Much of the research on psychopathy has treated it as a unitary construct operationalized by total scores on one (or more) measures. More recent studies on the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) suggest the existence of two distinct facets of psychopathy with unique external correlates. Here, the authors report reanalyses of two offender…

This paper analyzes the theoretical, pragmatic, and substantive factors that have hampered the integration between psychology and psychometrics. Theoretical factors include the operationalist mode of thinking which is common throughout psychology, the dominance of classical test theory, and the use of "construct validity" as a catch-all category…

This article presents findings from two projects designed to improve evaluations of technical quality of alternate assessments for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. We argue that assessment technical documents should allow for the evaluation of the construct validity of the alternate assessments following the traditions of…

This study was an attempt to integrate motivation into reading comprehension, with active knowledge construction as a linkage. The study examined two motivational constructs, need for cognition and reader's beliefs, in terms of their role in text comprehension and interest development. The results of the study provided empirical evidence for the…

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the discussion concerning the value and validity of fiction, and arts-based approaches more broadly, as research. I offer this contribution through a narrative: "Conference Story." The narrative involves its characters, in an Oxford pub, debating the merits and otherwise of Peter Clough's (2002)…

An exploratory factor analysis and several confirmatory analyses were performed to evaluate the factorial structure of the Revised Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (RMARS) through the responses of 805 college students. On 559 students' scores, the instrument's construct validity was tested through a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and was found…

Objective: Assess validity of the ecSatter Inventory (ecSI) to measure eating competence (EC). Design: Concurrent administration of ecSI with validated measures of eating behaviors using on-line and paper-pencil formats. Setting: The on-line survey was completed by 370 participants; 462 completed the paper version. Participants: Participants…

The authors conducted confirmatory factor analyses to test three-factor and four-factor models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using the PTSD Checklist with college students reporting a traumatic event history. The authors found support for the three-factor "DSM-IV"-based PTSD diagnostic model including reexperiencing, avoidance/numbing,…

The current research explored the theory of social goal orientation. More specifically, we conducted three studies utilizing six-independent university student samples to evaluate the construct validity of the Social Achievement Goal Orientation Scale (SAGOS; Ryan & Hopkins, 2003), a measure representing the construct of social goal orientation.…

The psychometric properties of scores from the Academic Self-Concept Scale are examined in a group of 198 Asian American college students. Using parallel analysis, a four-factor solution accounting for 46% of the variance was found. In a test of construct validity, academic self-concept was found to be negatively related to adherence to Asian…

We developed an instrument for HIV/AIDS behavioral surveillance applicable to youth living in urban West Africa. The instrument includes a comprehensive set of constructs borrowed from the sociocognitive theory of planned behavior as well as measures of parental and peer communication An exploratory (n = 189) and validation sample (n = 342) of…

Construct validity concerns for the IPT I Oral Grades K-6 Spanish Second Edition (IPT-S) as a measure of native oral language proficiency are examined. The examination included describing a subset of items that contributes most to overall score and native-language proficiency designation. Correlations between this subset of items and the overall…

The Parent Education Profile (PEP) is an instrument used by family literacy programs to rate parents' support for children's literacy development. This article uses Critical Discourse Analysis to examine how the PEP constructs the ideal parent, the text's underlying assumptions about parenting and education, and its ideological effects. The…

English language learners (ELLs) constitute one of the fastest growing subpopulations of students in the United States. It is important to determine whether the assessments used by states in determining students' proficiencies are valid and fair for ELLs. This study focused on several standards-based assessments in mathematics and science…

The authors developed and validated a measure of teachers' motivation toward specific work tasks: The Work Tasks Motivation Scale for Teachers (WTMST). The WTMST is designed to assess five motivational constructs toward six work tasks (e.g., class preparation, teaching). The authors conducted a preliminary (n = 42) and a main study among…