Curricular changes that promote undergraduate persistence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines are likely associated with particular student psychological outcomes, and tools are needed that effectively assess these developments. Here, we describe the theoretical basis, psychometric properties, and predictive…

Critically examining common statistical approaches and their strengths and weaknesses is an important step in advancing recreation and leisure sciences. To continue this critical examination and to inform methodological decision making, this study compared three approaches to determine how alternative approaches may result in contradictory…

The use and validity of the Graduate Record Examination General Test (GRE) to predict the success of graduate school applicants is heavily debated, especially for its possible impact on the selection of underrepresented minorities into science, technology, engineering, and math fields. To better identify candidates who would succeed in our program…

Validity coefficients, standard errors of estimate, and prediction are discussed. An argument is made for the potential utility of tests with validity coefficients of .60, .50, .40, and even .30, because they can predict the extremes, which is especially valuable for many purposes, such as counseling, college admissions, and personnel selection.…

Few meaningful sex differences will be reported if investigators go beyond the reporting of statistical significance to determine the indices of experimental effect size. Techniques for obtaining this type of information include the calculation of d and the estimate of omega squared, which indicate the advisability of continuing a line of…

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of the area (homogeneous) scales of the Navy Vocational Interest Inventory (NVII) as predictors of Class "A" school achievement and as measures of rating differentiation by comparing specific occupational scales with more general interest measures--the NVII area scales. The…

A statistical study of 90 students entering the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy in 1974 indicates that PCAT scores are clearly superior predictors over these scores: SAT-Verbal and -Math; college quality point average (QPA); Otis Quick-Scoring Mental Ability Test; and pharmacy course grade. (LBH)

THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF TASK SCORES VERSUS IQ AS PREDICTORS OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT WAS INVESTIGATED, AND THE CORRELATIONS BETWEEN TASK SCORES AND IQ RE-EXAMINED. SUBJECTS WERE 99 UPPER-MIDDLE CLASS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN WITH A MEAN STANFORD-BINET IQ OF 126 (SD EQUALS 19). THE INSTRUMENTS USED WERE DUNN'S OBJECT SORTING TASK (OST),…

The purpose of this study was to construct and validate a self-rating scale which can be easily administered and quickly scored for discriminating between those high school students who will dropout and those who will not. A 34-item scale was constructed for subjects with a fifth grade reading level. This scale was administered to 113 high school…

The model for educational measurement developed by George Rasch, a Danish psychometrician, is reviewed and its application to occupational educational testing discussed. The Rasch model is an adaptation from the theory of latent trait analysis. According to it, answering an item correctly is a function of the difficulty of the item and the ability…

An objective measure of Erikson's ego-identity construct is being developed. The total scale includes seven relatively independent subscales designed to reflect the residuals (part conflicts) of Erikson's psychosocial stages of development. An initial item pool of 194 items has been reduced to 113 items by means of judgemental and statistical…

Employed were a small sample of fifth graders to examine techniques for assessing the validity of psychosocial maturity (PSM) and the scales used to measure it. Three validation techniques were examined: (1) Data obtained from self-report scales, teacher ratings, and peer ratings were used to generate three multitrait-multimethod matrices (total…

The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of the American College Test (ACT) in predicting academic achievement of students from an area which is culturally, economically, and educationally depressed. The population, chosen from 6 community colleges serving the Appalachian region of Kentucky, consisted of 1,127 full time (12 or more…

The analyses of J. E. Hunter (1983) were replicated with an expanded data set. The Hunter study, the basis of the Validity Generalization system used by the United States Employment Service, contained 515 General Aptitude Test Battery validation studies. The data set in this study included these and additional studies to bring the data set to 755…