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JournalISSN: 1040-3590

Psychological Assessment 

American Psychological Association
About: Psychological Assessment is an academic journal published by American Psychological Association. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Test validity & Psychometrics. It has an ISSN identifier of 1040-3590. Over the lifetime, 2866 publications have been published receiving 260221 citations. The journal is also known as: Psychol assess.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide guidelines, guidelines, and simple rules of thumb to assist the clinician faced with the challenge of choosing an appropriate test instrument for a given psychological assessment.
Abstract: In the context of the development of prototypic assessment instruments in the areas of cognition, personality, and adaptive functioning, the issues of standardization, norming procedures, and the important psychometrics of test reliability and validity are evaluated critically. Criteria, guidelines, and simple rules of thumb are provided to assist the clinician faced with the challenge of choosing an appropriate test instrument for a given psychological assessment. Clinicians are often faced with the critical challenge of choosing the most appropriate available test instrument for a given psychological assessment of a child, adolescent, or adult of a particular age, gender, and class of disability. It is the purpose of this report to provide some criteria, guidelines, or simple rules of thumb to aid in this complex scientific decision. As such, it draws upon my experience with issues of test development, standardization, norming procedures, and important psychometrics, namely, test reliability and validity. As I and my colleagues noted in an earlier publication, the major areas of psychological functioning, in the normal development of infants, children, adolescents, adults, and elderly people, include cognitive, academic, personality, and adaptive behaviors (Sparrow, Fletcher, & Cicchetti, 1985). As such, the major examples or applications discussed in this article derive primarily, although not exclusively, from these several areas of human functioning.

7,254 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was administered to 425 undergraduates and a three component solution comprising (a) rumination, (b) magnification, and (c) helplessness.
Abstract: In Study 1, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) was administered to 425 undergraduates. Analyses yielded a three component solution comprising (a) rumination, (b) magnification, and (c) helplessness. In Study 2, 30 undergraduate participants were classified as catastrophizers (n = 15) or noncatastrophizers (n = 15) on the basis of their PCS scores and participated in an cold pressor procedure. Catastrophizers reported significantly more negative pain-related thoughts, greater emotional distress, and greater pain intensity than noncatastrophizers. Study 3 examined the relation between PCS scores, negative pain-related thoughts, and distress in 28 individuals undergoing an aversive electrodiagnostic medical procedure. Catastrophizers reported more negative pain-related thoughts, more emotional distress, and more pain than noncatastrophizers. Study 4 examined the relation between the PCS and measures of depression, trait anxiety, negative affectivity, and fear of pain. Analyses revealed moderate correlations among these measures, but only the PCS contributed significant unique variance t o the prediction of pain intensity.

6,173 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss theoretical principles, practical issues, and pragmatic decisions to help developers maximize the construct validity of scales and subscales, and propose factor analysis as a crucial role in ensuring unidimensionality and discriminant validity.
Abstract: A primary goal of scale development is to create a valid measure of an underlying construct. We discuss theoretical principles, practical issues, and pragmatic decisions to help developers maximize the construct validity of scales and subscales. First, it is essential to begin with a clear conceptualization of the target construct. Moreover, the content of the initial item pool should be overinclusive and item wording needs careful attention. Next, the item pool should be tested, along with variables that assess closely related constructs, on a heterogeneous sample representing the entire range of the target population. Finally, in selecting scale items, the goal is unidimensionality rather than internal consistency ; this means that virtually all interitem correlations should be moderate in magnitude. Factor analysis can play a crucial role in ensuring the unidimensionality and discriminant validity of scales.

5,867 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a set of 100 unipolar terms for personality traits was developed and compared with previously developed ones based on far larger sets of trait adjectives, as well as with the scales from the NEO and Hogan personality inventories.
Abstract: To satisfy the need in personality research for factorially univocal measures of each of the 5 domains that subsume most English-language terms for personality-traits, new sets of Big-Five factor markers were investigated. In studies of adjective-anchored bipolar rating scales, a transparent format was found to produce factor markers that were more univocal than the same scales administered in the traditional format. Nonetheless, even the transparent bipolar scales proved less robust as factor markers than did parallel sets of adjectives administered in unipolar format. A set of 100 unipolar terms proved to be highly robust across quite diverse samples of self and peer descriptions. These new markers were compared with previously developed ones based on far larger sets of trait adjectives, as well as with the scales from the NEO and Hogan personality inventories.

4,777 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Lovibond et al. as discussed by the authors examined the factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS; S. H. Lovibond & P. F. Lempitsky, 1995) and the 21-item short form of these measures, and found that the DASS distinguishes well between features of depression, physical arousal, and psychological tension and agitation.
Abstract: The factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS; S. H. Lovibond & P. F. Lovibond, 1995) and the 21-item short form of these measures (DASS-21) were examined in nonclinical volunteers (n = 49) and patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnoses of panic disorder (n = 67), obsessive-compulsive disorder (n = 54), social phobia (n = 74), specific phobia (n = 17), and major depressive disorder (n = 46). This study replicates previous findings indicating that the DASS distinguishes well between features of depression, physical arousal, and psychological tension and agitation and extends these observations to the DASS-21. In addition, the internal consistency and concurrent validity of the DASS and DASS-21 were in the acceptable to excellent ranges. Mean scores for the various groups were similar to those in previous research, and in the expected direction. The implications of these findings are discussed.

3,914 citations

Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
202398
2022198
202163
202095
2019131
201895