W. Scott Gehman

A Study of Ability to Fake Scores on the Strong Vocational Interest Blank for Men

USERS of interest inventories are commonly concerned about the question of transparency of test item intent in the measurement of interests. Durnall (2), tor example, investigated the Kuder Preference Record with classes in personnel management and determined that they were able to simulate closely the interest pattern of accountant-auditors. Strong (4) has recognized the possibility of deliberate falsification of responses to his scales in a study of 34 engineering and business students who showed ability to elevate their scores in engineering when instructed to do so. Benton and Kornhauser (i) in a study with 34 undergraduate college students showed that the medical interest grade on the Strong test is quite susceptible to &dquo;score faking.&dquo; Longstaff (3) has shown that faking is possible to some extent on both the Kuder and the strong interest inventories. He also concluded that the Strong is easier to fake upward (presence of an interest) and that the Kuder is easier to fake downward. The present study was designed to determine how effectively

Stability of Engineering Interests Over a Period of Four Years

THE Kuder Preference Record Occupational-Form D (Kuder, 1956a), (KPRO), which was published by Science Research Associates in 1956, is an inventory composed of 100 items from which separate scores for specific occupations are derived. The development and use of this instrument is described in the Manual (Kuder, 1956a) and Research Handbook (Kuder, 1959b). The inventory yields scores for specific occupations which can be used in a manner similar to that in which scores from the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (Strong, 1943a), (SVIB), can be used. Both the Strong SVIB and the Kuder KPRO interest inventories can be used by counselors in high schools and colleges in helping students establish a developmental counseling program by providing them with information relating to occupations within which their measured interests lie, and/or by confirming specific occupational choices so that appropriate curricular choices can be made. Gehman and Southern (1956) reported on the application of the Electrical Engineering Scale of the Kuder Preference Record Occupational-Form D for Counseling College Students. Their study, which was conducted with freshmen engineering students at Duke University, suggests that the Electrical Engineering Occupational Scale of the KPRO should be useful in counseling college freshmen. Gehman (1959) conducted a Validity Generalization and Crossvalidation of the Kuder Electrical Engineering Scale for Counseling College Students. He found that mean scores on the Electrical

The Interaction of Learning, Personality Traits, Ability, and Environment: a Preliminary Study

new approaches are generated. The purpose of this study is to apply the moderator variable design in an investigation of the interaction of learning, a personality trait, ability, and environment. In a review of the literature covering the period from 1948 to 1957, Fishman commented that It would hardly seem too much of an exaggeration to say that nearly every investigator of higher education has done a study predicting college achievement or adjustment. It also seems that every investigator has done only one such study. (Fishman, 1962, pp. 668-69.)

Validity Generalization and Cross-Validation of the Kuder Electrical Engineering Scale for Counseling College Students

Electrical Engineering Scale of the Kuder Preference RecordOccupational, Form D (2, 3). The validity generalization aspect of this research is concerned with degrees of similarity or difference among Kuder’s (3) normative populations (Criterion, Cross-Validation and &dquo;men in general&dquo;) and groups of freshmen and senior engineering students. The cross-validation aspect of this study is accomplished by a comparison of different groups (C.E., E.E., M.E.) of freshmen and senior engineering students and a group of fresh-

Effects of Positive Suggestions on Mood States

The experiment assessed the effects of a set of positive suggestions on mood states. Each of 63 undergraduate volunteers (32 males, 31 females) who completed the experiment was paid

Tension in Freshmen and Senior Engineering Students

20.00. Subjects were assigned randomly to a Treatment Group or a no-treatment Control Group. Treatment Group subjects listened to the same set of positive suggestions in each of four treatment sessions scheduled over a 2-week period. The Profile of Mood states (POMS) was used to measure six mood states (dependent variables). Hypotheses were tested (p < .01) by a multivariate analysis of variance of posttest POMS scores. There was no evidence of significant change in the mood states of subjects following the administration of a set of positive suggestions. Clinicians need to identify other psychotherapeutic techniques which may have escaped empirical scrutiny over the years.

Problems of college sophomores with serious scholastic difficulties.

ACCORDING to the Taylor-Spence (1952) hypothesis, anxiety is said to facilitate performance when the performance task is a simple one and to inhibit performance when the performance task is complex. In accordance with this hypothesis, Katzenmeyer (1958) and Spielberger and Katzenmeyer (1959) have concluded that anxiety tends to interfere with academic performance, and Sarason (1957) found significant negative correlations between test anxiety and academic grade average. On the other hand, Sarason (1957) also found significant positive correlations between general anxiety and academic grade average, and Suinn (1964) found that anxiety level as measured by the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (Taylor, 1953) is less predictive of academic performance than anxietycoping ability. If a conclusion can be drawn from the previously cited studies, it is that much more research is needed before any definite statements can be made about anxiety and its effects on academic performance. Sanford (1962) has been concerned with anxiety in college students and has concluded that the root of anxiety among college students is found in a conflict between impulse, conscience, and ego. According to Sanford’s (1962) hypothesis, this conflict typically manifests itself among college students in the authoritarian per-