Preselected colposcopic photographs of the anogenital area of 16 patients were shown to 170 medical examiners, who rated their level of suggestion or indication of penetrating injury. Agreement between the participants and experts was higher on the abnormal cases than on the normal cases, and higher on genital findings than on anal findings.…

Eighteen adolescents and adults with severe/profound intellectual disability were rated by two staff members using the Motivation Assessment Scale to identify variables maintaining their aggressive behaviors. Analysis of interrater reliability indicated that for some individuals the scale may not represent a feasible alternative to more formal…

The Test of Knowledge about Mental Retardation was developed to measure attitudes, not knowledge. It consists of 20 error-choice items requiring respondents to select one of four incorrect alternatives. An additional 20 questions address general knowledge of mental retardation. Psychometric analysis indicates satisfactory item characteristics,…

Explored validity and reliability of Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI) using data from 104 graduate nursing students. Findings support construct validity and reliability of ACCI. Concluded that, although the ACCI seemed to be psychometrically sound, the use of other measures in conjunction with it would be recommended practice in assessing…

Scoring of response vectors to give maximum test-retest correlation is investigated. A general method is given for finding the best scores, deriving them for the normal factor model, and showing that for a standard model for binary response it is easy to approximate the best scores. (SLD)

A new 22-item measure of an individual's tolerance for ambiguity, the Multiple Stimulus Types Ambiguity Tolerance (MSTAT-I), is described. The measure addresses characteristics of ambiguous stimuli and reactions to perceived ambiguity. Evidence from 148 undergraduates for reliability and convergent and discriminant validity is presented in support…

Ideal measurement of food use in school-aged children possesses validity, reliability, interpretability, and feasibility. The article discusses dietary records and recalls and measures of patterns in food use. Issues to consider when constructing children's food frequency are food list, time intervals, response set, context of questioning, and…

The Competitiveness Questionnaire (CQ) was constructed to measure two competitiveness perspectives, Interpersonal Competitiveness and Goal Competitiveness. Initial version of CQ was administered to 94 college students; revised version was administered to 195 students. Findings provide some evidence for construct of Goal Competitiveness and for its…

Reports on development and psychometric properties of Feminist Family Therapy Scale (FFTS), a 17-item instrument intended to reflect degree to which family therapists conceptualize process of family therapy from feminist-informed perspective. Found that the instrument discriminated between self-identified feminists and nonfeminists, women and men,…

Compares reading-disabled students' instructional levels yielded by the Ekwall Reading Inventory and the Metropolitan Achievement Test. Finds that both instruments provide instructional-level designations to help place students in appropriate materials but little correspondence between the instructional levels of the two measures. Suggests that…

Presents an instrument for assessing an individual student's decoding abilities by having a teacher analyze a student's attempts to pronounce a fictitious list of children's first and last names. Argues that the instrument is valid and reliable. (MG)

A study investigated the relationships among nine instruments designed to measure clinical knowledge and performance in a third-year surgery clerkship. Results suggest that various types of measures are necessary for broad evaluation of clinical performance. Instruments clustered into two groups: measures of medical knowledge and clinical…

Considers problems with use of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). Presents brief history of MBTI and brief theory of type. Examines MBTI's statistical structure, reliability, and validity. Concludes that MBTI does not conform to many basic standards expected of psychological tests. (NB)

Examination of the role of psychometrics in the development of multiple-choice tests and performance-based assessments and consideration of validity and reliability issues leads to this conclusion: Choice of assessments for instruction or large-scale accountability depends on which is more appropriate for the particular purposes. Taxonomic…

A study investigated the test-retest reliability of critical faculty productivity measures used in a 1988 major national survey, "Faculty at Work." It further sought to explain reliability differences among items and item types, identify variables and constructs wrongly assumed to be stable over time, and examine implications for other…