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The development of an instrument that measures social problem solving of Chinese adolescents is reported. The Social Problem-Solving Inventory Revised (SPSI-R) was translated to Chinese, and content validity, cultural relevance, and reading level of the translated measure were reviewed by panels of experts. The Chinese version of the scale (C-SPSI-R) was then administered to a sample of 352 junior secondary-school students. Exploratory factor analyses revealed a 5-factor structure that was largely consistent with the structure of the original English-language SPSI-R. The C-SPSI-R and its subscales were found to be internally consistent and temporally stable over time. The scores of the subscales were also correlated with depression scores, a correlation that supported the convergent validity of the subscales. Adolescents with high and low Chinese Beck Depression Inventory scores had significant differences in four out of five subscales of the C-SPSI-R (except Rational Problem-Solving). On the whole, the results supported that the C-SPSI-R is a reliable and valid instrument in the assessment of social problem solving in Chinese adolescents. Keywords: social problem-solving; Chinese; validation; measurement

Research on both anorexic and bulimic patients in Hong Kong indicates that the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) is a suboptimal screening tool for community assessment of atypical anorexia, although complementary application of a classification tree somewhat improved prediction.

Research indicates that fasting drives the attentional bias of study subjects toward high-calorie food words in alternative modified dot probe tasks containing food words. This finding was true for all study subjects whether they scored low or high on the Eating Disorder Inventory.

Research shows that the Anorexia Nervosa Stages of Change Questionnaire ANSOCQ produces results which correlate with other instruments that evaluate constructs of self-efficacy and decisional balance. This suggests that the ANSOCQ demonstrates adequate construct validity, and would be useful in assessing motivational hypotheses for eating disorders.

The Thinness and Restricting Expectancy Inventory and the Eating Expectancy Inventory were tested for validity among two groups of adolescent girls. Both inventories produced results consistent with those resulting from prior work on clinical and college sample groups.

The article provides a description of the Body Image Quality of Life Inventory, a 19-item assessment for measuring the impact of personal body image on quality of life. The inventory was tested among 116 women college students for a two- to three-week period, and exhibited internal stability and consistency.

This article examines the efficacy of a behavior disorder assessment study. Topics include disruptive behavior, conduct disorder, and sex differences.

Theoretical models suggest that 4- and 5-year-old children should be able to differentiate between multiple dimensions of self-concept, but empirical support is limited. A new 38-item Self Description Questionnaire for Preschoolers (SDQP) that measures 6 self-concept factors (Physical, Appearance, Peers, Parents, Verbal, and Math) was developed and tested. Through an individual-interview procedure, young children (4.0-5.6 years) completed the SDQP and achievement tests. The self-concept scales were reliable (.75-.89), first-order and higher order confirmatory factor analysis models fit the data, and factor correlations were mostly moderate (-.03-.73; Mdn = .29). Achievement test scores correlated modestly with academic self-concept factors (rs = .15-.40) but were nonsignificantly or significantly negatively related to nonacademic self-concepts. The results contribute to the critical debate about the validity of self-reports for preschool children, who distinguished between multiple dimensions of self-concept at an even younger age than suggested by previous self-concept research.

An evaluation of the Body Checking Questionnaire indicates that it may play a useful role in eating disorder diagnosis and treatment. The 23-item self-report inventory uses correlated subfactors that examine checking behaviors related to specific body parts, overall appearance, and idiosyncratic checking rituals.

Research indicates that ratings from research assessors are the only predictor of behavioral task completion and intensive treatment acceptance for clients who are anorexic. Questionnaire recovery activities were predicted by both research assessor and client ratings. Clinician ratings did not correlate with either questionnaire or behavioral measures.

Internet-mediated psychological assessment procedures can play an important role in behavioral tele-health, but their use is not unproblematic. Possible uses of World Wide Web-based tests are discussed. Published empirical evaluations of Web-based personality tests indicate that they can be reliable and valid. However, evidence exists that Web-based versions of tests may not always measure the same constructs as their traditional antecedents: Equivalence cannot be assumed. Web-based clinical assessment seems viable, but there are potential difficulties with measurement of some constructs (particularly negative affect), as well as ethical considerations. While offering great potential, online tests of clinical constructs require stringent validation and cautious use.

Instruments measuring Carl Jung's (1921/1971) theory of psychological types have been widely used in various counseling contexts, including career counseling, marital and family therapy, and team building. The most popular measure of types, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), was developed by Katherine C. Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers, but the MBTI has been criticized for (a) dichotomous scoring, (b) forced-choice response formats, and (c) differential gender weighting of item responses. The authors conducted 2 studies ([N.sub.1] = 207; [N.sub.2] = 894) exploring the psychometric properties of scores from an alternative measure of types, the Personal Preferences Self-Description Questionnaire (PPSDQ). Results suggest that the PPSDQ may successfully address concerns with alternative measures., Instruments measuring Carl Jung's (1921/1971) theory of psychological types have been widely used in various counseling contexts, including career counseling, marital and family therapy, and team building. Older Jungian measures [...]

Research indicates that clinical experience and level of training are strong predictors of whether psychologists and psychology students are able to develop an accurate diagnosis.

Research indicates that the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version (PCL:YV) is effective in identifying psychopathy syndrome in teenage boys that is consistent with research and theory on adult men. Studies were conducted on 115 teenage boys on probation.

Research on peer victimization in children indicates that multi-informant composite measures produce more accurate relational adjustment estimates than any one of the single-informant measures. Informants include self, peer, parent, and teacher. All informant data were found to be increasingly concordant and reliable over time.

A comparison of responses for the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist between English- and Spanish-speaking patients showed that the two versions are not fully equivalent, in that uniform differential item functioning was detected in six of 17 items. However, no bias at the composite scale score level was observed.

Studies reveal a significant association between Hare Psychopathy Checklist scores and the antisocial personality disorder criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders scored as a scale. The two are also similar in predicting violent behavior. This suggests that the same natural class underlies sets of items for both measures.

Studies indicate that several scales in the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 are sufficiently accurate in distinguishing underreporting respondents from those who are responding honestly. Accuracy diminishes, however, if respondents have been informed about MMPI-2 validity scales.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) was applied to 1,558 Caucasian and 229 African American psychiatric inpatients, and the results were examined for ethnic differences and test bias. Although some MMPI-2 scales exhibited bias in underpredicting psychopathology in the African American patients, in the majority of applications the differences were minor and clinically insignificant.

An overview is presented on the Amsterdam Scale of Oppositionality, a self-reporting methodology for measuring oppositional defiant disorder in children. Studies on the scale indicate that best fitting models consisted of mutually related situational factors and strongly related behavioral and emotional factors. In studies using the scale, oppositionality was found to be primarily situation-specific.

Two algorithms are assessed for clinical diagnosis of autism: the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) and the autistic spectrum disorder developed by Lorna Wing and Judith Gould. While inter-rater reliability was high for both of the algorithms, the ICD-10 produced discrepant diagnoses more frequently than the Wing and Gould algorithm. An analysis of items in the ICD-10 explain the discrepancies.

Research confirms a high inter-rater reliability for the Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders schedule, used for identifying autism and similar disorders in children and for assessing individual care needs.

The factor structure of Ryff's Scales of Psychological Well-Being (SPWB) and their relationship to standardized measures of subjective well-being (SWB) were investigated. Two hundred seventy-seven participants ranging in age from 18 to 48 years were administered the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH), the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), and the SPWB. Results failed to support either the hypothesis that performing factor analytic procedures on the items of the SPWB should produce a six-factor solution, with scale-specific items loading most highly on their respective factors or the hypothesis that subjecting the sub-scales of the SPWB to factor analytic procedures along with standardized measures of SWB would produce one higher-order well-being factor. Instead, item loadings clustered around three major factors that could not be identified with the six scales proposed by Ryff. Moreover, the factor analysis of SPWB and SWB scale totals produced three, instead of one, higher-order factors. Implications of findings are discussed with respect to the relationship of the PWB construct to the SWB construct.

The 19-item Body-Image Questionnaire, developed by our team and first published in this journal in 1987 by Bruchon-Schweitzer, was administered to 1,222 male and female French subjects. A principal component analysis of their responses yielded an axis we interpreted as a general Body Satisfaction dimension. The four-factor structure observed in 1987 was not replicated. Body Satisfaction was associated with sex, health, and with current and future emotional adjustment.

Two studies were performed with young athletes to investigate the utility of three psychological tests regarding the prediction of sport performance: the Profile of Mood States, Ratings of Perceived Exertion, and Dispositional Optimism. In Study 1, young male and female cross-country skiers and ski-marksmen in final preparation for the Junior National Swedish Championships were tested. Measured 5 wk. before both competitions, the higher the optimism (LOT), the better performance. In Study 2, which tested young swimmers in preparation for the Senior National Swedish Championships, competitors who had the highest scores on optimism performed less well during the competitions. The results are interpreted to indicate that optimism presents an important factor for predicting achievement in sports.

The Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale has 51 items, each scored on a 5-point rating scale to measure statistics anxiety with six subscales, Worth of Statistics, Interpretation Anxiety, Test and Class Anxiety, Computational Self-concept, Fear of Asking for Help, and Fear of Statistics Teachers. Psychometric properties included analyses of construct and concurrent validities an internal consistency and test-retest reliability. 221 college students (74% women; M age=28 yr.) in elementary statistics courses at several southwestern state universities participated. The findings are consistent with previous reports and indicate adequate concurrent validity, internal consistency, and split-half reliability, but for construct validity confirmatory factor analysis yielded marginal support.

Previous research in 1994 by Gupchup and Wolfgang identified four factors from Wolfgang's Health Professions Stress Inventory (1988) that were common among a sample of practicing pharmacists. The factors were labeled Professional Recognition, Patient Care Responsibilities, Job Conflicts, and Professional Uncertainty, respectively. We used confirmatory factor analysis to assess whether this factor structure was generalizable to nurses. To examine concurrent validity, we correlated the factors with Maslach and Jackson's three dimensions of job burnout, i.e., Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey of a random sample of 9,380 nurses from across 43 public hospitals in Hong Kong, from which 2,267 (24.2%) responded. Analysis indicated statistically acceptable goodness of fit indices for the four-factor solution. Except for the factor Patient Care Responsibilities, all other factors had moderate correlations between .44 and .53 with Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization. Correlations between the factors of Stress Inventory and Personal Accomplishment were small but significant, ranging from -.25 to .13. Areas for further improving the psychometric properties of the inventory are discussed.

The present study represents a preliminary investigation of Ramirez' contention that developing a multicultural identity would lead to better mental health and more life satisfaction. Using a tentative index of a multicultural perspective analysis indicated that, although a multicultural perspective is associated with more life satisfaction, it accounts for only 8% of the variance. Further, one of the measures used by Ramirez to measure an aspect of a multicultural perspective was not correlated with life satisfaction, and another correlated negatively. This latter measure accounts for only 6% of the variance in life satisfaction, Combined, these findings provide limited support for Ramirez' perspective by explaining 14% of the overall variance in life satisfaction.

We investigated the hypothesis that certain signs in the Draw-A-Person projective technique reflect male homosexuality. Human figure drawings from 88 gay and 88 heterosexual men, with no clinical psychological symptoms, were submitted to trained raters who were blind to the purpose of this research. The raters independently judged whether 21 signs, previously referenced in the literature as suggestive of male homosexuality, were present in the figure drawings. Only two signs, hair and hips, differentiated between groups. Results were interpreted in the light of changing social attitudes towards homosexuals and methodological problems of prior studies.

Honesty questionnaires are often validated against a paper-and-pencil criterion in which respondents are asked to admit to past incidents of dishonesty. However, substantial overlap in the methods of assessment and in item content between predictor and criterion suggest that it is not validity that is being assessed, but rather a form of reliability. In this study, the relations between two overt measures of honesty (the Phase II Profile and the Workplace Productivity Questionnaire) and an admissions criterion were evaluated. The results suggest that the strong correlations between the Phase II Profile and the admissions criterion (r =-.67) and between scores on the Workplace Productivity Questionnaire and the admissions criterion (r = -.62) may be largely due to overlapping item content.

Rater bias has long been considered a source of error in observer ratings but has been ignored by process researchers using participant ratings. In particular, rater variance, or differences in generalized favorable or unfavorable perceptions of others, represents a neglected source of error in studies using participant ratings. The author presents an initial generalizability study of 2 commonly used psychotherapy process measures and discusses the implications for statistical power of studies using these measures and for interpretation of research findings. Results suggest that bias may be a substantial source of error in process ratings, accounting for 4 to 8 times as much variance in observed scores as intrarater error.

Research indicates that testing situation factors can exaggerate age variations in memory performance measurement. These include test processes such as experimental instructions, and should be taken into account in research study design.

Research on stress and coping ability in Hong Kong managers indicates that the relationship between age and two clinical indicators of well-being can be applied to different combinations of sources of stress, coping, organizational tenure, work locus of control, and managerial level.

Research is presented on self-concept differentiation (SCD) for subjects between 20 and 88 years of age. Studies indicate that SCD is significantly associated with psychological well-being and emotional adjustment, but associated with age only under specific measures.

Using a sample of 69 undergraduates, scales were devised to measure helplessness, hopelessness, and haplessness and shown to have good reliability. Briefer scales were also developed whose scores were independent of one another in a factor analysis. Scores for 19 male and 50 female undergraduates on the 4-item scales of Helplessness and Hopelessness were associated with two different measures of depression, but scores on Hopelessness provided the stronger correlate.

This study provided evidence of reliability and validity for the four scales of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory. Alpha reliabilities for scales ranged from .84 to .89. Measures of aggressive anger expression while driving (Verbal Aggressive Expression, Personal Physical Aggressive Expression, and Use of the Vehicle to Express Anger scales) correlated positively with each other and negatively with the Adaptive/Constructive Expression scale. Scores on the three aggressive forms of anger expression correlated positively with trait anger and measures of driving-related anger, aggression, and risky behavior, whereas scores on the Adaptive/Constructive Expression scale correlated negatively with these variables. Reports of aggressive and risky behavior correlated most strongly with the Use of the Vehicle to Express Anger scale. Forms of anger expression were minimally or uncorrelated with rated trait anxiety and reports of moving violations, close calls, and accidents. Findings replicated earlier findings and provided further evidence for the reliability and validity of the Driving Anger Expression Inventory.

Objective: To provide normative data on the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), a scale that is being increasingly used for clinical and epidemiological purposes. Method: The National Survey of Mental Health And Well-Being was used to provide normative comparative data on symptoms, disability, service utilisation and diagnosis for the range of possible K10 scores. Results: The K10 is related in predictable ways to these other measures. Implications: The K10 is suitable to assess morbidity in the population, and may be appropriate for use in clinical practice.

A memory processes account of the calibration of probability judgments was examined. A multiple-trace memory model, Minerva-Decision Making (MDM; M. R. P. Dougherty, C. F. Gettys, & E. E. Ogden, 1999), used to integrate the ecological (Brunswikian) and the error (Thurstonian) models of overconfidence, is described. The model predicts that overconfidence should decrease both as a function of experience and as a function of encoding quality. Both increased experience and improved encoding quality result in lower variance in the output of the model, which in turn leads to improved calibration. Three experiments confirmed these predictions. Implications of MDM's account of overconfidence are discussed.

This article evaluates psychometric models' abilities to accurately measure genetic and environmental aspects of twins' problem behaviors.

This article discusses the ability of the Driving Vengeance Questionnaire to accurately predict driver violence, aggression, and road rage. Topics include destructive behavior, stress, and revenge.

An evaluation is presented on the Response Styles Questionnaire Rumination scale. Findings show that while rumination is linked to depression episode severity, it does not distinguish distinct clinical subtypes. Baseline rumination also does not predict main aspects of a depressive episode's six-month course and outcome.

An assessment is presented of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-A), focusing on internal consistency, interrater agreement, and rater influence for the nonoverlapping subscales of resistance, psychological discomfort, positive symptoms and negative symptoms. The pros and cons of using BPRS-A are discussed.

The author defends the use of the Ego Impairment Index (EII) to assess thought disturbance and predict positive symptoms of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. The EII is a Rorschach measure of reasoning, perception and cognition.

The article examines specific issues surrounding self-reporting for mentally disabled persons. Topics include psychometric properties such as structure, format, and validity; question phrasing; response format such as multiple choice or acquiescence; and item content such as generalizations and quantitative judgments.

Research supports the validity of Spanish-language translations of questionnaires used to measure anxiety and related disorders. Assessments of validity involved the use of bilingual participants who answered English- and Spanish-language questionnaires and produced comparable results from both.

Research indicates that the pen switching method is preferable to the flowchart method in recording observations for the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) task, which is used to assess visual-spatial skills. Pen switching was found to be easier to score, and subjects evaluated by this method tended to perform better than their flowchart cohorts.

Research presented concerns the classification of child psychopathological disorders, focusing on the validity questionnaires developed from the American Psychiatric Association's 'Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed.' Topics addressed include the differences between empirical and clinical taxonomies.

This article investigates the validity of the Reasons for Quitting Scale. Topics include psychometrics, motivation, social support, and health behavior change.

Research presented concerns the validity of the 'Tower of London' (TOL) psychological tool used as a measure of problem-solving ability. Topics addressed include the role of inhibition in problem-solving tasks, and if the performance on the TOL is improved through the inhibiting of responses.