The present series of studies sought to develop and conceptually validate a taxonomy of reasons that give rise to academic amotivation and to investigate its social antecedents and academic consequences. In Study 1 (N = 351), an exploratory factor analysis offered preliminary support for an academic amotivation taxonomy comprising four dimensions:…

It is believed by some that most tests are multidimensional, meaning that they measure more than one underlying construct. The primary objective of this study is to illustrate how variations in the secondary ability distribution affect the statistical detection of dimensionality and to demonstrate the difference between substantive and statistical…

In their book, IQ and the Wealth of Nations, Lynn and Vanhanen ([Lynn, R. and Vanhanen, T. (2002). IQ and the wealth of nations. Westport, CT: Praeger.]) proposed the hypothesis that "the intelligence of the populations has been a major factor responsible for the national differences in economic growth and for the gap in per capita income between…

The Psychological well being Inventory (PWBI) is a multidimensional instrument that has enjoyed widespread use in a variety of research initiatives, from small-scale studies to national surveys. Recent empirical investigation of the measure has raised questions about its validity. This study examines the factorial validity of the Environmental…

The WHOQOL-BREF is one of the cross-cultural and widely used measures for assessing health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Previous studies of the HRQOL using the WHOQOL-BREF mainly focused on adult; however, there has been less work carried out on assessing the HRQOL on early adolescence. The goal of this study was to examine the applicability…

J. E. Helms's (1995b) White racial identity theory is said to resemble a pseudoscience in certain respects because its empirical support is based on the White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (J. E. Helms & R. T. Carter, 1990) in spite of consistent evidence that the instrument does not measure the constructs that the theory proposes.

OBJECTIVE: There is a developing literature on the use of movies for educating psychiatric residents. This may be the first report of the use of film as the basis of a psychiatric resident acculturation course. METHOD: The author describes an American culture course for PGY-1 psychiatric residents and presents satisfaction and construct validity…

Background: The appropriateness of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition" (DSM-IV) nosology for classifying preschool mental health disturbances continues to be debated. To inform this debate, we investigate whether preschool psychopathology shows differentiation along diagnostically specific lines…

It has been reasonably well established that test takers can sometimes answer correctly some reading comprehension passages without reading the passages on which the questions are based. This issue was studied with the new Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in a study designed to determine the strategies by which examinees are able to achieve…

Administration of the Test of Spoken English (TSE) yields tapes of oral performance on items within six sections of the test. Trained scorers subsequently rate responses using four proficiency scales: pronunciation, grammar, fluency, and overall comprehensibility. This project examined the consistency of statistical relations among TSE scores with…

A study refined a valid and reliable measure to measure learner empowerment and determined construct validity by correlating learner empowerment with the related variables affinity-seeking (an interpersonal communication construct), motivation to study, and learning. Subjects, 340 undergraduate students enrolled in communication classes at a…

The present investigation extends the factor analytic approach pioneered by Fleishman (1964), incorporating subsequent developments in the application of confirmatory factor analysis and the physical fitness literature (e.g., an emphasis on maximum oxygen intake). More specifically, the ability of an a priori factor structure of physical fitness…

This study evaluated the construct validity of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Third Edition (WISC-III) with children (ages 8 to 13) having learning disabilities who were either Hispanic (N=120) or Non-Hispanic white (N=120). Factor analyses found that the WISC III has a three factor structure consisting of verbal comprehension,…

Factor analysis of the instrument used to evaluate student perceptions of an educational interactive video program has determined that seven constructs were being measured. All of these constructs, however, were not consistently measuring the same things. In fact, the variables on which the factors loaded changed for three of the factors from…

This study investigated the validity of measures derived from a large-scale multiple-choice achievement test in mathematics, using evidence from introspective think-aloud protocols of students as they attempted test items. A small-scale study of 21 local high-school students was conducted to identify and describe cognitive processes underlying…