The purpose of this study was to develop and test an instrument, the Hope Indicator Questionnaire (HIQ), which was designed to measure the latent variable of hope; and to identify antecedent variables which impact upon hope. A nonexperimental study with four-week test-retest was designed to examine the psychometric properties of the HIQ. Reliability of the HIQ was tested by 4-week stability. Internal consistency reliability was also performed on the HIQA. Validity of the HIQ was examined by content validity, exploratory factor analysis, convergence, and predictive causal model testing. Data were collected and analyzed from 111 subjects who did not have life threatening health problems during their study participation. Sixty (54%) were female, 83 (75%) were religious believers. The majority (66%) were Caucasian. The age ranged from 18 to 79, with the mean age of 38.95 (S.D. = 16.12). Results showed that low stabilities were found in the HIQP and HIQB (.52 and .45). Stability coefficient and internal consistency for the HIQA were .71 and .92. Satisfactory content validity of the HIQA was demonstrated by a three-member panel. The exploratory factor analysis confirmed that a latent factor was extracted from the three scales in the HIQ. Convergent validity was established by satisfactory correlations with the Herth Hope Scale (HHS) (.58) and Beck's Hopelessness Scale (HS) (-.42). The proposed predictive model was partially supported by the study when perceived functional support was measured by a modified Shang's Perceived Functional Support measure. Antecedents for both HIQ and HHS hope were explored. Personal control and perceived functional support were direct antecedents for HIQ hope while HHS hope was directly affected by personal control and chance control. Other variables (i.e. support network, religion and demographics) were indirect antecedents to HIQ and HHS hope through those direct antecedents. Additional analysis was accomplished on comparisons of the HIQ and HHS, and a qualitative content analysis was done on the first five hopes identified by the subjects. In conclusion, the HIQ had low reliability. Possible resources contributing to this low reliability were discussed. Results related to the HIQ measure should be interpreted with caution although the convergence of the HIQ with the HHS and HS was supported.

Increasingly, experts recommend that military primary care clinics consider implementing delivery of care based on models of holistic wellness. Several wellness measurement tools exist, but none of these has been applied to a military primary care clinic. In this study, the psychometric testing of two holistic wellness measurement instruments was carried out for possible use with soldiers in primary care clinics. The instruments tested were the Perceived Wellness Model (Adams, Bezner, & Steinhardt, 1998) and the Optimal Living Profile (Renger et al., 2000). Both instruments appear suitable for use in future studies for measuring wellness in Cadet Soldiers. The measures provided by these instruments provide important data that professionals can use to assist young Soldiers in their multidimensional wellness development.

Thesis (M.Tech.: Human Resources Management)-Dept. of Human Resources Management, Durban University of Technology, 2008. ix, 132 leaves / The research outlines the statement of the problem, motivation for the study and the related legislated requirements for all research in the field of psychological assessment. It will also take a closer look at related issues supporting the background of psychometric testing and present day themes and trends that are becoming prevalent in contemporary practice. There is an in-depth discussion on Personality which is one of the main foundation components of the Discus Behaviour Profiling System which is personality. Points on, ethics, translation, validity, reliability, test construction and cross cultural matters are also discussed. / M

This study aimed to verify the validity evidences of the electronic scale of attitudes towards statistics eSATSportuguês through Rasch model. A sample of 137 Brazilian students, selected for convenience, participated in this study. They were aged 20-55 (M=28.71; DP=7.77), 79.6% female, enrolled in the last semester from graduation courses of a private university in São Paulo state, and had already attended a Statistics subject. The participants answered the 28-item, 7-point Likert-type scale, in computer laboratories. The results indicated a good fit of the items to Rasch model, and the scale’s good psychometric properties, making it a good instrument to measure the construct attitude. The sample’s average attitude towards statistics was more positive rather than negative. / Este estudo objetivou verificar evidências de validade da Escala Informatizada de Atitudes frente à Estatística eSATSportuguês, via modelo de Rasch. Participaram 137 universitários brasileiros, escolhidos por conveniência, com idades de 20 a 55 anos (M=28.71; DP=7.77), 79,6% mulheres, matriculados nos últimos semestres de cursos de graduação de uma universidade particular do interior do estado de São Paulo, que já haviam cursado a disciplina Estatística. Os participantes responderam a escala eSATSportuguês, com 28 itens do tipo Likert de 7 pontos, em laboratórios de informática. Os resultados indicaram bom ajuste dos itens ao modelo de Rasch e boas propriedades psicométricas, podendo ser utilizado para mensurar o construto atitude. A amostra apresentou atitude média mais positiva que negativa em relação à Estatística.

It is still unresolved whether individuals with dyslexia suffer non-verbal auditory processing deficits that may explain their phonological problems. Many studies have shown that dyslexic individuals are poor at discriminating pure tones, and this deficit has been attributed to impaired rapid auditory processing. In order to investigate the temporal properties of auditory processing in dyslexia, I have therefore studied the pure tone discrimination abilities of dyslexics, and then analysed the effects of varying interstimulus interval, the amount of frequency difference, and the effect of adding distractor tones during the interstimulus interval. In an investigation of dyslexic individuals’ ability to remember sequences of tones or digits (tonal and digit recognition memory), Rose and Rosner (2005) found that their results were affected by the education their subjects had received. The university educated dyslexics showed little tone discrimination deficit, whereas the dyslexic participants who never attended university showed greater deficits. Therefore, another aim of this thesis was to further study these findings and to identify any auditory processing compensatory mechanisms used by dyslexics who have received higher education. In eight different auditory tasks, the majority of which I programmed, I found strong evidence of non-verbal auditory processing deficits in dyslexic individuals. The comparison of university and non-university groups showed that educational differences had clear effects on many of their abilities, and should not be underestimated. The results showed that: • In general, dyslexics had poorer auditory frequency discrimination than controls. • Dyslexics who did not attend university had lower performance on almost all the auditory tests than the university dyslexic or control groups. • Unexpectedly, university educated dyslexics were less distracted by interrupting tones during frequency discrimination than university educated controls. • In a tone sequence memory task, the university educated dyslexics compensated in their performance to a level not much below that of the university educated controls, and above the controls who did not go to university. • The frequency recognition tasks positively correlated with literacy abilities, and were independent of general intelligence. The strongest correlations were in the non-university dyslexic group. The implications of these results are that not only do dyslexic individuals suffer from a low level, non-linguistic, auditory processing deficit, but those who do not get to university are less able to compensate for these difficulties. It is impossible to say if the higher performance in university educated dyslexics was due to compensation, or if their presence at university was due to a lack of these deficits in the first place. Nevertheless, since university educated dyslexics were better at resisting distractions this may underlie their ability to compensate. These findings could facilitate the creation of new teaching methods to support the development of dyslexics’ compensatory skills and new non-linguistic diagnostic aids. These would help with identifying dyslexia in second languages and enable earlier testing and identification, before reading failure exerts its inevitable negative effects on children’s self-confidence, happiness and future academic potential.

The overall aims of this thesis were to develop and evaluate a screening instrument designed to detect gaming addiction symptoms in adolescents, to study associations between problematic gaming and psychiatric symptoms, to investigate the stability of problematic gaming, and to examine possible associations between gaming at baseline (W1) with problem gambling three years later (W2). The study population consisted of adolescents from the Survey of Adolescent Life in Västmanland SALVe Cohort (adolescents in Västmanland born in 1997 and 1999, and their parents), in two waves (2012, n = 1887; 2015, n = 1576), and adolescents from child and adolescent psychiatric clinics in Västmanland (2014, n = 242). The development of the Gaming Addiction Identification Test (GAIT) was based upon the research literature on gaming, gambling, and addiction. An expert panel estimated the content validity of the GAIT and found it to be excellent. Additional psychometric evaluations of the GAIT and the parent version, GAIT-P, were conducted and it was found that both versions showed promising psychometric results, with high internal consistency, high concurrent validity, high concordance, unidimensionality, and high factor loadings, although poor model fit in exploratory factor analysis. Self- and parent-rated prevalence of gaming addiction symptoms were estimated at 1.3% with the GAIT and 2.4% with the GAIT-P in 13- and 15-year-olds. Self-rated problematic gaming above the cutoff had a boy to girl ratio of approximately 5:1 in both the SALVe Cohort and the clinical sample, whereas more girls than boys reported symptoms above the cutoff for ADHD, depression, anxiety, and psychotic-like-experiences. ADHD, depression, and anxiety symptoms were associated with odds ratios of 2.43, 2.47, and 2.06, respectively, in relation to coexisting problematic gaming. Furthermore, problematic gaming was stable over time, and problematic gaming at the first wave was associated with problem gambling three years later. It is important to screen for possible co-occurring symptoms among those who seek treatment and among those who appear to have symptoms of gaming, gambling, or psychiatric symptoms. Ongoing evaluation of adequate screening and diagnostic measurements, and the development and evaluation of treatments for problematic gaming, gaming addiction, and comorbid conditions are needed.

Mental health professionals tend to have a clinical perspective that is dependent upon Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV-TR (DSM-IV) criteria for a differential diagnosis. School-based clinicians are bound by regulations governing special education placement established by Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). While both sets of clinicians generate diagnostic recommendations for students, the guidelines and criteria are not of parallel descriptors. AS is only a diagnosis provided for in DSM-IV. Non-verbal learning disability (NVLD) and high functioning autism (HFA) are addressed in both DSM-IV and IDEA. The dilemma presented to clinicians is intertwining the terminology of both fields in order to provide a more concise and meaningful diagnosis for the students who are being served. Although school-based and mental-health clinicians provide services for students, the criteria employed may differ. Essentially, the descriptors that are applied to Asperger's Syndrome (AS) and NVLD are similar and may only differ in the criteria used by different discipline affiliations. Upon review of the literature, there seems to be some question about the different clinical perspectives and diagnosis that may emerge. The criteria used for disability identification is often based upon discipline affiliation. Bashe and Kirby (2000) suggest that psychiatrists may identify students with AS while an education-based organization might suggest a learning disability and yet, a speech and language pathologist might refer to the same set of characteristics as a semantic-pragmatic disorder or an audiologist would refer to a central auditory processing disorder. Furthermore, Bashe and Kirby felt that the "specialist" generally sees and identifies the facet of AS that pertains to their area of expertise. While identification is a critical component of planning intervention, service delivery of both AS and NVLD students are relegated to educators and the school-based program. Therefore, the terminology employed to identify a disability must be applicable to the school setting. The literature often refers to AS in a hyphenated context with HFA. Rather than there being a consistent diagnostic category of AS, AS is often joined with HFA as a means of describing symptoms that transcend characteristics of autism but still have similarities with students classified as having autism. There is also a considerable amount of literature that differentiates the two terms and refers to AS and HFA as two distinct disabilities. Furthermore, there is a great deal of conjecture regarding AS as a type of learning disability. This study will ascertain whether there is agreement between disciplines in diagnosis of AS and NVLD, whether or not there is consistency between and among disciplines regarding the importance of specific characteristics of the two disabilities, and the application of these characteristics when rendering a diagnosis and intervention recommendations. While the results of this study did not demonstrate an interaction between diagnosis and professional discipline affiliation, it did demonstrate that the rate of correct diagnosis for AS was significantly higher than that of NVLD and autism. An alternative conclusion is that AS is overly diagnosed and impacting the rate of correct diagnosis for NVLD and autism. While there was an association between the elements used for clinical diagnosis of both autism and AS, there was a demonstrable correlation of service delivery models for both NVLD and AS and a departure of similarities in service delivery between AS and autism. Implications of these results are discussed in greater detail.

Thesis advisor: June A. Horowitz / Agitation is a distressing set of behaviors frequently observed in emergency department psychiatry patients. Key to developing and evaluating treatment strategies aimed at decreasing and preventing agitation is the availability of a reliable, valid instrument to measure behaviors representative of agitation. Currently, an agitation rating instrument appropriate for use in the emergency setting does not exist and clinicians are left without standard language for communicating about the phenomenon. The Agitation Severity Scale was developed to fill this void using facilitated focus groups to generate an initial item pool. Beginning evidence of content validity was established through a survey of clinical providers and a panel of content experts. The objectives of this methodological study were to: (a) develop an observation-based rating scale to assess the continuum of behaviors known as agitation in adult emergency department patients, and (b) to evaluate the psychometric properties of the newly developed instrument. Psychometric evaluation was conducted using a sample of 270 emergency department psychiatric patients. A 17-item instrument with a standardized Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.91 resulted, providing evidence of a high degree of internal consistency reliability. Principle components analysis revealed a 4-component solution accounting for 69% of observed variance. Internal consistency reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.91 for the scale components. Equivalence reliability was established through the evaluation of Agitation Severity Scores assigned by independent evaluators, <italic> r </italic>= 0.99, &kappa = 0.98. Construct validity was established through comparison of mean scores for subjects in the highest and lowest scoring quartiles. A statistically significant difference in scores was noted when comparing these groups, <italic> t </italic> = -17.688, df = 155, <italic> p </italic> < 0.001. Convergent validity was evaluated by testing the association between Agitation Severity Scores and scores obtained using a well-established instrument, the Overt Agitation Severity Scale. Pearson's correlation coefficient for the associations between the scores ranged from 0.91 to 0.93, indicating a strong, positive relationship between the scores. Finally, the Rasch measurement model was employed to further evaluate the functioning of the instrument. In sum, the Agitation Severity Scale was found to be reliable and valid when used to measure agitation in the emergency setting. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is characterized by upper airway occlusion during sleep, resulting in sleep disturbance, hypoxemia, and daytime sleepiness. This study investigated the neuropsychological (NPSY) functioning, daytime sleepiness and vigilance of 17 male subjects (mean age = 45.2) with moderate to severe OSAS (mean Respiratory Disturbance Index = 65.1). Subjects were assessed before, three days, and two months after treatment with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups. Groups received three assessments consisting of a NPSY test battery, measurement of physiological/subjective sleepiness, and vigilance. After baseline assessment, ten subjects were treated with CPAP for three nights, while seven control subjects remained untreated. Control subjects' data for the second assessment was used to estimate practice and placebo effects. After the second assessment, all subjects were treated. / Results revealed that subjects did not show significant NPSY impairment before treatment despite showing near pathological levels of sleepiness and impaired vigilance. / After three nights of treatment, subjects evidenced significant improvement on only 1 of 18 NPSY measures (visual memory). Correlational analyses revealed an association between decreases in sleep fragmentation after acute treatment and improvement on tasks assessing visual memory, attention and concentration and verbal intellectual functioning. A relationship between improvement in nocturnal oxygen saturation and neuropsychological tests assessing attention and concentration and verbal intellectual functioning was also found. Vigilance and sleepiness were not improved. / At follow-up, only modest improvements in visual and verbal memory were found. Vigilance had returned to normal levels and sleepiness was significantly reduced but had not returned to normal levels. / The present study did not find evidence of significant NPSY dysfunction in OSAS patients before treatment. After correcting for practice effects, little improvement was seen in NPSY function after two months of CPAP treatment. These results highlight the importance of a control group in studies utilizing a repeated neuropsychological testing protocol. Further, it suggests that previous studies may have overestimated the improvement in cognitive functions of OSAS patients after treatment with CPAP. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-12, Section: B, page: 6452. / Major Professor: Jack G. May, Jr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

A group of 30 self-mutilating patients in a large state mental hospital, was compared with a group of 30 nonmutilating patients at the same facility. The participants of the comparison group were matched on the basis of gender, race, and diagnosis, but who had not been identified as self-mutilators. A Multivariate Analysis of Covariance and a two group chi-square analysis were employed to determine if a selected set of variables from the MMPI-2 (Anger, Anxiety, and Depression content scales, and Psychasthenia, Social Introversion, Psychopathic Deviance, Schizophrenia, and Hypomania) could effectively discriminate between the two groups. Neither procedure produced results of statistical significance. The results of the study are discussed in terms of individual differences and the difficulty of establishing a profile with the MMPI-2 predictive of self-mutilative behavior. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: B, page: 3761. / Major Professor: Harman Burck. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.