Assessing Construct Validity in Organizational Research

Historically, education goals have tended to fluctuate from emphasis solely on cognitive outcomes to major concern with social and affective ones. The emphasis on achievement and the "cult of efficiency" (Callahan, 1962) early in this century was followed by a shift in the 1930's to the comprehensive high school with its social and affective concerns (cf. the Eight Year Study, Aikin, 1942). Then Sputnik initiated a rapid and dramatic reemphasis on cognitive outcomes (Bruner, 1960) from which the current trend seems to be moving in its emphasis on "humanistic" aspects of education. The sharp increase in the number of studies on self-concept is one reflection of the reemphasis on noncognitive outcomes of education. (For references to current educational studies, see reviews by Coller, 1971; Purkey, 1970; Yamamoto, 1972; Zirkel, 1971.) Another symptom of this shift has taken the form of increased concern with enhancing the child's self-concept, espe-

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Self-Concept: Validation of Construct Interpretations

The adequate measurement of abstract constructs is perhaps the greatest challenge to understanding the behavior of people in organizations. Problems with the reliability and validity of measures us...

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A Brief Tutorial on the Development of Measures for Use in Survey Questionnaires

A review of 144 published studies of the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and obesity reveals a strong inverse relationship among women in developed societies. The relationship is inconsistent for men and children in developed societies. In developing societies, however, a strong direct relationship exists between SES and obesity among men, women, and children. A review of social attitudes toward obesity and thinness reveals values congruent with the distribution of obesity by SES in different societies. Several variables may mediate the influence of attitudes toward obesity and thinness among women in developed societies that result in the inverse relationship between SES and obesity. They include dietary restraint, physical activity, social mobility, and inheritance.

Socioeconomic Status and Obesity: A Review of the Literature

Reviews the literature on consumer‐perceived risk over the past 30 years. The review begins by establishing perceived risk’s relationship with related marketing constructs such as involvement and trust. It then tackles some debates within the literature, concerning subjective and objective risk and differences between the concepts of risk and uncertainty. It describes how different models have been devised and operationalised to measure risk and how these have developed over the years. Aims to identify and report the theoretical and model developments over the past 30 years and to propose criteria which researchers can use in deciding the most useful model for their own research. The criteria are: understanding, prediction, suitability for reliability and validity assessment, practicality and usability. It is suggested that the basic two‐component model is still the most generally useful for researchers and practitioners alike.

Consumer perceived risk: conceptualisations and models

Recently a colleague presented some data from his research and I asked him what he thought about a particular interpretation of his results which I suggested His response was to the effect that my interpretation was an interesting idea but that we did not really know the facts. My point is that he acted as if what he has thought about his extensive experience with the problem under discussion had no value because it was subjective. I believe this is a widespread attitude among psychologists. I am not saying that subjective functions are sufficient to the scientific process, but rather that they are very important to it, and even necessary except in the relatively few instances in which a deduction from a theory becomes the hypothesis. Much recent psychological research has been unproductive, I believe, not for lack of methodological sophistication or objectivity, but because of poorly reasoned hypotheses. It is the subjective process, the thinking about relevant data and our own relevant experiences, which is so important to framing hypotheses which are more likely to stand up under objective testing. Has the dominant point of view in psychology gone so far in the emphasis on objectivity that we have lost sight of the value of thinking, and further, have so much come to distrust any subjectivity that we are restricted, inhibited, unfree in the thinking process, afraid to trust our minds? EMANUEL M. BERGER Student Counseling Bureau University of Minnesota

Responsibility for Raw Data.

Issues in managerial performance: Multitrait-multimethod analyses of ratings.

The assessment of fabric hand involves two major classes of variables: fabrics as stimuli with certain physical properties, and people as judges with certain traits. This research investigated the tactile sensory assessment of selected fabrics that varied in specified physical dimensions—namely : stiffness, roughness, and thickness—replicated in two fiber contents: cotton and polyester. In the analysis- of-variance design, physical dimensions of fabrics were taken as fixed, rather than random, variables, and judges as blocks. The subjective-hand properties were measured by polar adjectives using a 99-point certainty scale, transformed to normal deviates.Sensory responses of judges to the nine pairs of polar adjectives differed significantly with respect to all four main effects: fiber content, stiffness, roughness, and thickness. The sensitivity of the 99-point certainty scale resulted in a wide range of F values; various interactions were clarified by graphic analysis. Editing of data for suspected error...

Fabric Hand: Tactile Sensory Assessment

IN order to delineate the problem considered in this paper, and the rationale upon which the solution is based, the following definitions mill be adhered to. A trait is defined as any potentially measureable attribute of the subject whose responses are observed, e.g., anxiety, neuroticism, morale, etc. A method refers to the means used to ob: -ewe or assess the trait, e.g. peer ratings, psychologist’s ratings, questionnaires, etc. The measure refers to the particular trait-method combination administered to a subject to obtain an observation. The multitrait-multimethod matrix is comprised of correlations between measures which use a number of methods to assess each member of the same set of traits. The procedure described in this paper is based on explicit models for multitrait-multimethod data. The formal models are related to models implicit in the classical Campbell and Fiske (1959) presentation. The procedure is based also on previous research conducted by Wolins (1964) and by Stanley (1961). Another

A Procedure for Estimation of Trait, Method, and Error Variance Attributable to a Measure

THE following definitions, taken from Thurstone (1947) and from Campbell and Fiske (1959), will be employed to characterize the measurement system considered in this paper. A subject is generally the person whose responses are observed. A trait is defined as any potentially observable attribute of the subj ect. A method refers to the means used to observe or assess the trait. A measure refers to the trait-method combination used to obtain an observation on the subject. The observations yielded by a measure are treated as if they vary on an interval scale. Consider, for example, the traits called manager human relations

Leroy Wolins

Papers

Responsibility for Raw Data.

Issues in managerial performance: Multitrait-multimethod analyses of ratings.

Fabric Hand: Tactile Sensory Assessment

A Procedure for Estimation of Trait, Method, and Error Variance Attributable to a Measure

Alternative Methods of Analysis: Multitrait-Multimethod Data