision Scale (CDS-A and CDS-B) in predicting career decidedness and career implementation. Results indicated that different scales of CFI and CDS-B made unique contributions to prediction of career…

Reviews NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI), which is based on Five-Factor Model taxonomy of personality traits. Summarizes characteristics of test, features for administration and scoring, and studies of reliability, stability, and validity. Claims NEO-PI may be particularly appropriate for use in counseling because it is brief,…

Describes Berufsbildertest, or Vocational Pictures Technique (VPT), technique constructed on theory that behaviors of choice are evoked by eight different factors of human needs or inclinations: softness, power, social conscience, show, reason, mind or spirit, matter, and orality. Explains usefulness of test in career counseling and presents…

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.…

Three articles in this special issue explore issues related to the use and misuse of statistical significance testing, the major methodological issue in current educational research. Comments on these articles and rejoinders by the authors of the first three articles explore additional aspects of statistical significance testing. (SLD)