An initial evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Central Relationship Questionnaire (CRQ) is presented. Central relationship patterns refer to people's characteristic ways of relating to others. Results indicate that the CRQ components could be differentiated into meaningful subscales. Validity, reliability, and specific suggestions for…

Provides a general mathematical framework is provided that can be specialized to four different reliability coefficients. Consideration of this general framework makes it easier to convey to students the individual character of the formulations of reliability and the extent of their underlying similarity. (SLD)

This paper explains how different factors affect classical reliability estimates, such as test-retest, interrater, internal consistency, and equivalent forms coefficients. The limitations of classical test theory are explored, and the advantages of generalizability theory are discussed. Concrete examples are used. (SLD)

Computer simulation indicated that reliability increased with the degree of similarity between underlying and observed distributions when the observed categorical distribution was deliberately constructed to match the shape of the underlying distribution of the trait being measured. Reliability also increased with correlation among variables and…

Examined the frequency of use of various types of reliability coefficients for a sample of 696 tests in a directory published by the American Psychological Association. Coefficient alpha was the overwhelming favorite, and several measures treated almost universally in textbooks were rarely or never used. Identifies problems encountered in the…

Evaluates a training Web site for professional development of health and safety enforcement officers in the United Kingdom and reviews the use of knowledge elicitation in work-based training in accident investigations. Results showed that the training was realistic and that the imbedded discussion facility had the potential to improve enforcement…

Psychological reactance is an important construct for social scientists. The measure most often used to tap psychological reactance is the Therapeutic Reactance Scale (TRS). However, little research to date has examined the psychometric properties of the TRS. Eight hundred and eighty-three individuals completed the TRS and their responses were…

Factor analysis of an initial sample of 368 11-16 year-olds and a test with 1,668 confirmed the reliability and validity of a dance attitude instrument. Two subscales, ballet and male dancers, produced valid measurements of attitudes, but dance performance and presentation scales were less reliable. (SK)

Proposes a revised index of interrater agreement for multi-item ratings of a single target. This index is an inverse linear function of the ratio of the average obtained variance to the variance of the uniformly distributed random error. Discusses the importance of sample size for the index. (SLD)

Findings related to internal consistency, temporal stability, and principal components structures suggest that the Anger Expression Scale (C. Spielberger and others, 1985) and the Pediatric Anger Expression Scale (G. Jacobs and others, 1989), studied with a sample of 415 youth with a mean age of 14.7 years are acceptably reliable. (SLD)

Evaluated coefficient alpha under violations of two classical test theory assumptions: essential tau-equivalence and uncorrelated errors through simulation. Discusses the interactive effects of both violations with true and error scores. Provides empirical evidence of the derivation of M. Novick and C. Lewis (1993). (SLD)

Investigates the consistency of different newspapers in their choice of words when writing about the same news events based on a study of three Finnish newspapers. Concludes that expression inconsistency is a sign of a retrieval problem and that query expansion based on semantic relationships can significantly improve retrieval performance on free…

Used reliability generalization to explore the variance of scores on 10 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) clinical scales drawing on 1,972 articles in the literature on the MMPI. Results highlight the premise that scores, not tests, are reliable or unreliable, and they show that study characteristics do influence scores on the…

The rater agreement literature is complicated by the fact that it must accommodate at least two different properties of rating data: the number of raters (two versus more than two) and the rating scale level (nominal versus metric). While kappa statistics are most widely used for nominal scales, intraclass correlation coefficients have been…

In the present study, the authors investigated the initial development of the Early Expository Comprehension Assessment (EECA) by examining its reliability. The EECA consists of a compare/contrast passage, manipulatives to represent the information in the paragraph, and three response tasks ("Retelling, Mapping, and Comparing"). The authors…