Incremental validity

Abstract: This article describes a method for the intraindividual clinical validation of a cognitive case formulation (CCF) involving hypotheses about the patient's idiosyncratic cognitive schema (ICS). The two-stage approach begins by testing the convergent and discriminant validity of the hypothesized ICS against the individual's daily ratings of cognition items using confirmatory dynamic factor analysis. The second stage evaluates the extent to which the ICS factor scores predict daily variability in symptoms and distress and further addresses convergent and discriminant validity by evaluating intraindividual cognitive content specificity and the incremental validity of the idiographic cognition factors compared with nomothetic measures of thoughts/beliefs. This approach to validating idiographic assessment is illustrated with the CCF of a woman with comorbid mood and anxiety disorders.

Abstract: The present study reports on a replication of the technical adequacy of the Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ), which is a 16-item self-report instrument for assessing youth’s academic efficacy, educational purpose, joy of learning, and school connectedness, with a sample of adolescents in Grades 6 to 7 (N = 438). Findings confirmed the SSWQ’s latent factor structure as well as the reliability and distribution of its factors/scales. Results also indicated that SSWQ scores had concurrent associations with youths’ self-reported academic achievement, cumulative risks, and cumulative assets. Overall, this study provides a strong, positive replication of the technical adequacy of the SSWQ, suggesting that it is a psychometrically sound measure for school psychological research and, potentially, practice. Prior to recommending the SSWQ for practical purposes in schools, however, applied research is needed to investigate issues related to incremental validity and treatment utility.

Abstract: Inappropriate or excessive guilt is listed as a symptom of depression by the American Psychiatric Association (1994). Although many measures of guilt have been developed, definitional and operational problems exist, especially in the application of such measures in childhood and adolescence. To address these problems, the current study introduces the Inappropriate and Excessive Guilt Scale (IEGS), assesses its validity for use with children and adolescents, and tests its relation to depression across development. From a sample of 370 children between 7 and 16 years old, results provided (1) evidence that items designed to assess inappropriate and excessive guilt converged onto a single underlying factor, (2) support for the convergent, discriminant, and construct validity of the IEGS in a general youth population, and (3) evidence of incremental validity of the IEGS over-and-above other measures of guilt. Results also supported the hypothesis that inappropriate and excessive guilt as well as negative cognitive errors become less normative and more depressotypic with age.

Abstract: This article examines the nature of confidence in relation to abilities, personality, and metacognition. Confidence scores were collected during the administration of Reading and Listening sections of the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT) to 824 native speakers of English. Those confidence scores were correlated with performance accuracy scores from the TOEFL iBT and SAT, high school grade point averages (HS-GPA), and measures of personality and metacognition. The results of factor analyses indicate that confidence is a separate psychological trait, somewhere between ability and personality. The findings also suggest that confidence is related to, but separate from, metacognition. Gender and ethnic differences in confidence are also reported, with men and African Americans showing higher overconfidence bias than women and Whites or Hispanics, respectively. Finally, the data show small incremental validity of the confidence scores above and beyond the accuracy scores in predicting performance on the TOEFL iBT as a whole, the Writing and Speaking sections of the TOEFL iBT, and a test of numeracy. Confidence does not show incremental validity for the SAT and HS-GPA.