Luiz Pasquali

Validade dos Testes Psicológicos : Será Possível Reencontrar o Caminho?

ABSTRACT – Since the work of Cronbach and Meehl of mid last century, the concept of validity of the tests in Psychology and Education has been loosing its original meaning. Despite the intention of the authors to precisely save this concept, the introduction of the model of the nomological network, conceived within the framework of the logical positivism, was in fact decisive to destroy the concept of validity as originally conceived by Kelly in the 1920s and later on by Cattell. The concept of validity was fi nally completely mischaracterized with the defi nition given by the great psychometrist Samuel Messick in 1989. It seems to be fundamental that this concept is rediscovered in order to save the bases of Psychometry. The present article wil l try to show the confusion that the nomological network model brought to Psychometry and also to try to recuperate the real meaning of validity within the context of the measures in psychosocial sciences, especially in Psychology and Education.

Psychometric Properties of the Brazilian Health Locus of Control Scale

Based on social learning theory, the construct of health locus of control has proven valuable in predicting a wide variety of health-related behaviors. In studying this concept among Brazilians, the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale translated into Brazilian Portuguese were investigated in a sample of 280 middle-class persons. Three types of health locus of control were verified, internal, powerful others, and chance. Further refinement of subscales is needed to improve internal consistency reliabilities.

Effects of Intrauterine Growth and Gestational Age upon Infants' Early Psychomotor Development in Brazil

In a sample of 245 Brazilian infants, the effects of intrauterine growth and gestational age upon psychomotor development were studied through ages 4 to 18 mo. Gestational age was more important than intrauterine growth in determining psychomotor development in the first 18 mo. of life. Intrauterine growth had a significant but smaller and more stable effect than gestational age upon psychomotor development at all ages. Maternal parity, interval between the birth of the child studied and the next oldest sibling, 5-min. Apgar score, and socioeconomic status were also relevant to psychomotor development at these early ages.

Características psicométricas da Relationship Assessment Scale

) e um dos principais testes para avaliar satisfacao no relacionamento. E um teste unifatorial com sete itens. Este estudo teve por objetivo apresentar as propriedades psicometricas da escala no Brasil. O teste foi aplicado em uma amostra de 1.549 participantes de 12 estados brasileiros e do Distrito Federal. A maioria dos dados foi coletada em universidades. Os dados foram analisados de acordo com a Teoria Classica dos Testes e com a Teoria de Resposta ao Item. A estrutura unifatorial e a boa precisao (α=0,85) foram replicadas, e a escala apresentou itens discriminativos (parâmetro

EFFECTS OF BIRTHWEIGHT AND GESTATIONAL AGE UPON GROWTH IN BRAZILIAN INFANTS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

A sample of 262 Brazilian infants of working class families born at the Brazilia Teaching Hospital between April 1975 and November 1978 were followed at 4 8 12 and 18 month intervals to determine the effects of intrauterine growth and gestational age upon weight height and head circumference. Intrauterine growth was calculated from the womans last menstrual period. Infants were considered born at term if their gestational age was 37 weeks. They were classified into term premature-appropriate-for-dates and small-for-dates categories. Parents were asked questions about income educational level occupation type of dwelling home ownership. This data was used as a covariate. At 4 months all infants differed sharply in weight height and head circumference. At 8 months premature-appropriate-for-dates surpassed the term group in weight. At 18 months intrauterine growth continued to be more important than gestational age to the prediction of weight. In terms of height at 4 months gestational age is more important than intrauterine growth but at approximately 15 months the small-for-dates begin to surpass the term infants. At 4 months the premature appropriate for dates had smaller head sizes than children born at term but at 18 months they surpassed the term group in head circumference. After 4 months maternal height and economic status have a bearing on both the childs height and head circumference. It is concluded that intrauterine growth based upon birthweight for gestational age is predictive of weight height and head circumference up to 18 months.

Construção de um teste objetivo de resistência à frustração

O presente estudo teve como objetivo construir um instrumento de formato objetivo, com base no teste projetivo Picture Frustration Study (PFT) de Rosenzweig, denominado Teste Objetivo de Resistencia a Frustracao - TORF. Este estudo foi realizado com uma amostra de 555 estudantes universitarios de instituicoes universitarias de Brasilia, a partir da aplicacao coletiva de um instrumento. A aplicacao foi realizada por psicologos e alunos treinados. As respostas dos sujeitos foram analisadas quanto a ocorrencia de cada alternativa. Alguns criterios foram tracados para a escolha do item que compos a versao final do instrumento. Apesar de nao haver indicios na literatura brasileira de uma proposta como esta, este estudo sugere um instrumento promissor a ser trabalhado para uso futuro em selecao de pessoal.

IS MOTOR DEVELOPMENT REALLY MORE ADVANCED IN THIRD WORLD INFANTS

Motor and adaptive development were studied longitudinally at 4, 8, 12, and 18 mo. in Brazilian infants of low and middle socioeconomic status. No significant differences were found between these two groups. Gesell Developmental Quotients were similar to those found in American infants, which did not confirm precocious motor development in Brazilian infants.

Appearance of Visually Directed Prehension Related to Gestational Age and Intrauterine Growth

Summary In a sample of 227 infants the age of the appearance of visually directed prehension was found to be largely a function of gestational age and intrauterine growth mediated in part by rate of postnatal growth. Sex was an irrelevant variable.

Explaining Fertility in Urban-Dwelling Brazilian Women: Importance of Traditional Sex-Role Attitudes and Religious Orthodoxy

Path analysis was used to study the determinants of fertility in 221 urban-dwelling Brazilian women. Traditional sex-role attitudes and religious orthodoxy directly and positively affected family size. Religious orthodoxy also indirectly influenced fertility via its positive influence on traditional sex-role attitudes. Socioeconomic group affected fertility only by way of association with attitudes and beliefs. Contrary to expectation, participation in the labor force had no effect on the number of children women bore. Analysis within socioeconomic groups showed that determinants of fertility vary for women in different stages of cultural development.