Sharon L. Foster

Assessing social validity in clinical treatment research: issues and procedures.

Social validity is a term coined by behavior analysts to refer to the social importance and acceptability of treatment goals, procedures, and outcomes. This article discusses dimensions of social validity, methods used to evaluate various aspects of social validity, and the applicability of these concepts and methods in clinical treatment research.

Validity Issues in Clinical Assessment.

The data investigators should provide to support the validity of inferences they make based on scores from a measure depend on (a) whether the measure is assumed to assess a hypothetical construct or behavior and (b) the purposes for which the measure is intended. The authors distinguish between the representational phase of validity assessment, which establishes that a measure produces scores that reflect the construct or behavior it purports to assess, and the elaborative validity phase, in which the meaning and utility of scores are examined. Key issues relevant to convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity are examined for measures of latent traits or constructs and then for measures of behaviors or response classes.

The Relevance of the Social Information Processing Model for Understanding Relational Aggression in Girls

Two studies examined whether social information-processing variables predict relational aggression in girls. In Study 1, fourth- through sixth-grade girls reported their intent attributions, social goals, outcome expectancies for relational aggression, and the likelihood that they would choose a relationally aggressive response in response to vignettes depicting ambiguous relational provocation situations. In Study 2, girls reported their intent attributions, evaluations of relational aggression, and likelihood of choosing a relationally aggressive response in response to ambiguous relational provocation vignettes. Social-cognitive variables failed to relate significantly to peer nominations of relational aggression in predicted ways in either study, challenging the relevance of the social information-processing model for girls.

Assessing Acceptance and Social Skills with Peers in Childhood: Current Issues

This article reviews current strategies for assessing social skills with peers in childhood, highlighting contemporary unresolved issues in identifying children who need intervention, selecting target behaviors, and assessing treatment outcome. Sociometric measures of peer acceptance are also considered. Although many current measures of social skills have adequate evidence of reliability and convergent validity, assessment could benefit from (a) increased documentation that the content of measures assesses important skills in relating to peers, (b) improved methods for assessing social behavior in specific interpersonal situations, and (c) more empirical evidence that indirect assessment methods (self-report, peer assessment, and teacher report) and analogue observations reflect in vivo behavior.

Exporting analogue behavioral observation from research to clinical practice: Useful or cost-defective?

The special section on analogue behavioral observation (ABO) provided an in-depth review of various ABO assessment procedures. Despite their availability, however, these procedures are rarely used in clinical practice. This may result in part from the traditions on which most ABO assessments are based, from distinctions between clinical and research assessment environments, and from the need for more information about the cost-effectiveness of ABO strategies for meeting specific needs of clinicians in applied settings. Suggestions for bridging the research-clinical gap involve investigating more thoroughly when ABO does and does not provide useful information for various purposes in applied settings and increasing accessibility and cost-effectiveness of ABO procedures for practitioners.

Assessing violent offending in serious juvenile offenders

The convergent validity of the two most frequently used methods for assessing violent offending in juveniles (i.e., selfreports and arrests) was evaluated. Participants were 87 serious juvenile offenders and their maternal figures, primarily from disadvantaged families. Validation measures tapped established behavioral, family, and peer correlates of delinquency. Results failed to support the ability of either arrests for violent crimes or selfreported violent offenses to index violent criminal behavior accurately. Several methodological features of the study support our hypothesis that the findings were not spurious. Procedural and conceptual implications of the findings are discussed.

Practical issues in self-observation.

Using self-observation as a clinical or research tool requires attention to a number of practical concerns. In this article, issues involved in selecting a self-observation method are considered, including determining the dimension of behavior to be observed and choosing a method and recording device for sampling behavior. The literature on training individuals to self-observe, which supports the importance of comprehensive multicomponent training, is surveyed. Also considered are ways of evaluating and improving data quality as the self-observer collects information and of engineering compliance with requests to self-monitor. Future research should (a) systematically examine ways of obtaining high-quality self-observation data and enhancing participant compliance and (b) extend findings of older investigations both to contemporary methods of collecting information and to self-observation of private events.

Validation of a needs‐based biopsychosocial distress instrument for cancer patients

People with cancer may experience distress related to diagnoses, disease‐related symptoms, and treatment side effects. Assessment of cancer‐related needs can facilitate timely triage and intervention and contribute to individualized comprehensive cancer care. This study assessed the internal consistency, test–retest reliability and construct validity of the Cancer Needs Distress Inventory (CaNDI), a self‐report, needs‐based measure of cancer‐related distress.

Therapist behavior as a predictor of black and white caregiver responsiveness in multisystemic therapy.

This study examined whether (a) therapist behaviors thought to enhance family treatment predicted caregiver in-session responses, and (b) caregiver race, racial match between caregiver and therapist, and family financial hardship moderated the relationships between therapist and caregiver behavior. Observers coded caregiver and therapist behavior during one session of multisystemic therapy for substance abusing adolescents. Therapist teaching, focusing on strengths, making reinforcing statements, problem solving, and dealing with practical family needs predicted caregiver engagement and/or positive response, regardless of race, racial match, or financial hardship. Caregiver race, financial hardship, and therapist-caregiver racial match occasionally moderated the relationship between other therapist and caregiver behaviors. Findings suggest both commonalities and differences in how therapist behavior may function to engage caregivers in family treatment, depending on diversity-related factors.

Understanding Behavioral and Emotional Problems in Girls

Historically, girls have evoked images of sweetness and light, purity and beauty. In this fairytale land of youth, girls are angels and princesses, characterized by positive adjustment and certainly not by behavioral or emotional problems. However, as Mae West observed, in reality female children and adolescents are much more complex, with both positive and negative aspects to their development and adjustment. Unfortunately, the complexity has been understudied in the developmental psychopathology literature. Compared to the amount of research attention given to boys’ development and adjustment, girls have been relatively neglected. This lack of attention has obvious negative implications for our ability to understand girls’ development and our efforts to promote optimal development and to remediate problematic development. Recent research on disorders of childhood and adolescence such as conduct disorders (Moffitt, Caspi, Rutter, & Silva, 2001), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Hinshaw, 2002), anxiety disorders