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Adolescent Personality and Behavior
MMPI Patterns of Normal, Delinquent, Dropout, and Other Outcomes
Starke Hathaway
University of Minnesota Press, 1963
Adolescent Personality and Behavior was first published in 1963. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.What kinds of boys and girls are likely to become delinquent? Can they be identified before they get into trouble so that steps may be taken to prevent their delinquency (if prevention is possible)? What about school “dropouts” – are they distinguishable from other youngsters before they leave school? What are the characteristics of a normal adolescent? Questions like these, far-reaching, complex, and profoundly important in the face of increasing concern about the problems of adolescence, are dealt with in the comprehensive study reported in this book.Professors Hathaway and Monachesi have studied the personality and behavior of approximately 15,000 young people in an effort to determine whether it is possible to predict subsequent development of desirable or undesirable behavior. The subjects of the study were ninth-grade youngsters, at the outset, and their later careers were followed for a period of four to six years. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a psychometric test, was administered to the boys and girls when they were in the ninth grade. The MMPI findings are correlated with a wealth of other data – personality evaluations by teachers and others, police records, family socioeconomic status, school achievement, type of residence community, and other factors – to provide a large-scale picture of adolescent personality and behavior. Details of the study – its plan and execution – are given, along with a general description of the MMPI, its use, and interpretation.
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American Beliefs About Intelligence
Orville G., Jr. Brim
Russell Sage Foundation, 1969
Based on two national surveys--one of adults and one of secondary school students, this volume reports on their experiences with and their attitudes toward standardized tests of intelligence. The authors analyze the relations between a person's beliefs about the nature of intelligence, his estimate of his own intelligence, his attitudes concerning tests, and other personal characteristics.
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Autistic Intelligence
Interaction, Individuality, and the Challenges of Diagnosis
Douglas W. Maynard and Jason Turowetz
University of Chicago Press, 2022
An examination of diagnostic processes that questions how we can better understand autism as a category and the unique forms of intelligence it glosses.
 
As autism has grown in prevalence, so too have our attempts to make sense of it. From placing unfounded blame on vaccines to seeking a genetic cause, Americans have struggled to understand what autism is and where it comes from. Amidst these efforts, however, a key aspect of autism has been largely overlooked: the diagnostic process itself. That process is the central focus of Autistic Intelligence. The authors ask us to question the norms by which we measure autistic behavior, to probe how that behavior can be considered sensible rather than disordered, and to explore how we can better appreciate the individuality of those who receive the diagnosis.
 
Drawing on hundreds of hours of video recordings and ethnographic observations at a clinic where professionals evaluated children for autism, the authors’ analysis of interactions among clinicians, parents, and children demystifies the categories, tools, and practices involved in the diagnostic process. Autistic Intelligence shows that autism is not a stable category; it is the outcome of complex interactional processes involving professionals, children, families, and facets of the social and clinical environments they inhabit. The authors suggest that diagnosis, in addition to carefully classifying children, also can highlight or include unique and particular contributions those with autism potentially can make to the world around us.
 
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Basic Sources On The Mmpi-2
James N. Butcher
University of Minnesota Press, 2000
All the core research literature in one convenient, up-to-date volume. Since its release in 1989, the MMPI-2 (the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) has generated an extensive body of research. A core of articles fundamental to an understanding of the MMPI-2 has emerged and is now available here in one essential resource. Edited by a recognized authority, the volume contains the published empirical and theoretical articles on scale construction for the original MMPI and the structure and development of MMPI-2 scales as well as two original pieces that fill gaps in the literature. With introductory comments preceding each section, the volume is divided into parts devoted to the development of the traditional validity and clinical scales; the MMPI-2 norms, including the development of uniform T scores; validity and supplementary scales created for the MMPI-2, as well as a set of subscales for clinical scale Si; validation research on the content scales introduced in the MMPI-2, providing information about empirical correlates that is crucial to MMPI-2 interpretation; studies on the reliability of the MMPI-2; studies on cultural and subcultural factors in MMPI-2 interpretation; and computer applications of the MMPI-2. Designed for researchers, graduate students in psychology, and professionals who use the MMPI-2 in their work, this volume will be an indispensable reference and resource.
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Classifying Criminal Offenders with the MMPI-2
The Megargee System
Edwin I. Megargee
University of Minnesota Press, 2001
An essential resource for employing this widely used personality assessment test in correctional settings. Originally developed in the 1970s and now revised for the MMPI-2, the Megargee System provides a method for classifying criminal offenders into groups based on their MMPI-2 profiles. This empirically derived system has been investigated in a wide variety of criminal justice settings including corrections, probation, and parole. It has been tested in minimum, medium, and maximum federal, state, and military correctional institutions, in local jails, in halfway houses, and in forensic mental health units. Its use has been extended to female offenders, older men, and juvenile delinquents. Integrating thirty years of research, this new resource fully evaluates the reliability, validity, sources, and uses of the Megargee system. Classifying Criminal Offenders with the MMPI-2 describes how the system was originally derived and validated and gives instructions on how to classify the original MMPI and MMPI-2 profiles of male and female criminal offenders. It integrates the findings of more than one hundred independent studies with previously unpublished original research investigating the characteristics of each of the system's empirically derived male and female types. On the basis of these data, the authors recommend the optimal settings, change agents, and treatment programs for each type of offender. As the basic reference work on the MMPI-2 Megargee system, this volume will be an essential resource for criminal justice practitioners, psychologists interested in the MMPI-2, and researchers in criminal classification and personality assessment. Edwin I. Megargee is professor of psychology at Florida State University and recognized as the foremost expert on the use of the MMPI instruments in correctional settings. Joyce L. Carbonell is professor of psychology at Florida State University. Martin J. Bohn Jr. is chief psychologist at Florida State Hospital. Greta L. Sliger is a clinical psychologist in Tallahassee, Florida.
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College Admissions for the 21st Century
Robert J. Sternberg
Harvard University Press, 2010

SATs, ACTs, GPAs. Everyone knows that these scores can’t tell a college everything that’s important about an applicant. But what else should admissions officers look for, and how can they know it when they see it? In College Admissions for the 21st Century a leading researcher on intelligence and creativity offers a bold and practical approach to college admissions testing.

Standardized tests are measures of memory and analytical skills. But the ever-changing global society beyond a college campus needs more than just those qualities, argues Robert Sternberg. Tomorrow’s leaders and citizens also need creativity, practicality, and wisdom.

How can the potential for those complex qualities be measured? One answer is “Kaleidoscope,” a new initiative in undergraduate admissions, first used at Tufts University. Its open-ended questions for applicants, and the means used to score the answers, gives applicants and admissions officers the chance to go beyond standardized tests.

Does it work? As Sternberg describes in detail, Kaleidoscope measures predicted first-year academic success, over and above SATs and high school GPAs, and predicted first-year extracurricular activities, leadership, and active citizenship as well. And every year that Kaleidoscope measures were used, the entering class’s average SATs and high school GPAs went up too.

What worked at Tufts can work elsewhere. New kinds of assessments, like Kaleidoscope, can liberate many colleges and students from the narrowness of standardized tests and inspire new approaches to teaching for new kinds of talented, motivated citizens of the world.

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Educational and Psychological Testing
A Study of the Industry and its Practices
Martin Holeman
Russell Sage Foundation, 1972
Educational and psychological tests are often used in ways which touch most intimately the lives of people. For example, tests may influence who gets a job or who is selected to attend a college or graduate school. But not everyone has agreed that tests are a good thing. Over the past twenty years a wave of complaints has led to congressional hearings, court cases, and formal grievances before state and federal commissions. Holmen and Docter have analyzed these complaints and criticisms not only by considering the tests themselves but through examining the ways tests are used as elements in assessment systems. The applications of tests in clinical and counseling work, in educational achievement testing, and in personnel selection is discussed and evaluated. While the least amount of testing is in the personnel selections area, this is where the most complaints are found. Educational achievement testing has by far the largest testing programs and a wide range of criticisms has been voiced concerning this kind of assessment. Testing in connection with clinical and counseling work has generated the least public concern. An extensive analysis is given of the organizations which comprise the testing industry, including the various developers and publishers of tests and also test scoring organizations. The users of tests are considered from the standpoint of their professional training and also in terms of how their organizations influence technical standards of test development.
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Essentials of MMPI-2 and MMPI-A Interpretation
James N. Butcher
University of Minnesota Press, 2000

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The Kuhlman-Binet Tests for Children of Preschool Age
Florence Goodenough
University of Minnesota Press, 1928

front cover of Masculinity and Femininity in the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A
Masculinity and Femininity in the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A
Hale Martin
University of Minnesota Press, 2010
Masculinity and femininity remain among the more confounding constructs in the history of personality psychology and psychological assessment. In spite of years of research and thousands of empirical studies, masculinity and femininity are still so fraught with confusion and political controversy that several prominent psychologists have suggested that the terms be abandoned. In this informative book, Hale Martin and Stephen E. Finn bring clarity to this topic by comprehensively reviewing past research and theory and extensively exploring "masculinity" and "femininity" as they are measured in the widely used MMPI instruments.

Martin and Finn consider the factor structure and correlates of masculinity and femininity in the MMPI in multiple samples. Through their analyses, they are able to address such questions as: Is there such a thing as masculinity/femininity? If so, are masculinity and femininity separate constructs, or are they opposite ends of a bipolar dimension? What are the core aspects of masculinity and femininity? Are they the same for men and women? Do the meanings of masculinity and femininity vary across the human life span and in different cultures? To what extent are masculinity and femininity biologically or socially determined? Can masculinity and femininity be adequately measured by the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A?

This insightful work uses solid empirical methods to clarify significant constructs. It will be an essential resource for researchers in the areas of personality, psychological assessment, and gender studies, as well as for clinicians working with clients who have nontraditional gender identities.
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The Matching Law
Papers in Psychology and Economics
Richard J. Herrnstein
Harvard University Press

This impressive collection features Richard Herrnstein's most important and original contributions to the social and behavioral sciences--his papers on choice behavior in animals and humans and on his discovery and elucidation of a general principle of choice called the matching law.

In recent years, the most popular theory of choice behavior has been rational choice theory. Developed and elaborated by economists over the past hundred years, it claims that individuals make choices in such a way as to maximize their well-being or utility under whatever constraints they face; that is, people make the best of their situations. Rational choice theory holds undisputed sway in economics, and has become an important explanatory framework in political science, sociology, and psychology. Nevertheless, its empirical support is thin.

The matching law is perhaps the most important competing explanatory account of choice behavior. It views choice not as a single event or an internal process of the organism but as a rate of observable events over time. It states that instead of maximizing utility, the organism allocates its behavior over various activities in exact proportion to the value derived from each activity. It differs subtly but significantly from rational choice theory in its predictions of how people exert self-control, for example, how they decide whether to forgo immediate pleasures for larger but delayed rewards. It provides, through the primrose path hypothesis, a powerful explanation of alcohol and narcotic addiction. It can also be used to explain biological phenomena, such as genetic selection and foraging behavior, as well as economic decision making.

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The Mmpi-2 Content Component Scales
Development, Psychometric Characteristics, and Clinical Application
Yossef S. Ben-Porath
University of Minnesota Press, 1993

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MMPI-2 Correlates for Outpatient Community Mental Health Settings
John R. Graham
University of Minnesota Press, 1999
The first major collection of outpatient data on the MMPI-2, the most widely used personality assessment test in the world. With the introduction of managed care to mental health treatment, patients increasingly are seen and treated in outpatient settings. Although the MMPI-2 and its predecessor, the MMPI, have long been used for outpatient assessment, the bulk of research on the test has been performed at inpatient psychiatric hospitals. This volume presents the first extensive set of correlates for the MMPI-2 in outpatient settings, demonstrating the relationship of MMPI-2 scores to clinically relevant behavior. Reporting the results of a large-scale research project on the use of the MMPI-2 in community mental health centers, this study provides clinically useful information concerning the interpretation of MMPI-2 scores and code types. Because the research found that the correlates in outpatient mental health settings are essentially the same as those in other settings, this book will be a standard reference for all clinicians who use the MMPI-2, regardless of where they work. "A well-written, well-organized presentation. The literature is extensively reviewed, both in terms of prototypic studies reporting MMPI interpretive correlates, as well as those performed by one or more of the authors using the MMPI-2. This comprehensive literature review and the knowledge base of the authors are quite laudable." Linda Nelson "This timely book presents extremely important data for the clinical and research communities. It is unusually comprehensive and thorough, representing what is probably the best effort to date at providing external correlates of MMPI-2 scales." David Berry John R. Graham, Yossef S. Ben-Porath, and John L. McNulty are in the Department of Psychology at Kent State University. Graham is professor and chair, Ben-Porath is associate professor, and McNulty is a postdoctoral fellow.
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Psychological and Psychoeducational Assessment of Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and Adolescents
Margery S. Miller
Gallaudet University Press, 2015
The obstacles to valid and meaningful assessment of deaf and hard of hearing children and adolescents are great, yet professionals are regularly asked to conduct comprehensive evaluations to determine resource and program eligibility, test modifications in school, classroom and home recommendations, and referrals. In this important new text, the authors define the skills required of the examiners, explain the complex nature of these assessments, and describe ways to intelligently use existing tests.

       Authors Margery S. Miller, Tania Thomas-Presswood, Kurt Metz, and Jennifer Lukomski bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to this in-depth treatment of topics essential to educators and school psychologists. They cover such critical areas as test construction and measurement; the diversity in American Deaf culture; the role of parents in the assessment process; neuropsychological assessments; nonverbal methods for assessing intelligence; and the need for sign language competency when testing cognitive and language skills.

       The text concludes with recommendations for the development of valid and reliable tests for all students who are deaf and hard of hearing.
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Questions About Questions
Inquiries into the Cognitive Bases of Surveys
Judith M. Tanur
Russell Sage Foundation, 1992
The social survey has become an essential tool in modern society, providing crucial measurements of social change, describing social life, and guiding government policy. But the validity of surveys is fragile and depends ultimately upon the accuracy of answers to survey questions. As our dependence on surveys grows, so too have questions about the accuracy of survey responses. Authored by a group of experts in cognitive psychology, linguistics, and survey research, Questions About Questions provides a broad review of the survey response problem. Examining the cognitive and social processes that influence the answers to questions, the book first takes up the problem of meaning and demonstrates that a respondent must share the survey researcher's intended meaning of a question if the response is to be revealing and informative. The book then turns to an examination of memory. It provides a framework for understanding the processes that can introduce errors into retrospective reports, useful guidance on when those reports are more or less trustworthy, and investigates techniques for the improvement of such reports. Questions about the rigid standardization imposed on the survey interview receive a thorough airing as the authors show how traditional survey formats violate the usual norms of conversational behavior and potentially endanger the validity of the data collected. Synthesizing the work of the Social Science Research Council's Committee on Cognition and Survey Research, Questions About Questions emphasizes the reciprocal gains to be achieved when insights and techniques from the cognitive sciences and survey research are exchanged. "these chapters provide a good sense of the range of survey problems investigated by the cognitive movement, the methods and ideas it draws upon, and the results it has yielded." —American Journal of Sociology
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The Search for Ability
Standardized Testing in Social Perspective
David A. Goslin
Russell Sage Foundation, 1963
A significant and eye-opening examination of the current state of the testing movement in the United States, where more than 150 million standardized intelligence, aptitude, and achievement tests are administered annually by schools, colleges, business and industrial firms, government agencies, and the military services. Despite widespread acceptance of these ability tests, there is surprisingly little systematic information about their use or effect. This book examines, raises questions about, and points the way to needed research on ability testing. It considers the possible social, legal, and emotional impact on society, the groups and organizations that make use of the tests, and the individuals who are directly affected by the results.
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Teachers and Testing
David A. Goslin
Russell Sage Foundation, 1967
Discusses the uses and abuses of intelligence testing in our educational systems. Dr. Goslin examines teachers' opinions and practices with regard to tests and finds considerable discrepancies between attitude and behavior. He points to the need for formulation of school policies that clearly specify what role teachers are to play in the measurement process. Dr. Goslin makes several policy recommendations, stressing the idea that the measuring process must take into account many aspects of a child's background and characteristics, and must guard against premature labeling or over-categorization.
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Vocational Interest Measurement
Theory and Practice
John G. Darley and Theda Hagenah
University of Minnesota Press, 1955

Vocational Interest Measurement was first published in 1955. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

Many years of clinical experience at the University of Minnesota, using the Strong Vocational Interest Bank in counseling services, form the basis for this book. The work will help other counselors to understand the meaning of the interest scores which they obtain with this test. In successive chapters, the authors discuss the meaning of work and jobs in our society, deal with the anatomy of interests, analyze interest patterns and outline a normative framework for their system of analysis, discuss personality factors as related to interests, review theories of origin and development of interests, and illustrate the use of interest measurement in counseling through a series of case studies. A volume in the Minnesota Library on Student Personnel Work.

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What Is Mental Illness?
Richard J. McNally
Harvard University Press, 2012

According to a major health survey, nearly half of all Americans have been mentally ill at some point in their lives—more than a quarter in the last year. Can this be true? What exactly does it mean, anyway? What’s a disorder, and what’s just a struggle with real life?

This lucid and incisive book cuts through both professional jargon and polemical hot air, to describe the intense political and intellectual struggles over what counts as a “real” disorder, and what goes into the “DSM,” the psychiatric bible. Is schizophrenia a disorder? Absolutely. Is homosexuality? It was—till gay rights activists drove it out of the DSM a generation ago. What about new and controversial diagnoses? Is “social anxiety disorder” a way of saying that it’s sick to be shy, or “female sexual arousal disorder” that it’s sick to be tired?

An advisor to the DSM, but also a fierce critic of exaggerated overuse, McNally defends the careful approach of describing disorders by patterns of symptoms that can be seen, and illustrates how often the system medicalizes everyday emotional life.

Neuroscience, genetics, and evolutionary psychology may illuminate the biological bases of mental illness, but at this point, McNally argues, no science can draw a bright line between disorder and distress. In a pragmatic and humane conclusion, he offers questions for patients and professionals alike to help understand, and cope with, the sorrows and psychopathologies of everyday life.

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Workbook-Essentials Of Mmpi-2
James N. Butcher
University of Minnesota Press, 2000
The best resource for interpreting these widely used personality assessment tests. Essentials of MMPI-2 and MMPI-A Interpretation presents innovative interpretive strategies for both the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, or MMPI-2, and the adaptation for adolescents, the MMPI-A. James N. Butcher and Carolyn L. Williams detail the rationale for the revision and development of the instruments and their scales, and describe how to administer, score, profile, code, and interpret the tests. The revised edition includes the most recent MMPI research, including new information on ethnic background and cultural setting as they relate to assessment. Focusing primarily on studies of profile validity and external correlates, the revision also includes interpretive guidelines for several scales that will be introduced into the MMPI tests in 2000. James N. Butcher is professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota. The author of numerous articles and books on the MMPI, he was a member of the MMPI Restandardization and Adolescent Project committees. Carolyn L. Williams is associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, and coauthor of two previous books on the MMPI.
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