Psychological Assessment

Validación de un cuestionario de quejas cognitivas para adultos jóvenes: relación entre las quejas subjetivas de memoria, la sintomatología prefrontal y el estrés percibido

by José María Ruiz Sánchez de León

Lozoya-Delgado P, Ruiz-Sánchez de León JM, Pedrero-Pérez EJ. Validation of a cognitive complaints questionnaire for young adults: the relation between subjective memory complaints, prefrontal symptoms and perceived stress [In Spanish] Rev Neurol 2012; 54: 137-50.

Introducción. Las quejas subjetivas de memoria constituyen uno de los motivos de consulta más frecuentes a los... more Introducción. Las quejas subjetivas de memoria constituyen uno de los motivos de consulta más frecuentes a los servicios sanitarios, aunque apenas existen instrumentos validados en castellano para valorar su magnitud. Así como los cuestionarios de quejas de memoria habitualmente incluyen ítems referentes a aspectos atencionales y ejecutivos, se formulan hipótesis acerca de su relación con otros procesos dependientes de la integridad de la corteza prefrontal. Objetivo. Se trata de estudiar las propiedades psicométricas de un instrumento basado en el cuestionario de fallos de memoria de la vida cotidiana –Memory Failures Everyday (MFE)–, proporcionando una baremación sobre una amplia muestra de población española. Como objetivo secundario, se pretenden analizar las relaciones existentes entre la aparición de las quejas, la sintomatología de origen prefrontal y el estrés percibido. Sujetos y métodos. Se administran el MFE-30 (una modificación del MFE), el cuestionario disejecutivo y la escala de estrés percibido a una muestra de adultos jóvenes de población general no clínica (n = 900). Resultados. Los análisis muestran que el MFE-30 es un cuestionario unifactorial que valora un único constructo llamado ‘quejas cognitivas’. Además, se observa un intenso patrón de correlaciones entre dichas quejas, la sintomatología de origen prefrontal y el estrés percibido. Conclusiones. Los baremos aportados muestran que el MFE-30 es un instrumento útil en la práctica clínica. Los resultados encontrados están en consonancia con estudios anteriores, sugiriendo que existe una estrecha relación entre la aparición de quejas cognitivas, la presencia de sintomatología prefrontal y el estrés percibido.

Palabras clave. Atención. Corteza prefrontal. Cribado. DEX. Funciones ejecutivas. Lóbulos frontales. Memoria. Metamemoria. MFE. Neuropsicología. Quejas de memoria. Síndrome disejecutivo.

Introduction. Although subjective memory complaints are one of the most common causes behind visits to health services, there are hardly any validated instruments in Spanish for evaluating their magnitude. Since memory complaint questionnaires usually include items referring to attentional and executive aspects, it has been hypothesised that they may well be related with other processes that depend on the integrity of the prefrontal cortex. Aim. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of an instrument based on the Memory Failures in Everyday (MFE) questionnaire, thus providing a valuation over a broad sample of the Spanish population. A second aim of the study was to analyse the relations that exist between the appearance of the complaints, the symptoms of a prefrontal origin and perceived stress. Subjects and methods. The MFE-30 (a modified version of the MFE), the dysexecutive questionnaire and the perceived stress scale were administered to a sample of young adults from a non-clinical general population (n = 900). Results. The analyses show that the MFE-30 is a single-factor questionnaire that evaluates a single construct called ‘cognitive complaints’. Moreover, an intense pattern of correlations among these complaints, the symptoms of a prefrontal origin and perceived stress is observed. Conclusions. The resulting scores show that the MFE-30 is a useful instrument in clinical practice. Findings are in line with those from previous studies, thus suggesting that there is a close relation among the appearance of cognitive complaints, the presence of prefrontal symptoms and perceived stress.

Key words. Attention. DEX. Dysexecutive syndrome. Executive functions. Frontal cortex. Frontal lobes. Memory complaints. Memory. Metamemory. MFE. Neuropsychology. Screening.

SPIN. The Social Phobia Inventory: Screening and Cross-Cultural Validation in Spanish Adolescents

by LuisJoaquin Garcia-Lopez, Ph.D.

Availability of brief, self-report measures to be used as screening instruments is crucial to detect
correctly... more Availability of brief, self-report measures to be used as screening instruments is crucial to detect
correctly youth with social anxiety disorder and therefore, reach those otherwise under-detected and
under-treated. A previous study revealed that the Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN) was potentially an
appropriate measure for screening social anxiety among US adolescents. However, there is a lack of
information concerning its properties as a screening test in other cultures and languages. This is the
main objective of this study, although further validity of the scale is provided as well. The sample
consisted of 192 adolescents (a sample composed of 114 subjects with a principal diagnosis of social
anxiety disorder; and a group consisting of 78 subjects with no diagnosis of social phobia). Results
suggest that the Social Phobia Inventory has demonstrated good psychometric properties and indeed
may be used as a screening tool in Spanish-speaking adolescents

Scales and social anxiety: relationships and construct: Relationships Among Social Anxiety Measures and Their Invariance A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

by LuisJoaquin Garcia-Lopez, Ph.D.

Social phobia is becoming increasingly recognized as an important disorder among adolescents.
The body of... more Social phobia is becoming increasingly recognized as an important disorder among adolescents.
The body of research on assessment measures in adolescents with social phobia has grown considerably. Unfortunately,
little is known about the relationship among these measures and its invariance across clinical and
community samples. The objective of the present study is to examine this issue. Results show that all of these
measures are invariant among samples and assess a single higher-order factor, labeled as “social anxiety,”
although each measure appears to tap a specific symptom (cognitive, behavioral, and somatic). Further, results
do support the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) and the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents
(SAS-A) as first-line assessment measures for adolescents’ social anxiety.

The Social Phobia Inventory (SoPhI): Validity and reliability in an adolescent population

by LuisJoaquin Garcia-Lopez, Ph.D.

Bermejo, R.M.1, Garcia-Lopez, L.J.2, Hidalgo, M.D. 3 & Kathleen A Moore 4
1 Department of Clinical Psychology. University of Murcia, Spain
2 Department of Psychology, University of Jaen, Spain.
3 Department of Basic Psychology and Methodology. University of Murcia, Spain.
4 School of Health Sciences, Charles Darwin University, Australia

Although there are numerous self-report measures to assess social anxiety in adults, and an increasing number in... more Although there are numerous self-report measures to assess social anxiety in adults, and an increasing number in adolescents, only one scale designed during the last decade, the Social Phobia Inventory (SoPhI; Moore & Gee, 2003) has included an item to tap DSM-IV criterion F of social anxiety disorder (i.e. social anxiety must be present for at least six months). However, questions remain regarding the validity of the SoPhI in other languages and cultures. To address this problem the SoPhI was administered in two studies: firstly, to 457 adolescents from a community sample in order to test the internal consistency and factor analysis of the scale; and secondly, to a clinical sample comprising 114 participants with a principal diagnosis of social anxiety disorder, and a control group consisting of 78 adolescents with no diagnosis of social anxiety disorder. The scale showed good psychometric properties, including test-retest reliability, convergent validity, internal consistency, and a single-factor structure similar to the original study. Together these findings support the use of the SoPhI in a language other than English and for this range of ages.

SASA. Psychometric properties and clinical cut-off scores of the Spanish version of the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents

by LuisJoaquin Garcia-Lopez, Ph.D.

This study examined the reliability and validity evidence drawn from the scores of the Spanish version of the... more This study examined the reliability and validity evidence drawn from the scores of the Spanish version of the Slovenian-developed Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SASA; Puklek, 1997; Puklek & Vidmar, 2000) using a community sample (Study 1) and a clinical sample (Study 2). Confirmatory factor analysis in Study 1 replicated the two-factor structure found by the original authors in a sample of Slovenian adolescents. Test-retest reliability was adequate. Furthermore, the SASA correlated significantly with other social anxiety scales, supporting concurrent validity evidence in Spanish adolescents. The results of Study 2 confirmed the correlations between the SASA and other social anxiety measures in a clinical sample. In addition, findings revealed that the SASA can effectively discriminate between adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of social anxiety disorder and those without this disorder. Finally, cut-off scores for the SASA are provided for Spanish adolescents.

A pilot study on sensitivity of outcome measures for treatments of generalized social phobia in adolescents.

by LuisJoaquin Garcia-Lopez, Ph.D.

Since translation of psychological assessment measures developed in other countries appears to be a common practice,... more Since translation of psychological assessment measures developed in other countries appears to be a common practice, it is growing the number of published contributions aimed at determining their psychometric properties in Spanish-speaking population. The purpose of this study is to examine the sensitivity of six social anxiety assessment measures to treatment effects over time. The sample was composed by forty-four Spanish-speaking adolescents (range of age: 15-17 years), who met the criteria for generalized social anxiety and received one of three cognitive-behavioral treatments. All adolescents completed the measures at pre-treatment, post-treatment and 1-year follow-up assessments. The findings suggest that all of the scales were found to be sensitive to the effects of the treatments over time and revealed high effect sizes. The results indicated that all of the measures reliably tapped treatment effects and supported utility of all of these scales as treatment-outcome measures for adolescents with generalized social phobia.

Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A): Psychometric properties in a Spanish-speaking population.

by LuisJoaquin Garcia-Lopez, Ph.D.

Factorial Invariance of the Social Anxiety Screening Scale (EDAS) in Spanish and Chilean adolescents

by Jose A. Piqueras

Reference: Piqueras, J.A., Olivares, J., Vera-Villarroel, P., Marzo, J.C. y Kuhne, W. (2012)nvarianza factorial de la Escala para la Detección de Ansiedad Social (EDAS) en adolescentes españoles y chilenos. Anales de Psicología, 28, 203-214

"In Spanish"

This instrumental study examines factorial invariance of the Scale for Social Anxiety Screening (EDAS) across... more This instrumental study examines factorial invariance of the Scale for Social Anxiety Screening (EDAS) across countries and gender in two samples of Chilean and Spanish adolescents between 14 and 17 years using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The sample consisted of 1185 Spanish adolescents, with a mean age of 15.49 years (SD=1.10) and the Chilean sample consisted of 965 adolescents, whose age mean age was 15.51 (SD=1.09). The age and gender distribution was homogeneous. Results showed that EDAS showed a good fit to a three factors model (Avoidance, Anxiety and Interference), representing each subscale a single dimension. No significant differences between Chilean and Spanish adolescents attributable to the countries and gender. The reliability coefficients were high in each of the subscales. The results provide empirical evidence for the reliability, validity and factorial invariance of the EDAS in Spanish and Chilean adolescents.

Psychometric Properties of the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) Among Terminally Ill Cancer Patients

by Kenneth Royal

Royal, K. D., & Elahi, F. (2011). Psychometric Properties of the Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) Among Terminally Ill Cancer Patients. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 29(4), 359-371.

Research conducted with the terminally ill population in relation to death anxiety is rare and mostly outdated. The... more Research conducted with the terminally ill population in relation to death anxiety is rare and mostly outdated. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the widely used Death Anxiety Scale (DAS) on a sample of terminal cancer patients. Additionally, validation studies of the DAS have exclusively used traditional statistical methods for analysis. The current study utilized an item response theory technique (IRT), namely the Rasch Rating Scale model for data analysis. The methodology employed may be useful for other researchers conducting validation studies from an IRT perspective.

Assessing Components of Morality

by Robert Shaw

Robert Keith Shaw (1997) Assessing Components of Morality. Thesis (Master of Philosophy). Auckland: The University of Auckland.

An investigation into the assessment of the moral components which were developed by John Wilson, is reported. Tests... more An investigation into the assessment of the moral components which were developed by John Wilson, is reported. Tests fox the classroom measurement of two components were developed. The components were; PHIL(CC), the claiming of concern for other persons as an overriding, universal, and prescriptive principle in moral decision making; and; GIG, knowledge of factual information which is relevant in making moral decisions which subjects face. The test development exercise was undertaken at a time when public interest in moral education was growing. The recent demand for moral education in Auckland is reviewed.

Counseling Supervision Review

by Daniel Keeran MSW

by Daniel Keeran, MSW

This form is used by Counseling Supervisors at the 6 month and year-end point of the one-year period of supervision... more This form is used by Counseling Supervisors at the 6 month and year-end point of the one-year period of supervision for Intern Counselor members of the College of Mental Health Counseling http://www,collegemhc.com

Supervisors should be familiar with the College training manual to understand the content acquired by the Intern Counselor. The manual can be reviewed here http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Counseling-Skills-therapeutic-statements/dp/1442177993

The Dilemma that is Assessment

by Martin Milton

Milton, M. and Judd, D. (1999) The Dilemma that is Assessment, Journal of the Society for Existential Analysis, 102-114

Revisiting core issues in dynamic assessment

by Raegan Murphy

South African journal of psychology

Dynamic assessment precursors: Soviet ideology and Vygotsky

by Raegan Murphy

Irish journal of psychology

Meta-analysis of dynamic assessment research in South Africa

by Raegan Murphy

Journal of cognitive education and psychology

A review of South African research in the field of dynamic assessment

by Raegan Murphy

South African Journal of Psychology, 36(1), 168-191.

Gender and age differences in cognitive, psychophysiological and behavioural responses of social anxiety in adolescence

by Jose A. Piqueras

Inglés, C.J., Piqueras, J.A., García-Fernández, J.M., García-López, L.J., Delgado, B. y Ruiz-Esteban, C. (2011).  Gender and age differences in cognitive, psychophysiological and behavioural responses of social anxiety in adolescence. Psychology in Spain, 15, 80-86

The aim of this study was to analyze gender and age differences in social anxiety in adolescence through factor scores... more The aim of this study was to analyze gender and age differences in social anxiety in adolescence through factor scores of the Social Phobia subscale of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SP-SPAI): Social Interactions, Focus of Attention, Cognitive and Somatic Symptoms and Avoidance and Escape Behaviours. The sample consisted of 2543 students from secondary schools aged between 12 and 17. Results are shown for the general sample (N = 2543) and for the sample of adolescents classified as high social anxiety group (n = 317). Regarding the first group, girls scored higher on the Social Phobia subscale and all its factors except Avoidance and Escape (d = .32 – .35). As regards the high anxiety group, the analyses revealed that boys avoid and escape from social situations more frequently than girls (d = .23). No age differences were found in the factor scores for either of the two samples.

Artigo Original Validade de construto da versão brasileira do Inventário Espectral de Externalização: evidências a partir de uma amostra de estudantes …

by Hudson De Carvalho

Tradução, adaptação cultural e análise de consistência interna do Inventário de Externalização

by Hudson De Carvalho

Externalizing is conceived as a broad and continuous psychobiological dimension of individual differences that... more Externalizing is conceived as a broad and continuous psychobiological dimension of individual differences that accounts for the covariance among mental disorders related to substance use and antisocial behavior and personality traits related to impulsivity and aggression. The Externalizing Inventory is a reliable and valid measure of the externalizing construct. This study aims the description of the steps used to adapt the Externalizing Inventory to a Brazilian cultural context and to produce data about its reliability. The adaptation study includes analyses of content equivalence between the original and translated versions through back translations, judges’ feedbacks, bilingual and item comprehensiveness analyses. The
reliability analysis was implemented by the estimation of the alpha coefficient in a sample of 258 undergraduate students.
Results indicate the success of the adopted adaptation procedure and also show that the Externalizing Inventory is a
consistent measure of the externalizing construct.

Validation of the structural coherency of the General Health Questionnaire

by Hudson De Carvalho

Objective: Investigate the structural coherency of the 60-item version of the General Health Questionnaire via... more Objective: Investigate the structural coherency of the 60-item version of the General Health Questionnaire via exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Method: The study design is a cross-sectional survey. A random sample of 146 individuals from the city of Divinópolis-MG volunteered to participate in the present study and responded to the 60-item version of the General Health Questionnaire adapted and validated for use in
Brazil. Statistics consisted of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was estimated using Cronbach’s alpha method. Results: Alpha coefficients for all five content scales of the General Health Questionnaire were high (α > 0.8). For four of the five scales, a unifactorial model of constituent items provided a good fit to the data. Items comprising the
fifth scale, Psychic Stress, exhibited a two-correlated factor structure. A factor analysis of scores for the five scales yielded strong evidence of coherency, with all scales loading substantially on a single common factor. Conclusion: The General Health Questionnaire shows good psychometric coherency as evidenced by high internal consistency and
unidimensionality of all but one of its constituent scales, and uniformly high loadings of all scales on a single overarching factor. These results are consistent with prior findings from the General Health Questionnaire developmental study and Brazilian adaptation studies.