This is an introductory report for the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), a brief psychological self-report symptom scale. The BSI was developed from its longer parent instrument, the SCL-90-R, and psychometric evaluation reveals it to be an acceptable short alternative to the complete scale. Both test--retest and internal consistency reliabilities are shown to be very good for the primary symptom dimensions of the BSI, and its correlations with the comparable dimensions of the SCL-90-R are quite high. In terms of validation, high convergence between BSI scales and like dimensions of the MMPI provide good evidence of convergent validity, and factor analytic studies of the internal structure of the scale contribute evidence of construct validity. Several criterion-oriented validity studies have also been completed with this instrument.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0033291700048017

The Brief Symptom Inventory: an introductory report.

The process of making judgments and decisions requires a method for combining data. To compare the accuracy of clinical and mechanical (formal, statistical) data-combination techniques, we performed a meta-analysis on studies of human health and behavior. On average, mechanical-prediction techniques were about 10% more accurate than clinical predictions. Depending on the specific analysis, mechanical prediction substantially outperformed clinical prediction in 33%-47% of studies examined. Although clinical predictions were often as accurate as mechanical predictions, in only a few studies (6%-16%) were they substantially more accurate. Superiority for mechanical-prediction techniques was consistent, regardless of the judgment task, type of judges, judges' amounts of experience, or the types of data being combined. Clinical predictions performed relatively less well when predictors included clinical interview data. These data indicate that mechanical predictions of human behaviors are equal or superior to clinical prediction methods for a wide range of circumstances.

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Clinical versus mechanical prediction: a meta-analysis.

Understanding subjective well-being (SWB) has historically been a core human endeavor and presently spans fields from management to mental health. Previous meta-analyses have indicated that personality traits are one of the best predictors. Still, these past results indicate only a moderate relationship, weaker than suggested by several lines of reasoning. This may be because of commensurability, where researchers have grouped together substantively disparate measures in their analyses. In this article, the authors review and address this problem directly, focusing on individual measures of personality (e.g., the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory; P. T. Costa & R. R. McCrae, 1992) and categories of SWB (e.g., life satisfaction). In addition, the authors take a multivariate approach, assessing how much variance personality traits account for individually as well as together. Results indicate that different personality and SWB scales can be substantively different and that the relationship between the two is typically much larger (e.g., 4 times) than previous meta-analyses have indicated. Total SWB variance accounted for by personality can reach as high as 39% or 63% disattenuated. These results also speak to meta-analyses in general and the need to account for scale differences once a sufficient research base has been generated.

/pdf/refining-the-relationship-between-personality-and-subjective-mleq8zzf6z.pdf

Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being.

Publisher Summary Research on self-regulated learning (SRL) and measurement protocols used in this chapter are relatively new and inherently intertwined enterprises. Each helps to bootstrap the other. One adopts the view that a measurement protocol is an intervention in an environment, disturbing it in a fashion that causes data to be generated. Using that data and logic of causal inference, he/she infers properties and qualities of a target of measurement. Thus, measurement involves understandings about a target, its environment, and causal relationships that connect the two. Under this view, measurement is akin to model building and model testing, and thus, all measures of SRL are reflections of a model of SRL. SRL has dual qualities as an aptitude and an event. It is situated within a broad range of environmental plus mental factors and potentials, and manifests itself in recursively applied forms of metacognitive monitoring and metacognitive control that change information over time as learners engage with a task.

Measuring Self-Regulated Learning

Series Preface. One: Introduction to Psychological Tests and Their Uses. Two: Essential Statistics for Testing. Three: Essentials of Test Score Interpretation. Four: Essentials of Reliability. Five: Essentials of Validity. Six: Essential Test Item Considerations. Seven: Essentials of Test Use. Appendix A: Commercially Available Tests. Appendix B: Addresses of Test Publishers and Distributors. Appendix C: Table of Areas and Ordinates of the Normal Curve. References. Index. Acknowledgments. About the Author.

Essentials of Psychological Testing

Our review of the relevant research literature in the recent past strongly supports the view that personality assessment has high utility in the workplace. We review the evidence that personality assessment measures, especially those based upon the Big Five factors of personality, can effectively predict job performance and thus can be used for personnel selection. The validity of integrity testing in predicting counterproductivity on the job has been demonstrated both for overt measures of integrity and, to a lesser degree, for more general (subtle) measures of personality. We also found good evidence of validity for measures of (supervisory) management and (transformational) leadership, a complex field which includes a number of multidimensional instruments each built around its own theory. Finally, we review the empirical literature that supports the use of assessment centers and the use of personality assessment in training and development.

Applications of Personality Assessment to the Workplace: A Review

Theory and treatment in child molestation

The internal and external validity of scores on the two-scale Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) and its recent revision, the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS), developed to measure two facets of social desirability, were studied with three groups of forensic clients and two groups of college undergraduates (total N = 519). The two scales were statistically significantly related in all groups and for both versions of the inventory. A two-factor congeneric, orthogonal measurement model was rejected for all groups. However, a two-factor model that allowed cross-loadings among the items and correlation between the factors provided adequate fit. Concurrent validity data showed scores on both the Impression Management and Self-Deceptive Enhancement (SDE) scales to be satisfactory measures of their respective constructs and also of general social desirability, for both forensic clients and undergraduates. An exception was found in lower validity correlates for scores on the SDE scale in the PDS form.

Richard I. Lanyon

Papers

Applications of Personality Assessment to the Workplace: A Review

Theory and treatment in child molestation

Internal and External Validity of Scores on the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding and the Paulhus Deception Scales

Personality assessment, 3rd ed.

Exhibitionism: etiology and treatment.