The predictive validity of scores on the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Part I and Part II examinations for the selection of residents in orthopaedic surgery was investigated. Use of NBME scores has been criticized because of the time lag between taking Part I and entering residency and because Part I content is not directly linked to…

This paper presents results of a LISREL factor analysis on data from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Chinese Revised (WISC-CR) (published in 1986) for children ages 6.5 to 16.5 years, using a standardization sample of 200 children (100 males and 100 females) at each of…

The Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory (SWAI) developed by J. F. Efstation, M. J. Patton, and C. M. Kardash (1990) was further evaluated for its psychometric properties and relationships with the Personal Reactions Scale--Revised (PRS-R) developed by E. L. Holloway and B. E. Wampold (1984), the only other measure of the relationship in…

An Australian study and a Canadian study evaluated the ability of significant others to infer multiple dimensions of self-concept of university students accurately. Subjects were 151 Australian and 941 Canadian university students. Four factor analyses (self- and other-responses by Australians and Canadians) all clearly identified the 13 factors…

This study evaluated whether or not locus of control mediates rational-irrational beliefs. Data were generated investigating the impact of an internal-external orientation and selected demographic variables (age, race, gender, education, and occupation) on rational-irrational beliefs. Independent variables were locus of control and demographic…

The validity of the Self Concept as a Learner Revised (SCALR) inventory was studied. The construct issue of academic self-concept was explored by comparing the SCALR to the academic portion of the Multidimensional Self Concept Scale (MSCS). The SCALR contains 44 items (four scales of 11 items each). The SCALR version for grades 7 through 12 was…

As part of an effort to develop strategies for measuring institutional effectiveness, a study was conducted at West Virginia University at Parkersburg (WVU-P), a two-year institution with an enrollment of nearly 4,000 students, to determine the most appropriate instrument for measuring gains in general education between incoming freshman (i.e.,…

The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) and the Stanford-Binet: Fourth Edition (S-B:FE) were administered in counterbalanced order to a sample of 20 middle-class preschool children (11 males and 9 females) attending the Early Childhood Preschool Center located in a suburban area of a large midwestern city. Subjects' mean age was 4…

A mapping procedure is presented for studying the construct validity of interest inventories that assess the six interest types defined by J. L. Holland. The 1989 revision of the American College Testing Program Interest Inventory (UNIACT) was used to assess the interests of 1,078 12th-grade students (497 males and 581 females) and 725 adults aged…

Extending the earlier work of B. M. Byrne and P. Baron (1990), the factorial invariance of the 21-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was tested using 351 non-clinical adolescent males and 334 non-clinical adolescent females. All subjects were in grades 9 through 12 and attended the same secondary school in a large metropolitan area in central…

Previous studies have shown a relationship between desensitization/relaxation and anxiety reduction but have failed to investigate the effect on other personality variables. To determine the effects of desensitization/relaxation (SD/R) and transactional analysis (TA) on locus of control, anxiety, self-esteem, and achievement, 54 college students…

As a result of the Educational Reform Act in 1982, the Mississippi State Board of Education adopted accreditation levels from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest level. In 1988, 17 school districts were assigned to the Level 1 status by the Commission on School Accreditation, based on results of the following performance standards: Basic Skills…

The effect of collaborative testing on junior high school students' scores was investigated. Twenty-two students in grades 7, 8, and 9 were given curriculum-based tests in their pre-algebra classes. Some tests were taken individually in the traditional manner, and others were taken collaboratively by students in pairs over a 10-week period.…

The insights provided by Rasch analysis of results from a literature test were explored. Students in grades 9, 10, and 11 (n=261) responded to a 28-item test before they received one of three treatments: (1) direct instruction, based on research on metacognition in reading, which attempts to give conscious control of strategies used to understand…

This study investigated the effect of diagram formats on performance on geometry items in order to determine whether certain examinees are affected by different item formats and whether such differences arise from the different intellectual demands made by these formats. Thirty-two experimental, multiple-choice geometry items were administered in…