Owen Scott

A Comparison of Five Criteria for Identifying Fakable Items on an Attitude Inventory.

The fakability of responses to the Attitude Toward Disabled Persons Inventory (ATDP) was investigated through applying two criteria requiring subjects to identify the favorable responses and three using “honest” test - “faked response” retest techniques. Considerable differences were noted among the items indentified as non-fakable by use of the different criteria. Regardless of the criterion applied, less than 25% of the items were identified as not fakable. Serious objections were raised to any method of identifying not-fakable items which uses “honest” test - “faked response” retest techniques. The authors suggest that attitude inventory items should be selected on the basis of criterion-related validity rather than on that of non-fakability.

Biographical Factors Related to Academic Achievement

Biographical factors related to academic achievement in college were identified. Academic achievement in high school was positively related to both grade in educational psychology class and college grade-point average for females and to college grade-point average for males. For women, popularity with the opposite sex was negatively related to college grade-point average. For men, parental warmth was negatively related to college grade-point average. Athletic participation was negatively related to grade in educational psychology for both sexes.

The Construction and Suggested Uses of a Check-List of High School Class Activities

Examination of literature on the analysis of teaching reveals four widely used approaches to the problem: (a) using the responses of trained observers to describe or identify selected aspects of the teaching-learning situation; (b) using the responses of pupils to describe or identify these aspects; (c) using the responses of the teacher himself to identify these aspects; and (d) obtaining evidence of carefully defined aspects of pupil behavior. Each approach has both advantages and disadvantages. From the theoretical standpoint, the fourth approach has advantages over the other three; from the practical standpoint, in the light of present-day knowledge, the fourth approach is extremely difficult to apply, since devices and procedures for measuring important facets of pupil behavior, (e.g., kinds of social and emotional behavior) are either inadequate

Prior Achievement and Life History Factors as Predictors of the Grade Point Averages of High School Seniors.

With stratified samples of average ability and achievement level of male (N = 123) and female (N = 144) high school seniors, the authors used Grade 7 norm percentile ranks on a standardized achievement test battery and 19 Life History factors as predictors of over-all senior high school achievement. The estimated population multiple correlation coefficients were .59 and .56 for males and females, respectively. Suggestions are made for collecting specific items of information in Grade 7 as prognostic of successful high school achievement. Similar results would probably be obtained with atypical students.