Assessment of disordered thinking in children and adolescents: the rorschach perceptual-thinking index.

The new Rorschach Perceptual-Thinking Index (PTI; Exner, 2000a, 2000b) was designed to assess thought disorders more accurately than the Schizophrenia Index (SCZI; Exner, 1993). Using a sample of child and adolescent inpatients, we examined the relation of Rorschach variables (PTI, SCZI, M-, and X- %) to thought disorder indexes on a behavior rating scale (Behavior Assessment System for Children; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1992) and a self-report measure (Personality Inventory for Youth; Lachar & Gruber, 1995). Results indicate that, when used in a categorical manner, the PTI differentiated between those patients with and without elevated thought disorder scores on the other measures. Of all Rorschach variables, M- was most related to the other measures, indicating that this variable may be a particularly robust indicator of thought disorder among children and adolescents.

Does the rose still smell as sweet? Item variability across test forms and revisions.

This article examines item stability when the same item appears in different contexts. The 1st section considers the assumptions in classical test theory and item response theory concerning the relationship between the item and the trait it is presumed to measure. The 2nd section presents contextualist challenges to the measurement theory assumptions about item properties and shows the instability of item characteristics across different testing contexts. The 3rd section describes methods for checking the relationship between items and traits. Classical test methods, item response methods, and structural equation methods for assessing item stability are reviewed. The instability of item characteristics across contexts should caution researchers to assess, and not assume, that items operate the same way on different test versions. Item instability also indicates the need for a more detailed understanding of the psychological processes that occur between item and answer.

Measurement-induced improvement in anxiety: mean shifts with repeated assessment.

Some personality test scores improve on retest. Three studies investigated the role of meaning change in producing this phenomenon. In Study 1 multiple versions of a Manifest Anxiety Scale were administered, with counterbalanced item orders. It was found that measurement-induced improvement (a) occurred within a test as well as between test and retest, (b) was unaffected by participants' anxiety scores, and (c) occurred even when the retest contained different items than the first test. Studies 2 and 3 found that as respondents experience more of a test, they are better able to discern its meaning and to use that meaning to interpret an item. These findings indicate that mean shifts in answers from test to retest also occur within a test along with context-induced shifts in meaning.

Reliability shifts in measurement reactivity: driven by content engagement or self-engagement?

Self-report measures require respondents to comprehend the inquiry and then engage the self. Two studies investigated how these 2 processes affect the answers produced. In Study 1,480 participants completed a locus-of-control scale describing themselves, their best friend, or Bill Cosby. Item answers became more reliable as the items moved from the beginning to the end of the measure. The similar increase for self, friend, and Cosby suggested that exposure to the content, rather than self-engagement, was driving the reliability shift. Self-engagement did activate an actor-observer difference in scale means. Study 2 focused on the content engagement process. With more item experience, respondents were better able to distinguish that prototypic items belonged to the locus-of-control scale and that distractor items did not. These studies imply that early questions clarify the meaning of a measure and improve the reliability of later answers.

Personal space invasions in the lavatory: suggestive evidence for arousal.

The hypothesis that personal space invasions produce arousal was investigated in a field experiment. A men's lavatory provided a setting where norms for privacy were salient, where personal space invasions could occur in the case of men urinating, where the opportunity for compensatory responses to invasion were minimal, and where proximity-induced arousal could be measured. Research on micturation indicates that social stressors inhibit relaxation of the external urethral sphincter, which would delay the onset of micturation, and that they increase intravesical pressure, which would shorten the duration of micturation once begun. Sixty lavatory users were randomly assigned to one of three levels of interpersonal distance and their micturation times were recorded. In a three-urinal lavatory, a confederate stood immediately adjacent to a subject, one urinal removed, or was absent. Paralleling the results of a correlational pilot study, close interpersonal distances increased the delay of onset and decreased the persistence of micturation. These findings provide objective evidence that personal space invasions produce physiological changes associated with arousal.