Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT) was developed to target overcontrolled coping style and is gaining traction as a gold-standard treatment in the transdiagnostic intervention repertoire. The RO-DBT manual offers two instruments that explicitly measure overcontrol: the Adult Styles of Coping Word-Pair Checklist (ASC-WP) and the Overcontrol Trait Rating Scale (OCTRS). There is virtually no psychometric information about these measures, and they have not been examined through a construct validity framework. A sample of 482 undergraduates, oversampled for overcontrolled coping style, completed these measures via self-report. Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFAs) did not display one-factor solutions of these instruments, suggesting that a strictly unidimensional representation of these measures was not supported. When considerations of interpretability were paired with quantitative support for exploratory factor analyses, obvious factor structures did not form and were not easily reconciled with theory. However, the OCTRS factor structure was stronger than that of the ASC-WP. Nomological network analyses of the measures revealed that in general, the OCTRS evidenced promising convergent validity and weak discriminant validity, while the ASC-WP demonstrated globally weak construct validity. Taken together, these results suggest that refining the measurement of overcontrol is crucial, and use of the ASC-WP measure warrants particular caution.
The Proposed Specifiers for Conduct Disorder (PSCD) measures the grandiose-manipulative, callous-unemotional, and daring-impulsive components of psychopathy, along with conduct disorder (CD) symptoms. Although several psychometric studies have been conducted on the PSCD, its psychometric properties have not been examined in justice-involved girls. Accordingly, this study tested the factor structure, reliability, and validity of PSCD in 122 justice-involved girls. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the proposed hierarchical four-factor model. Internal consistency of the PSCD total and subscale scores was satisfactory. Convergent and criterion validity were supported, as PSCD scores were significantly associated with scores of another psychopathy measure (Youth Psychopathic Traits Inventory; YPI) and relevant correlates, including DSM-5 CD symptoms/diagnosis, proactive aggression, trait impulsivity, and school performance. Discriminant validity was also demonstrated, as the PSCD scores were unrelated to anxiety and depression. Furthermore, profile similarity analyses revealed weak to strong similarity among the nomological networks of the PSCD subscales; though, coefficients remained below redundancy thresholds, supporting meaningful differentiation. Finally, PSCD scores showed small but significant incremental contributions over corresponding YPI scores, with the CD subscale demonstrating the strongest incremental values over the YPI total score. Overall, the PSCD holds promise as a research tool in justice-involved girls, although incremental validity requires further investigation.
Compassion for self or others involves recognizing suffering, understanding its universality, feeling for the person suffering, tolerating distress, and being motivated to help. Existing measures, such as the Sussex-Oxford Compassion Scales for the Self (SOCS-S) and Others (SOCS-O), are comprehensive but lengthy. This study derived 5-item short forms of each scale (Brief SOCS-S and Brief SOCS-O) based on the original SOCS item loadings and theoretical representation of the five compassion components, preserving construct coverage while reducing burden. The scales were examined across students (N = 268), the general population (N = 43,999), and NHS staff (N = 1,569). Both measures showed acceptable internal consistency, moderate-to-good test-retest reliability, adequate one-factor structure, and broad support for measurement invariance across gender and age groups in the general population. Some confirmatory factor analysis models showed slightly elevated root mean square error of approximation values, and the Universality item had weaker loadings and ceiling effects in both scales. However, total-score ceiling effects were absent in the Brief SOCS-S and minimal in the Brief SOCS-O. Overall, the Brief SOCS scales provide concise, theoretically grounded, and psychometrically adequate assessments of compassion when brevity and reduced respondent burden are priorities.
The Displaced Aggression Questionnaire (DAQ) assesses the trait tendency to aggress against innocent targets, following unrelated provocation. In a primary aim, interpersonal concepts and methods and other measures were used to evaluate the construct validity of DAQ subscales (i.e., angry rumination, revenge planning, behavioral displaced aggression). A second aim evaluated the extent to which partialing altered interpersonal and other correlates of the DAQ subscales. A representative online sample of 999 U.S. adults completed the DAQ, interpersonal circumplex measures of trait social behavior and problems, agentic and communal values, negative interpersonal experiences, social support, loneliness, and subjective social status, as well as measures of self-regulatory processes. In Structural Summary Method analyses, DAQ subscales had expected associations with hostile interpersonal style and more severe interpersonal problems. Additional correlations with interpersonal processes and self-regulation generally supported predictions. However, partialing DAQ subscales from each other severely undermined this otherwise supportive evidence of construct validity.
Valid and reliable tools are needed to understand the ethnic experience of Asian Americans. This study examined the internal structural validity, convergent/divergent validity, criterion validity, as well as reliability of the Scale of Ethnic Experience-Short Form (SEE-SF) scores among Asian American adults. Participants were 346 Asian American adults (55% male, 43% female; mean age = 36) recruited via Prolific, representing multiple Asian ethnicities and immigration status. Analyses included confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), multigroup invariance testing, and structural equation modeling. The CFA model demonstrated the structure of SEE-SF, and measurement invariances was established across gender groups. Demographic features (e.g., income, education, immigration status) were associated with ethnic experiences. Findings also showed convergent, divergent, and criterion validity with existing measures. The SEE-SF yields valid and reliable scores for assessing ethnic experience among Asian Americans, providing a valuable tool to capture their lived experience and identity development. Clinical implications were discussed.
The Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation-60 (MID-60) was validated in adults in clinical care using data from 13,177 de-identified assessments on an Australian online psychometric platform. Analyses used subsamples defined by available measures for factor, reliability, and validity testing. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the intended 11-factor structure, with good conventional fit and acceptable robust fit after correction for non-normality. Internal consistency (α = .98) and short-interval test-retest reliability were high. The MID-60 converged strongly with the Dissociative Experiences Scale II (DES-II; r = .80) yet was able to identify milder clinical presentations that the DES-II cut-off often misses. Convergence with the International Trauma Questionnaire (r = .64) and graded associations with the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (r = .50) supported links to trauma symptoms and disability. MID-60 scores decreased over repeated administrations of 2 to 12 months. Findings confirm the MID-60 as a reliable, valid, and clinically sensitive measure for screening, formulation, and progress monitoring.
This study examined the interrater reliability and predictive validity of Conclusory Opinions made using the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide-Version 3 (SARA-V3). Using a pseudo-prospective design, researchers coded SARA-V3 assessments from the files of 125 Australian males with prior intimate partner violence (IPV) and evaluated validity using IPV charges over 4 years. While total scores demonstrated excellent interrater reliability (ICC = .94), Conclusory Opinions showed variable reliability (ICC = .54-.92). Conclusory Opinions had limited ability to discriminate between those with and without further police-recorded IPV (AUC = .51-.61). Sensitivity was consistently low (16.67%-33.33%), indicating most of those with further IPV were not identified as high Case Priority. Victim Vulnerability factors could not be rated due to limited file information, representing a significant limitation. These findings suggest Conclusory Opinions informed by Nature of IPV and Perpetrator risk factors may have limited predictive utility, raising questions about practical advantages over its predecessor.
Given the paucity of brief self-report instruments to assess youth's personality, this study aimed to develop the 15-item Dichotomous Big Five Inventory-2 (BFI-2-15D) and to preliminarily test its psychometric properties. It consists of a 15-item adaptation of the BFI-2 for children and adolescents, which considers the breadth of the 5 traits and is rated on a dichotomous scale. In a sample of 970 7- to 12-year-olds, we found support for its factorial structure, invariant across sex and age level. Despite expected drawbacks in internal consistency, corrected item-total correlations were adequate across all dimensions. Moreover, the BFI-2-15D shows evidence consistent with discriminant and concurrent validity. Notwithstanding limitations, this brief questionnaire may represent a useful alternative to longer instruments in research contexts characterized by time constraints and when it is important to reduce respondents' fatigue and cognitive load.
Hopelessness is conceptualized as a cognitive schema characterized by negative expectations regarding the future. It is linked to various psychopathological conditions, including depression, suicide, and schizophrenia. Consequently, the assessment of hopelessness has become a crucial element in both clinical practice and research. The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) is the most extensively used instrument for measuring hopelessness and has been the focus of substantial research across diverse samples over many years. However, discussions on the factor structure of the scale continue. The present study investigated the factor structure of the BHS through a meta-analytic confirmatory factor analysis and synthesized the findings from the literature. The study included 52 samples (N = 35,628) derived from 36 studies that provided factor loadings from the exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The results indicated that among the models examined for the BHS, the positive-negative bifactor model demonstrated the best fit to the data. Furthermore, the measurement invariance of this model was examined across age, gender composition, language, cultural orientation, and clinical status. Measurement invariance was not supported across these groups, suggesting that the latent structure of the BHS may vary according to key demographic, linguistic, cultural, and clinical status.
Scientific and systematic data collection and analysis have long been a crucial foundation in psychological assessment systems. It is only through this process that psychology professionals can effectively measure and interpret individuals' mental states, behavioral patterns, and standing on underlying latent constructs. However, obtaining high-quality task-specific data remains challenging due to issues of cost, time, and scalability, all further complicated by ethical and privacy concerns associated with sensitive psychological information. To address this, we apply alignment training of large language models (LLMs) to generate artificial intelligence (AI)-augmented data. This method uses existing participant responses to create personalized, plausible answers to new or unanswered questions. The augmented data match individuals' linguistic style and psychological characteristics, thereby simulating plausible personalized responses. We evaluated this method using an archival dataset of life-narrative interviews originally collected for personality trait prediction. We compared the augmented data with the real data, at both the linguistic levels (i.e., via the perplexity metric and the multidimensional tagger) and utility levels (i.e., similar functions, such as personality trait prediction). Finding that AI-generated data closely resemble human data and can therefore support pilot testing or modeling missing responses. Overall, the augmented data approach offers a scalable, effective solution to enriching datasets in AI-based psychological assessments.
The Perth Emotion Regulation Competency Inventory (PERCI) is an emerging measure of positive and negative emotion regulation (ER) difficulties. We examined the factor structure and psychometric characteristics of the PERCI and its associations with psychopathology and minority stress in a sample of U.S. sexual and gender minority adults recruited through Prolific Academic (N = 621). Confirmatory analyses indicate that the PERCI demonstrated good fit and invariance between sexual and gender minority participants and that the PERCI was reliable based on evaluations of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Multilevel models suggest that positive and negative ER difficulties are relatively stable over a 3-month period and associated with proximal and distal minority stressors as well as resilience. Taken together, our findings indicate that the PERCI is a sound and useful tool to assess ER difficulties in clinical and research settings. Our findings also highlight the associations between minority stress and positive ER difficulties.
Future orientation encompasses positive expectations about the future, the presence of reasons for persevering, and the perceived ability to cope and pursue goals under hardship, and is associated with beneficial health outcomes. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the psychometric properties of the six-item Future Orientation Scale (FOS) were evaluated among samples of predominantly racially and ethnically minoritized undergraduates ( N = 3,219), individuals with fibromyalgia ( N = 508), and sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals ( N = 496). A single-factor solution emerged in the developmental sample, and CFA indicated adequate fit in each sample. Multigroup CFA supported full configural, metric, and scalar invariance, allowing for meaningful latent mean comparisons. Undergraduates exhibited the highest latent future orientation, followed by the SGM and fibromyalgia samples, respectively. Findings demonstrate that the FOS shows strong measurement invariance and captures substantive variation in future orientation across three populations at elevated psychological and physical health risk.
Given the high prevalence of depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) globally and their comorbidity, it is imperative to have reliable and valid measures of these constructs. The International Depression Questionnaire (IDQ) and International Anxiety Questionnaire (IAQ) are recently developed measures to assess for depressive disorder and GAD, respectively, based on ICD-11 criteria. The current study examined the reliability and validity of the IDQ and IAQ in English- and Spanish-language translations in four samples from Chile, Mexico, and the United States. The Spanish IDQ and IAQ demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency (IDQ omega = .87-.91 and IAQ omega = .86-.93) and strong convergent validity. Overall prevalence for ICD-11 depressive disorder was 15.3%, and the GAD prevalence was 22.4% across samples. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) found good to excellent fit across the four samples, supporting the unidimensionality of the IDQ and IAQ. Results indicate the Spanish translations of the IDQ and IAQ are psychometrically sound and appear appropriate for use in North and South American samples of Spanish speakers. Results also supported the psychometric properties of the English IDQ and IAQ in the United States.
The use of AI within psychological assessment has many potential benefits for psychologists and their patients, including improved access to care, workflow efficiency, and expanded clinical training through virtual patients; however, there are also potential risks, including data privacy and security, and introducing potential bias into clinical practice and training. In addition, other risks may be present within clinical training in assessment, including reduced supervisor oversight, cultural insensitivity, and biased or insufficient feedback. This paper presents two case vignettes to review ethical considerations of the use of AI in psychological assessment training and practice within an ethical decision-making framework. Current best practices, ethical guidelines, and potential barriers, as well as considerations for evaluating the use of AI and other technology as an area of competency for trainees are reviewed.
Perspective-taking refers to one's ability to infer one's own and others' mental states. The existing perspective-taking tasks mainly focus on healthy individuals and overlook the potential confounding effect of prompt type. The current study developed a perspective-taking task for social anxiety research by including both ambiguous and unambiguous prompts and a social context. Analysing two community samples with either ambiguous (N = 69) or unambiguous (N = 89) prompts found that both prompts cued self-perspective-taking and other perspective-taking as required. However, while unambiguous prompts cue perspective switching, the ambiguous prompts failed to do so. Thirty-two participants of the two samples completed the tasks with both prompt types and showed no differences in perspective-taking. Findings suggest that the newly developed task measures self-perspective-taking and other perspective-taking as prompted, regardless of prompt type. Furthermore, the unambiguous prompts may be more sensitive and appropriate for measuring perspective switching and offer greater applicability in neural research.
Work addiction refers to a compulsive drive to work relentlessly, leading to personal harm, distress, and impaired relationships. It has been characterised by salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal, conflict, relapse and problems. Despite scholarly attention, it is not formally recognised within the current versions of existing diagnostic manuals. This study examined the interpretation and research use of scores from the seven-item (IWAS-7) and five-item (IWAS-5) versions of the International Work Addiction Scale (IWAS) across two samples from the United Kingdom (UK): a non-representative employee sample (n = 245, Mage = 28.93) and a nationally representative sample (n = 1,001), with analyses focused on employed individuals (n = 764, Mage = 44.45). Evidence based on internal structure supported a unidimensional interpretation for both versions, with adequate reliability. Evidence based on relations to other variables showed strong associations between IWAS scores and the Bergen Work Addiction Scale (BWAS), and theoretically consistent relationships with relevant constructs. Scalar measurement invariance across gender substantiated comparable IWAS score interpretation for men and women, with no latent mean differences. Item response theory analyses indicated the greatest IWAS score precision at moderate-to-high work addiction levels (θ ≈ 1-3), particularly Items 5 to 7. Findings support interpreting IWAS-7 and IWAS-5 scores as brief indicators of work addiction severity for research use in UK-employed adults.
The Bivalent Fear of Evaluation model posits that individuals with social-anxiety experience both Fear of Negative Evaluation (FNE) and Fear of Positive Evaluation (FPE). Previous research has empirically supported a two-factor structure comprising FNE and FPE. More recently, theoretical reviews and empirical studies have turned to a broader construct, Fear of General Evaluation (FGE). Here, we sought to examine the existence and validity of FGE in two samples (644 Chinese undergraduates and 448 junior high school students). We captured two distinct measures of FNE and FPE, along with mental-health outcomes (social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and depression). The findings showed that both the two-factor and bifactor models fit the data well, with a slightly better fit for the bifactor model. The bifactor diagnostics also suggested that a reliable general factor likely exists. Moreover, FGE showed a clear pattern of criterion-related associations, relating most strongly to social anxiety and more moderately to generalized anxiety and depression. In conclusion, our results advance a plausible bifactor account of fears of evaluation, emphasizing the role of FGE in social anxiety and outlining implications for clinical practice.
The Rorschach is one of the most widely used tests to assess personality functioning. Among the various categories, determinants play a fundamental role, yet sometimes their coding leaves room for subjective judgment and therefore ambiguities. This study investigates prototypicality and color diagnosticity within the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS), focusing on how color-object associations influence test's administration. In fact, prototypicality (the degree to which an object's feature aligns with its conventional representation) interacts with color diagnosticity (the extent to which an object is associated with specific colors). We administered a questionnaire to 587 nonclinical participants, and examined common color-object associations by asking them to (a) describe the visual characteristics they considered most representative of a given object, (b) read a series of colors and list three to five items commonly associated with a specific color, and (c) read a series of object names and select the color they thought most people would use to color those objects. Responses were analyzed via hierarchical cluster analysis. Results showed that certain objects exhibit high prototypicality in association to specific colors, whereas other items showed more ambiguous associations. Discussion emphasizes the importance of appropriate administration training, as well as more standardized guidelines to mitigate subjective biases in coding.
The Two Facet Model of Parental Psychological Control (PPC) stipulates that both intrusiveness and emotional manipulation are core facets of PPC, and intrusiveness varies by culture. However, established scales neglected to measure intrusiveness and operationalized intrusiveness with results mainly from white/European families. We tested the Two Facet Model of Parental Psychological Control with Korean adolescents (N = 354, 13-16 years old, 207 female-identified adolescents) via an online survey. We assessed what Korean adolescents believed to be intrusive parenting by asking about 25 areas in their lives. We measured emotional manipulation based on its definitions and tactics. As hypothesized, the intrusiveness and emotional manipulation scales were significantly positively correlated with established PPC scales, and intrusiveness functioned differently from emotional manipulation. These results buttress the utility of separately measuring intrusiveness and emotional manipulation. Hence, we provide empirical support for the Two Facet Model of Parental Psychological Control.
Ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) effectively measure dynamic changes in constructs such as affect. Accurate assessment of affect variability may depend on study design characteristics. While EMAs delivered at random intervals are typically considered superior for capturing variability compared to EMAs delivered at set timepoints, there have been few experimental comparisons of these assessment methodologies. The present study used data from a nationwide factorial experiment to identify best practices in EMA methods. Participants ( N = 205) were randomized to groups across five EMA study design factors, including prompting schedules (random or fixed). Daily EMAs assessed affect and health behaviors for 28 days. Multilevel regressions indicated significantly lower affect variability for the fixed prompt group in 8/16 models: compared to the random prompt group, there was between a 0.18 and 0.36 standard deviation decrease in variability in the fixed prompt group. A significant Prompt × Time interaction indicated that variability in the fixed group decreased over time relative to the random group in 6/16 models. However, prompt schedule did not reliably moderate associations between daily affect means/variability and next-day health behaviors. Thus, differences in affect variability between prompt schedules may exist for some affect items but may not be sufficiently large to influence associations with health behaviors. Trial Registration : ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT05194228; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05194228
