Content analysis was used to examine the consistency of responses in self-report data obtained by a semi-structured conversational interview. It was hypothesized that a majority of the seemingly inconsistent responses would prove to be consistent when seen from the respondents' points of view. The sample consisted of 215 female homicide offenders…

The controversy regarding reverse or negatively-worded survey stems has been around for several decades. The practice has been used to guard against acquiescent or response set behaviors. A 20-item, 5-point Likert item survey was designed and the stems and response sets were varied in a 2 by 3 design. One independent variable was type of item…

The basic processes in univariate statistics involve partitioning the sum of squares into two components: explained and within. This paper explains that the same partitioning occurs in measurement analyses, i.e., splitting the sum of squares into reliable and unreliable components. In addition, it is shown how the three types of error inherent in…

This paper reviews and critically evaluates the psychometric properties of Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI). The LSI was developed originally in the 1970s (Kolb, 1976a) and was revised in the 1980s (Kolb, 1985). Although the LSI has been very popular, extensive evidence available in the published literature indicates that both the original…

For people-helping professionals, the concept of burnout describes the physical and emotional exhaustion they feel on the job. A cognitive-behavioral model defines burnout as a state in which individuals expect few rewards and considerable punishment from work, due to lack of valued reinforcement, controllable outcomes, or personal competence.…

Complete paired comparisons data was obtained by use of multiple rank order (MRO) in the context of gathering rank order preferences of grade six students, their parents, and teachers for instructional objectives. Partially balanced incomplete block designs with two associate classes were used in the MRO instruments instead of the usual balanced…

Given judges' ratings on a set of variables, the program will produce for each variable, a printed analysis of variance summary table for between subjects/events, within subjects/events, and between judges sources of variability, a reliability coefficient, an adjusted reliability coefficient and means and standard deviations for each rater. (RC)

Classical test theory findings can be derived from the concepts of conditional expectation, conditional independence, and related notions. It is shown that these concepts provide precisely the formalism needed to obtain the classical results with minimal assumptions and with greatest economy in the methods of proof. (RC)

An alternative to the conventional right-wrong scoring method used on multiple-choice tests was presented. In the experiment, the examinee continued to respond to a multiple-choice item until feedback signified a correct answer. Findings showed that experimental scores were more reliable but less valid than inferred conventional scores.…

Results support the contention that a Guttman-weighted objective test can have psychometric properties that are superior to those of its unweighted counterpart, as long as omissions do not exist or are assigned a value equal to the mean of the k item alternative weights. (Author/BJG)

Author attempted to prove that one can get useful and reliable information about standards in school mathematics. (Author/RK)

The intention of the study was to show that reliance on performance on New York Survey (mathematics) and National Educational Development Tests for the purpose of identifying individuals for guidance in mathematics might exclude creatively gifted children. (Author)

When comparing two tests that measure the same trait, separate comparisons should be made at different levels of the trait. A simple, practical, approximate formula is given for doing this. The adequacy of the approximation is illustrated using data comparing seven nationally known sixth-grade reading tests. (Author/RC)