Unrelated Constructs Research Articles

Existential Meaning Through Illness

This study probed the effects of both level of existential meaning and coping processes on quality of life for patients with breast cancer. Results of bivariate correlation analyses with a sample of 248 women one to five years after diagnosis showed that a high level of meaning was strongly correlated with a high quality of life (r= .448, p <.01). A negative relationship between coping processes and quality of life signaled an association between higher frequency of coping and decreased quality of life (r= -.331, p <.01). Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that existential meaning and coping each contributed significantly to the variance in quality of life. In contrast to theories of coping, existential meaning and coping were unrelated constructs in the present study.

Construct validity analysis of the early smoking experience questionnaire for adolescents

Analysis was undertaken to assess the construct validity of a measure of early smoking experience with a sample of adolescent smokers who had ever tried smoking. The results of this study support a two-factor structure of early smoking experience as well as the assertion that initial smoking experience can be characterized by both unpleasant and pleasant sensations. A cross-structure analysis with related and unrelated constructs supports the convergent and discriminant validity of the measure for an adolescent population.

Successive Cyclicity under (Anti‐)Local Considerations

Abstract. Locality effects are typically understood to ensue when a dependency between two positions is too long—that is, as an upper bound on the distance an element may move (standard locality). This article explores some consequences of asking whether the opposite effect exists also, in terms of the Anti‐Locality Hypothesis: movement must be local, but not too local. Anti‐locality is formulated through a tripartite split of clause structure into Prolific Domains, subdomains of the derivation relevant for the operation Spell‐Out. The focus of the investigation will be generalized successive‐cyclic movement: clause‐internal movement from thematic to A‐ to A′‐positions as well as movement across clause boundaries, thereby unifying the derivational steps involved in unrelated constructions. I argue that, within a clause, an element can only ever move to the next higher Prolific Domain (Intraclausal Movement Generalization), whereas movement across clauses targets a position within the next higher Prolific Domain of the same type (Interclausal Movement Generalization). These two generalizations are claimed to boil down to an interaction between standard locality and anti‐locality considerations. Consequently, we can observe a transparent symmetry in locality issues, which I take to be a desira ble result.

Christianity and Dogmatism among Undergraduate Students

Religion is often accused of being associated with or promoting dogmatic attitudes. The present study conducted among 554 undergraduate students, who completed both the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity and the Troldale and Powell Dogmatism Scale, failed to find any empirical support for this accusation. Attitude toward Christianity and dogmatism were shown to be unrelated constructs.

Development of an Interview for Anxiety-Relevant Interpersonal Styles: Preliminary Support for Convergent and Discriminant Validity

This report presents preliminary psychometric support for a new approach to assess anxiety-relevant interpersonal styles in close relationships, the Social Anxiety Relationship Interview (SARI). The SARI is a semistructured interview, designed to evaluate relevant interpersonal styles (e.g., lack of assertion, conflict avoidance, and fear of expressing strong emotions). In this report, the convergent and discriminant validity of the SARI are examined. Results indicate that the SARI demonstrated good convergent validity, with correlations ranging from .2 to .5 between the subscales and related constructs such as assertiveness, affective control, assertion of autonomy, lack of social self-confidence, and avoidant problem solving. Examining the relationship between the SARI subscales and four conceptually unrelated constructs (somatization, hostility, paranoia, and psychoticism) indicated few significant associations, controlling for social anxiety. Additionally, most aspects of interpersonal functioning assessed by the SARI appeared specific to social anxiety, on the basis of analyses that controlled for trait anxiety. Finally, SARI responses do not appear to be influenced by social desirability. These data provide promising support for this measure, which will encourage greater exploration of the role of interpersonal factors in social anxiety.

Dutch version of the Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire: validity and reliability in a pain-free population

The current study examined validity and reliability of the Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire (PVAQ) in two samples of healthy college students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis showed that a two-factor model of the PVAQ was most suitable in the present study. The first factor could be referred to as attention to pain whereas the second factor could be specified as attention to changes in pain. With regard to the convergent and divergent validity, the PVAQ was found to correlate highly with related constructs like catastrophising (PCS) and general body vigilance (BVQ). The correlation between PVAQ and pain-related fear (FPQ) was moderate, whereas correlations with unrelated constructs like trait anxiety (STAI-T) and fear of spiders (FSQ) were low. Furthermore, the PVAQ showed good internal consistency and fair test-retest reliability. Altogether, these findings suggest that the PVAQ is a valid and reliable measure of pain vigilance in healthy individuals. The results of this study can be regarded as a starting point for further validation of the PVAQ in clinical pain populations. Implications for future research and treatment interventions are discussed.

CHRISTIANITY AND DOGMATISM REVISITED: A STUDY AMONG FIFTEEN AND SIXTEEN YEAR OLDS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

A sample of 802 adolescents between the ages of fifteen and sixteen years completed an Anglicized form of the Dommert revision of the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity, together with the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory. The data demonstrate that attitude toward Christianity and dogmatism are unrelated constructs, although both are related, in different ways, to Eysenck's major dimensions of personality.

Cultural Orientation of Hmong Young Adults

Summary Most studies of Hmong Americans focus on the cultural adjustment of refugees who arrived in the United States immediately after the Vietnam War. Few studies have examined the cultural adjustment of the children of these refugees, who have been raised primarily in the United States. This study explored whether American-born [ABH] and overseas-born [OBH] Hmong young adults differed in levels, models, and meanings of cultural orientation. Fourteen ABH and 32 OBH college students were asked what “being Hmong” and “being American” meant to them and complete were asked to the General Ethnicity Questionnaire (American and Hmong versions). Both groups reported being more oriented to American culture than Hmong culture. Despite similarities in mean levels of orientation to Hmong and American cultures and in the meanings of “being Hmong” and “being American,” ABH and OBH differed in their underlying models of cultural orientation. For ABH, “being Hmong” and “being Americank” were unrelated constructs, whereas for OBH, they were negatively correlated constructs.

Backward Versus Forward Anaphora: Reconstruction in Child Grammar

Various cases of backward and forward anaphora are studied in a number of seemingly unrelated constructions and argued to be a manifestation of a unitary principle, namely Principle C of the Binding Theory (Chomsky, 1981; 1986). We point out an unexpected restriction on (forward) anaphora that is argued to be a case in which Principle C operates at the "reconstructed" level. Italian-speaking children manifest an early mastery of these constructions (age 3;10). Contrary to what several proposals may lead one to expect, the ability to correctly judge instances of forward anaphora and the ability to correctly judge instances of backward anaphora manifest themselves simultaneously. These results on one hand provide evidence in favor of a biologically determined mechanism subsuming both standard Principle C effects and cases of "reconstruction." On the other hand, they support the view that certain cases of movement are, as they were, automatically "undone" when anaphoric dependencies are computed, as predicted by recent theories of movement as copying.

Psychometric evaluation of the pittsburgh sleep quality index

The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) measures sleep quality and disturbance retrospectively over a 1-month period using self-reports. Although the PSQI has been used in a variety of populations, published psychometric data are limited. The goal of this study was to examine psychometric properties of the PSQI among four populations: bone marrow transplant patients ( n=155); renal transplant patients ( n=56); women with breast cancer ( n=102); and women with benign breast problems ( n=159). Results supported PSQI internal consistency reliability and construct validity. Cronbach’s alphas were 0.80 across groups and correlations between global and component scores were moderate to high. PSQI scores were moderately to highly correlated with measures of sleep quality and sleep problems, and poorly correlated with unrelated constructs. Individuals with sleep problems, poor sleep quality, and sleep restlessness had significantly higher PSQI scores in comparison to individuals without such problems.

Remarks on the syntax of Mandarin yes-no questions

According to C.-T. Huand (1991), Chinese “A-not-a questions” are not syntactically unitary but fall into two types whose syntax has literally nothing in common. I argue that Huang is incorrect in assimilating the “disjunctive” variety of A-not-A questions to alternative questions, in that disjunctive questions are subject to a number of restrictions that do not apply to alternative questions, for example, a restriction that the positive conjunct precede the negative one. While accepting the basic idea of Huang's rule for “reduplicative” A-not-A questions, I note that restrictions on negation are mirrored not only in disjunctive questions where, for Huang the negative element is a real negation, but also in reduplicative questions, where for Huang there is only an apparent negation. I conclude that the full spectrum of A-not-A questions in Chinese reflects not synchronically unrelated constructions but rather different ways of specializing an, alternative question for the function of a yes-no question.

Reliability and validity of the original and revised Legal Attitudes Questionnaire.

The Legal Attitudes Questionnaire (LAQ) predicts juror bias, but there is little evidence concerning its reliability and construct validity. Two studies provide such evidence for two versions of the LAQ. In Study 1 a questionnaire containing both versions of the LAQ, measures of related and unrelated constructs, and demographic questions was completed by 294 undergraduates. In Study 2 a shortened questionnaire was completed by 102 jury-eligible adults. In both studies, the revised version of the LAQ was superior to the original LAQ in terms of missing data, internal reliability, and construct validity. A refined version of the revised scale is presented, evaluated, and recommended for future use.

The relation between adaptive behavior and intelligence: Testing alternative explanations

Adaptive behavior has become an increasingly important component of the assessment of children referred for learning and behavioral problems in educational settings. Yet the construct of adaptive behavior remains ill defined, and fundamental questions about the nature of adaptive behavior remain unanswered. As a result, measures of adaptive behavior are often problematic. Among the most important of these fundamental questions is the nature of the underlying relation between adaptive behavior and intelligence. The present study used confirmatory factor analysis and 556 school-age children from the overlap of the standardization sample of the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale and the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children to test three models of the relation between adaptive behavior and intelligence: as identical underlying constructs, as completely unrelated constructs, or as separate but related constructs. The model specifying adaptive behavior and intelligence as separate but related constructs proved significantly better than either competing model. Similar results were obtained for preschool children and low-ability school-age children, further suggesting that adaptive behavior and intelligence should be considered as separate but related constructs. Two plausible models to further explain the nature of this relation are presented.

Components of Clinical Competence Ratings of Physicians: An Empirical Approach

This study investigated the underlying structure of ratings of clinical competence. The study sample was comprised of 609 physicians graduating from Jefferson Medical College between 1980 and 1983. The rating instrument consisted of 33 statements on clinical behavior in Likert-type format filled out by directors of medical education programs at postgraduate training institutions. The data were subjected to factor analysis. Three factors emerged involving "data gathering and processing skills," "interpersonal and attitudinal," and "socioeconomic" dimensions. Correlations of factor scores with independent measures of conceptually related and unrelated constructs supported the appropriateness of the assigned factor titles. It was concluded that ratings of clinical competence represent a multidimensional construct involving at least three dimensions.

Correlated or Uncorrelated Measures of Related or Unrelated Constructs

Factor analysis is often used as an item analysis technique. In many cases orthogonal rotations are performed in an attempt to obtain uncorrelated factors, however, the estimates of the unrelated factors can be highly related. This issue is discussed and an example using data on the Semantic Differential is presented.