The Classroom Practice Inventory (CPI) was developed as a tool to provide descriptive information about the practices used in classrooms to address the developmental needs of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Data from a multi-site study examining the outcomes for preschool students with ASD served in three types of classroom models indicate that the CPI produces reliable and valid assessments of practices used in classrooms. Items on the CPI can be used to discriminate among classroom models and can be used to provide descriptive information about classrooms following a prescribed comprehensive treatment model as well as those providing an eclectic model of services. Implications for the future use of the CPI are discussed.

Excerpt: The recent study by Floden, Lennerling, Fridh, Rizell and Forsberg [1] concluded that using the Attitude Towards Organ Donor Advocacy Scale (ATODAS) is ready for use in future research studies because it has good psychometric properties for measuring ICU nurses’ attitudes towards advocacy on behalf of potential and actual organ donors. However, that conclusion is not supported by the data in the study because of lack of evidence of measurement validity

Thesis advisor: Dorothy A. Jones / In Taiwan, the ability to measure the changing of health care reform and the improvement in nursing practice environment is hindered by the lack of a valid, reliable, and culture-sensitive instrument for measuring nursing practice environment. The purposes of this two-phase study were to translate and psychometrically validate the Chinese versions of the PPE Scale (CPPE). Phase I focused on translating and adapting the 38-item PPE into CPPE and evaluating the semantic and content equivalency. Semantic equivalence of the CPPE was secured using Translation Validity Indices as judged by American and bilingual experts. The content equivalence of the CPPE was supported by the satisfactory Content validity Indices. To increase the cultural sensitivity and comprehensiveness of the CPPE, 27 items were added at the suggestion of Taiwanese experts following content validation. A 66-item CPPE including 38 PPE items, 1 adapted item and 27 new items was produced for psychometric evaluation. Phase II focused on establishing the psychometric properties of the CPPE. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to test the 66-item CPPE on 977 Taiwanese nurses working in acute care settings. PCA with Varimax rotation on the 38 PPE items produced an eight-component solution for the 36-item CPPE after deleting two items. Cronbach's alpha was .90 for the total 36-item CPPE and .68 - .87 for the eight subscales. PCA with Varimax rotation on 66 items of the CPPE produced an eleven-component solution for the 58-item CPPE after deleting 8 items. Cronbach's alpha was .95 for the total 58-item CPPE and .71 - .87 for the eleven subscales. Both the 36-item CPPE and the 58-item CPPE demonstrated satisfactory test-retest reliability and concurrent validity. The psychometric structures of the 36-item CPPE and the 58-item CPPE were different from the original PPE. Both the 36-item CPPE and the 58-item CPPE were reliable and valid, but the 58-item CPPE is culturally sensitive to the Taiwanese nurses. The 58-item CPPE is useful for measuring Taiwanese nursing practice environment. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Connell School of Nursing. / Discipline: Nursing.

<p>It has been suggested that persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) manifest the full range of mental health problems. The main purpose of this thesis is to adapt and evaluate two clinical assessment instruments and to investigate the occurrence of mental health problems as well as psychiatric care utilisation in persons with ID. </p><p>The psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the two instruments [Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behaviour (RSMB) and the Psychopathology Inventory for Mentally Retarded Adults (PIMRA)] were investigated in a random, institutional and clinical sample of administratively defined (ADDEF) adults with ID (n = 199). The analyses suggest that the RSMB could be used as intended by staff as a primary screening device for the identification of mental health problems in persons with ID, and that the PIMRA had a potential to identify individuals with a specific mental disorder. The psychometric evaluation reveals that the Swedish versions of the RSMB and PIMRA measure a construct related to the diagnostic categories in the DSM-III-R and DSM-IV. This construct could be conceptualised as mental health problems.</p><p>The RSMB and PIMRA results show that the overall occurrence of mental health problems in ADDEF samples of persons with ID (175 men and 148 women) ranged from 34 to 64%.</p><p>The preliminary level of ID was mild (23%), moderate (39%) and severe (38%). The most common mental health problems were aggressive and self-injurious behaviours, depression, anxiety and adjustment disorders. In registered patients receiving out- or in-patient psychiatric care the occurrence of adults with an ICD-10 diagnosis of ID was approximately 1% (70 to 90% had a mild level of ID). </p><p>In contrast to the high frequency of mental health problems reported, psychiatric care was used infrequently. This tendency is particularly evident in persons with moderate and severe ID.</p>

Aims: The overall aim of this thesis was to explore and describe radiographers‟ professional competence based on patients‟ and radiographers‟ experiences and to develop a context-specific instrument to assess the level and frequency of use of radiographers‟ professional competence. Methods: The design was inductive and deductive. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. The data collection methods comprised interviews (Studies I-II) and questionnaires (Studies III-IV). The subjects were patients in study I and radiographers in studies II-IV. In study I, 17 patients were interviewed about their experiences of the encounter during radiographic examinations and treatment. The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. In study II, 14 radiographers were interviewed to identify radiographers‟ areas of competence. The critical incident technique was chosen to analyse the interviews. Studies III and IV were based on a national cross-sectional survey of 406 randomly selected radiographers. Study III consisted of two phases; designing the Radiographer Competence Scale (RCS) and evaluation of its psychometric properties. A 42-item questionnaire was developed and validated by a pilot test (n=16) resulting in the addition of 12 items. Thus the final RCS comprised a 54-item questionnaire, which after psychometric tests was reduced to 28 items. In study IV, the 28-item questionnaire served as data. The level of competencies was rated on a 10-point scale, while their use was rated on a six-point scale. Results: In study I, the female patients‟ comprehensive understanding was expressed as feelings of vulnerability. The encounters were described as empowering, empathetic, mechanical and neglectful, depending on the radiographers‟ skills and attitudes. Study II revealed two main areas of professional competence, direct patient-related and indirect patient-related. The first focused on competencies in the care provided in close proximity to the patient and the second on competencies used in the activities of the surrounding environment. Each of the two main areas was divided into four categories and 31 sub-categories that either facilitated or hindered good nursing care. In study III the analysis condensed the 54-item questionnaire in two steps, firstly by removing 12 items and secondly a further 14 items, resulting in the final 28-item RCS questionnaire. Several factor analyses were performed and a two factor-solution emerged, labelled; “Nurse initiated care” and “Technical and radiographic processes”. The psychometric tests had good construct validity and homogeneity. The result of study IV demonstrated that most competencies in the RCS received high ratings both in terms of level and frequency of use. Competencies e.g. „Adequately informing the patient‟, „Adapting the examination to the patient‟s prerequisites and needs‟ and „Producing accurate and correct images‟ were rated the highest while „Identifying and encountering the patient in a state of shock‟ and „Participating in quality improvement regarding patient safety and care‟ received the lowest ratings. The total score of each of the two dimensions had a low but significant correlation with age and years in present position. The competence level correlated with age and years in present position in both dimensions but not with the use of competencies in the “Nurse initiated care” dimension. Conclusion: This thesis has shown that professional competence is important in the encounter between patient and radiographer. It has also demonstrated that radiographers‟ self-rated professional competence is based on nursing, technological and radiographic knowledge. From a radiographer‟s perspective, „Nurse initiated care‟ and „Technical and Radiographic processes‟ are two core dimensions of Radiographer Competence Scale. The 28-item questionnaire regarding level and frequency of use of competence is feasible to use to measure radiographers‟ professional competence.

It has been suggested that persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) manifest the full range of mental health problems. The main purpose of this thesis is to adapt and evaluate two clinical assessment instruments and to investigate the occurrence of mental health problems as well as psychiatric care utilisation in persons with ID. The psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the two instruments [Reiss Screen for Maladaptive Behaviour (RSMB) and the Psychopathology Inventory for Mentally Retarded Adults (PIMRA)] were investigated in a random, institutional and clinical sample of administratively defined (ADDEF) adults with ID (n = 199). The analyses suggest that the RSMB could be used as intended by staff as a primary screening device for the identification of mental health problems in persons with ID, and that the PIMRA had a potential to identify individuals with a specific mental disorder. The psychometric evaluation reveals that the Swedish versions of the RSMB and PIMRA measure a construct related to the diagnostic categories in the DSM-III-R and DSM-IV. This construct could be conceptualised as mental health problems. The RSMB and PIMRA results show that the overall occurrence of mental health problems in ADDEF samples of persons with ID (175 men and 148 women) ranged from 34 to 64%. The preliminary level of ID was mild (23%), moderate (39%) and severe (38%). The most common mental health problems were aggressive and self-injurious behaviours, depression, anxiety and adjustment disorders. In registered patients receiving out- or in-patient psychiatric care the occurrence of adults with an ICD-10 diagnosis of ID was approximately 1% (70 to 90% had a mild level of ID). In contrast to the high frequency of mental health problems reported, psychiatric care was used infrequently. This tendency is particularly evident in persons with moderate and severe ID.

This study aims to investigate cognitive response styles to positive affect. A Swedish version of the Responses to Positive Affect questionnaire (RPA) was psychometrically evaluated and experimentally tested as participants were mood induced. The 3-factor model for the RPA questionnaire (Self-focused positive rumination, Emotion-focused positive rumination and Dampening) was replicated, and the RPA was further explored through analyses of convergent and incremental validity. The experimental results revealed that the two positive rumination subscales had a strong relationship with each other and current positive affect. However, none of the RPA subscales functioned as moderators in the relationship between cognitive response style and participants’ mood reactivity.

Business leaders are increasingly coming to recognise that there is more to business success than technical and cognitive competence. Personnel leadership is proving to be critical for business bottom-line achievements considering that most business outcomes are achieved through human capital. Emotional intelligence can be used to the advantage of organisations by developing an emotional intelligence audit. The objective of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS) developed by Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden and Dornheim (1998) for Economic Science students from a higher education institution in the North-West Province, South Africa. The psychometric soundness of the SEIS was tested. The general objective of the research is to standardise a psychometric instrument of emotional intelligence and determine the validity of The Schutte Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (SEIS) (Schutte, et al., 1998). Specific objectives include the conceptualisation of the importance of a standardised psychometric instrument of emotional intelligence in South Africa; the conceptualisation of the nature and evolvement of emotional intelligence measurements in general; determining the validity and internal consistency of the SEIS; and establishing whether any possible group differences in terms of biographical data exist in emotional intelligence. A valid and reliable measure of emotional intelligence could be valuable in the organisation to identify specific EI needs that could be developed through the implementation of EI development programmes. In this context a standardised psychometric instrument of EI could be of use in organisations during the training and development of employees. A cross-sectional method with an availability sample (N = 341) from Economical Science students from a higher education institution was used. The results supported a six-factor model of emotional intelligence, consisting of Positive Affect, Emotion-Others, Happy Emotions, Emotions-Own, Non-verbal Emotions and Emotional Management. The multi-analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine differences in terms of biographical data. The results indicated significant differences between gender and language groups. African language groups compared with Afrikaans and English language groups experienced higher levels of positive affect. Females compared with males experienced higher levels of understanding of the emotions of other people. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Business leaders are increasingly coming to recognise that there is more to business success than technical and cognitive competence. Personnel leadership is proving to be critical for business bottom-line achievements considering that most business outcomes are achieved through human capital. Emotional intelligence can be used to the advantage of organisations by developing an emotional intelligence audit. The objective of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Emotional Intelligence Scale (SEIS) developed by Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper, Golden and Dornheim (1998) for Economic Science students from a higher education institution in the North-West Province, South Africa. The psychometric soundness of the SEIS was tested. The general objective of the research is to standardise a psychometric instrument of emotional intelligence and determine the validity of The Schutte Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (SEIS) (Schutte, et al., 1998). Specific objectives include the conceptualisation of the importance of a standardised psychometric instrument of emotional intelligence in South Africa; the conceptualisation of the nature and evolvement of emotional intelligence measurements in general; determining the validity and internal consistency of the SEIS; and establishing whether any possible group differences in terms of biographical data exist in emotional intelligence. A valid and reliable measure of emotional intelligence could be valuable in the organisation to identify specific EI needs that could be developed through the implementation of EI development programmes. In this context a standardised psychometric instrument of EI could be of use in organisations during the training and development of employees. A cross-sectional method with an availability sample (N = 341) from Economical Science students from a higher education institution was used. The results supported a six-factor model of emotional intelligence, consisting of Positive Affect, Emotion-Others, Happy Emotions, Emotions-Own, Non-verbal Emotions and Emotional Management. The multi-analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine differences in terms of biographical data. The results indicated significant differences between gender and language groups. African language groups compared with Afrikaans and English language groups experienced higher levels of positive affect. Females compared with males experienced higher levels of understanding of the emotions of other people. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

The recent shift to a culture of competence has permeated several areas of professional psychology, including competency identification, competency-based education training, and competency assessment. A competency framework has also been applied to various programs and specialty areas within psychology, such as clinical, counseling, clinical health, school, cultural diversity, neuro-, gero-, child, and pediatric psychology. Despite the spread of competency focus throughout psychology, few standardized measures of competency assessment have been developed. To the authors' knowledge, only four published studies on measures of competency assessment in psychology currently exist. While these measures demonstrate significant steps in progressing the assessment of confidence, three of these measures were designed for use with individual programs, two of these international (i.e., UK and Taiwan). The current study applied the seminal Competency Benchmarks, via a recently adapted benchmarks form (i.e., Practicum Evaluation form; PEF), to practicum students at the University of North Texas. In addition to traditional supervisor ratings, the present study also involved self-, peer supervisor, and peer supervisee ratings to provide 360-degree evaluations. Item-response theory (IRT) was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the PEF and inform potential revisions of this form. Supervisor ratings of competency were found to fit the Rasch model specified, lending support to use of the benchmarks framework as assessed by this form. Self- and peer-ratings were significantly correlated with supervisor ratings, indicating that there may be some utility to 360-degree evaluations. Finally, as predicted, foundational competencies were rated as significantly higher than functional competencies, and competencies improved significantly with training. Results of the current study provide clarity about the utility of the PEF and inform our understanding of practicum-level competencies.