Although the construct of psychopathy is frequently construed as a unitary syndrome, the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) and its revision, the PPI-R (Lilienfeld & Widows, 2005), are composed of 2 scales, termed Fearless Dominance (FD) and Self-Centered Impulsivity (SCI), which appear to reflect orthogonal…

The analysis of convergent and discriminant validity is an integral part of the construct validation process. Models for analyzing the convergent and discriminant validity have typically been developed for cross-sectional data. There exist, however, only a few approaches for longitudinal data that can be applied for analyzing the construct…

Aberrant salience is the unusual or incorrect assignment of salience, significance, or importance to otherwise innocuous stimuli and has been hypothesized to be important for psychosis and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Despite the importance of this concept in psychosis research, no questionnaire measures are available to assess…

Previous research has identified 2 broad components of distress in intimate relationships: overt conflict, or "disharmony", and emotional distance, or "disaffection". Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors derived 2 broadband scales of disharmony and disaffection from the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (D. K. Snyder, 1997),…

The Positive and Negative Quality in Marriage Scale (F. D. Fincham & K. J. Linfield, 1997) is a self-report measure that separately assesses positive and negative dimensions of relationship quality. Fincham and Linfield found that ratings of positive and negative marital quality accounted for unique variance in maladaptive attributions and…

The construct of emotion dysregulation increasingly has been used to explain diverse psychopathologies across the lifespan. The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; K. L. Gratz & L. Roemer, 2004) represents the most comprehensive measure of the construct to date and exhibits good reliability and validity in adults; however, the…

Confirmatory factor analysis was used with a multitrait (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-inattention, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-hyperactivity/impulsivity, oppositional defiant disorder toward adults, academic competence, and social competence) by multisource (mothers and fathers) matrix to test the invariance and…

The authors describe the development and validation of the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire for Youth (AFQ-Y), a child-report measure of psychological inflexibility engendered by high levels of cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance. Consistent with the theory underlying acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), items converged into a…

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) Restructured Clinical Scales (RCSs) in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) receiving clinical services at Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers. Study 1 included 1,098 men who completed the MMPI-2 and were…

In this study, we investigated a new instrument: the Southampton Test of Empathy for Preschoolers (STEP). The test incorporated 8 video vignettes of children in emotional scenarios, assessing a child's ability to understand (STEP-UND) and share (STEP-SHA) in the emotional experience of a story protagonist. Each vignette included 4 emotions (angry,…

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the invariance of an oppositional defiant disorder toward adults, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-hyperactivity/impulsivity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-inattention, and an Academic Competence factor model between mothers' and fathers' ratings within Brazilian (n = 894), Thai (n =…

The authors examined the structural validity of the parent informant version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) with a sample of 733 custodial grandparents. Three models of the SDQ's factor structure were evaluated with confirmatory factor analysis based on the item covariance matrix. Although indices of fit were good across all…

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…

To validate a measure of a construct is to validate a theory: The process includes theory specification, theory elaboration, choice of methods, choice of research design, reliance on necessary auxiliary theories, and empirical observation. Evaluating the success of the process is likely to be enhanced through quantification. To date, scientists…

This study assessed the construct validity of the circumplex model of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP-C) in Norwegian clinical and nonclinical samples. Structure was examined by evaluating the fit of the circumplex model to data obtained by the IIP-C. Observer-rated personality disorder criteria (DSM-IV, Axis II) were used as external…