Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating Recommendations Versus Utilization Of Essential Components Of A Functional Analysis Procedure, Alissa Conway

Dissertations

Functional behavior assessment (FBA) has been identified as an essential process for behavior analytic practitioners to identify the variables maintaining challenging behaviors (BACB Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts (PECC), 3.01ab, 2014). FBAs include a range of strategies, including indirect measures (e.g., interviews and questionnaires) and direct measures of behavior (descriptive and experimental strategies). Functional analysis (FA) is typically considered the most sophisticated of the options subsumed under FBAs in that it involves both direct measures of behavior and experimental manipulation of hypothesized controlling variables to identify controlling variables for challenging behaviors. The results of FAs allow practitioners …

Are We Safe Yet? Re-Evaluation Of The Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Safety (Pdc-Safety), Nelmar Jacinto Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the utility of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist- Safety (PDC-Safety) (Martinez-Onstott, Wilder, & Sigurdsson, 2016) by comparing the effectiveness of a PDC-Safety indicated intervention with a PDC-Safety nonindicated intervention. The interventions targeted participants’ hand washing behavior at a clinic serving children with intellectual disabilities. Failure to wash hands at appropriate times could pose health risks to both behavior technicians and clients, so efforts should be made to increase the likelihood of hand washing. The results of the PDC-Safety suggested that the antecedents and information domain was most problematic. First, a non-indicated intervention, which included access to additional materials …

An Examination Of The Properties, Uses And Interpretations Of First Grade Reading Screening Tools In One School District, Amadee Meyer

Doctoral Dissertations

Early identification of children who are likely to struggle to achieve reading proficiency is essential to providing them timely access to effective interventions. Thus, universal screening is a critical feature of preventative service delivery models that identify students at risk and provide early support for reading difficulties. As schools choose assessment tools for this purpose, three aspects of universal screening tools are especially important to consider: appropriateness for the intended use, technical adequacy, and usability. Using these standards for assessment review, this study investigated two screening tools commonly used to identify first-graders at risk for reading failure: the Aimsweb Tests …

Culturally Responsive Interviewing Practices, Michael Hass, Annmary S. Abdou

Education Faculty Articles and Research

As communities and school populations continue to become more culturally, economically, and linguistically diverse, the need for comprehensive training and explicit guidelines for culturally responsive school mental health practices also grows. School Psychologists are both expected and ethically responsible to competently assess and serve diverse student and family populations, regardless of potential language or cultural barriers. The current article is focused on describing background and rationale for culturally responsive interviewing practices as they pertain to the roles and responsibilities of School Psychologists. Building on the guidelines and principles of the Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI), developed by the American Psychiatric Association, …

The Athletes' Relationships With Training Scale (Art): A Self-Report Measure Of Unhealthy Training Behaviors Associated With Eating Disorders, D. A. N. Chapa, K. E. Hagan, K. T. Forbush, V. L. Perko, D. A. Sorokina, A. Y. Alasmar, Carolyn Black Becker, R. T. Sherman, R. A. Thompson, J, G. Farrell, T. M. Stewart

Psychology Faculty Research

Objective: Several studies indicate that eating-disorder (ED) psychopathology is elevated in athletes compared to non-athletes. The assessment of excessive exercise among athletes is a challenge because, compared to non-athletes, athletes are required to train at higher intensities and for longer periods of time. However, individuals participating in competitive sports are still susceptible to unhealthy physical-activity patterns. Most ED assessments were developed and normed in non-athlete samples and, therefore, do not capture the nuances of athletes' training experiences. The purpose of the current study was to develop and validate a clinically useful, self-report measure of unhealthy training behaviors and beliefs in …

A Parametric Analysis Of Choice Under Risk, David W. Sottile

Masters Theses

Accurate assessment of risk propensity is important because risky choices underlie a broad range of behavioral problems. The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) is an assessment that measures propensity to engage in risky choice. While this is a useful assessment, the BART changes two variables that affect risky choice simultaneously, probability of an undesirable outcome and stake size, which cannot be separated within the context of the BART. The goal of this study was to evaluate the separate and combined effects of key factors that are likely to risky choice (Magnitude of payoff, probability of an undesirable outcome, and stake …

The Benefits Of Adding A Brief Measure Of Simple Reaction Time To The Assessment Of Executive Function Skills In Early Childhood, Michael T. Willoughby, Clancy B. Blair, Laura J. Kuhn, Brooke E. Magnus

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Early childhood represents a period of rapid cognitive developmental change in executive function (EF) skills along with a variety of related cognitive processes, including processing speed. This leads to interpretational challenges in that children’s performance on EF tasks reflects more than EF skills per se. We tested whether the inclusion of a brief measure of simple reaction time (SRT) during EF assessments could help to partially address this challenge. Data were drawn from a cross-sectional convenience sample of 830 preschool-aged children. Individual differences in SRT were significantly associated with performance on all tasks (R²s = .09–.26); slower …

Beyond Motivation: Differences In Score Meaning Between Assessment Conditions, Nikole Gregg

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Written communication is a skill necessary for not only the success of undergraduate students, but for post-graduates in the workplace. Furthermore, according to employers the writing skills of post-graduates tend to be below expectations. Therefore, the assessment of such skills within higher education is in high demand. Written communication assessments tend to be administered in one of two conditions: 1) course embedded and 2) a low-stakes, non-embedded condition. The current study investigated possible construct-irrelevant variance in writing assessment scores by using data from a mid-sized public university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Specifically, 157 student products were …

The School Psychologist’S Role In The Problem Solving Process: How Assessment Can Inform Intervention, Rachel Larkin

Educational Specialist, 2009-2019

This study serves as an investigation into the role of school psychologists within the problem solving process, intervention selection, and the role assessment in guiding intervention selection. School psychologists have many different roles that they can carry out and the roles of assessment and intervention tend to be the two largest. Assessments are designed for clinical decision-making and interventions are designed to target the specific needs of a student. As problem solvers and decision makers, it would make sense to use the tools that school psychologists have, including assessment and intervention, in combination in order to help students succeed. The …

Differences In The Type And Sequence Order Of Self-Defense Behaviors During A High-Risk Victimization Scenario: Impact Of Prior Sexual Victimization, Raeann E. Anderson, Shawn P. Cahill, Douglas L. Delahanty

Psychology Faculty Publications

Objective: During a potential sexual assault experience, an active, assertive behavioral response to threat (BRTT) can be protective while a non-assertive BRTT may increase risk. However, little is known about how the sequence of behaviors that a woman engages in during a threatening situation may be related to sexual victimization. The present study investigated the style and sequence of behaviors in college women’s behavioral response to threat using a lab-based date rape self-defense scenario.

Method: 135 college women (113 with a history of sexual victimization) completed a lab-based self-defense scenario in which the threat stimuli and situational context were standardized. …

Special Issue - Call For Papers: Applications Of Judgment And Decision Making To Problems In Personnel Assessment, Edgar E. Kausel, Alexander T. Jackson

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

No abstract provided.

Creating Test Score Bands For Assessments Involving Ratings Using A Generalizability Theory Approach To Reliability Estimation, Charles Scherbaum, Marcus Dickson, Elliott Larson, Brian Bellenger, Kenneth Yusko, Harold Goldstein

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

The selection of a method for estimating the reliability of ratings has considerable implications for the use of assessments in personnel selection. In particular, the accuracy of corrections to validity coefficients for unreliability and test score bands are completely dependent on the correct estimation of the reliability. In this paper, we discuss how generalizability theory can be used to estimate reliability for test score bands with assessments involving ratings. Using selection data from a municipal entity, we demonstrate the use of generalizability theory-based compare the implications of its use in test score banding compared to the traditional approach.

Assessment For Mild Cognitive Impairment: Striving For Best Practice, Julie Leigh Dalmasso

Dissertations

This dissertation is a series of three studies aimed at determining the best assessment practices for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) that can employed by speech-language pathologists (SLPs). The first study was non-experimental and descriptive examining whether three commonly used assessment instruments yielded similar categorical results. The data were analyzed to determine whether the Eight-Item Interview to Differentiate Aging and Dementia (AD8), the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Cognitive-Linguistic Quick Test (CLQT) identified the same participants from a neurotypical sample as having cognitive deficits. Very little agreement was found amongst the three tools.

Study two was modified to include two …

Optimizing The Validity Of Situational Judgment Tests: The Importance Of Scoring Methods, Qingxiong Weng, Hui Yang, Filip Lievens, Michael A. Mcdaniel

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In recent years, situational judgment tests (SJTs) have made strong inroads in assessment practices. Despite the importance of scoring for the validity of SJTs, little attention has been paid to different SJT scoring methods. This study investigated the influence of scoring methods on the criterion-related validity of SJTs. We examined five different consensus scoring methods (i.e., raw, standardized, dichotomous, mode, and proportion scoring) and several integrated scoring methods for scoring the same SJT. Results showed that one of the most popular scoring approaches (raw consensus scoring) is associated with an extreme response tendency and yields the lowest scale validity of …

The Concurrent Validity Of The Learning Component Of The Missouri Ability Scale, Nicholas Johnson

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The present study was designed to determine the concurrent validity of the Missouri Ability Scale (MAS), a new measure of independent functioning and learning currently in development. The MAS consists of 10 subtests and is designed to be administered to the examinee and an informant. Fifty individuals (M = 13.1 years; SD = 5.8 years) were administered the MAS and a cognitive abilities test (i.e. WISC-V, KABC-II, WJ-IV). Overall, the Spearman correlations between the MAS learning component and the measures of intellectual ability were moderate-to-strong, indicating good validity. Consistent with the hypotheses, the MAS learning component and the Cattel-Horn-Carroll …

A Mixed Method Feasibility Assessment Of A Youth Participatory Action Research Program To Promote Physical Activity: Evaluating Implementation Within Two Pre-Existing Aftercare Programs Serving Middle School Youth, Michelle Abraczinskas

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity interventions to date have had small effects, which may be due to youth disengagement. In youth participatory action research (YPAR), youth become involved in research to make changes that impact their lives. Thus, integrating YPAR into a physical activity intervention, like we do in the current study, is a novel strategy to engage youth and increase empowerment for health behavior change. YPAR is typically implemented with high school youth, standalone, and within elective classrooms or focused after school programs; yet, YPAR can benefit all youth, so we expanded its reach into pre-existing aftercare programs. Participating youth were predominantly minority, …

Recognizing Addictive Disorders Through Transdiagnostic Assessment, Meagan M. Carr

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Some evidence suggests high rates of comorbidity between substance and other related addictive disorders. However, few self-report instruments adopt a transdiagnostic approach, which would be best positioned to answer questions about comorbidity as well as other related phenomenon, such as discontinuation of one type of behavior and initiation of another. The current work aimed to develop a measure that screened for seven types of potentially addictive behavior: alcohol use, drug use, tobacco use, gambling, binge eating, hypersexual behavior, and excessive video game playing. Data were collected at three time-points to develop a large pool of possible items, establish the initial …

Predictive Relationship Between Anger And Violence In Canadian Secondary Students, Lawrence Alfred Deck

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Violence among Canadian secondary students remains a concern for administrators, teachers, community members, and students. The purpose of this retrospective quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine the predictive relationship between anger and violence among secondary students in Canada using the Anger Regulation and Expression Scale (ARES). The general aggression model provided the framework for the study. Survey data were collected from 138 students using the ARES. Demographic data and archival data from students' school files were also collected. Results of receiver operator characteristic analysis and binary logistic regression indicated that the ARES total score provided fair to good predictive ability …

Mmpi-2-Rf Underreporting Validity Scales In Firefighter Applicants: A Cross-Validation Study, Kullen Charles Balthrop

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

The identification of potential underreporting in employment evaluations is important to consider when examining a measure’s validity. This importance increases in personnel selection involving high-virtue positions (e.g., police officers and firefighters). The current study aimed to utilize an archival firefighter applicant sample to examine the construct validity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form’s (MMPI-2-RF) underreporting scales (L-r and K-r). Results were analyzed using a correlation matrix comprised of a modified version of the Multi-Trait Multi-Method Matrix (MTMM), as well as multiple regression and partial correlation. The present study provides additional support for the construct validity of the MMPI-2-RF’s underreporting …