Date of Award

Spring 1-1977

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

School Psychology

Keywords

Children -- Intelligence testing, Intelligence tests -- Evaluation, Thesis (M. S.)--Kansas State Teachers College of Pittsburg, 1977

Abstract

This study investigated the validity of the general ability factor, Factor B of the Early School Personality Questionnaire(ESPQ), in two ways. First, validity coefficients for Factor B were obtained by computing product-moment correlation coefficients between the ESPQ Factor B raw scores of 40 developmentally disabled subjects and their raw scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). Second, the Kruskal-Wallis rank sums test and a distribution-free multiple comparisons test were employed to determine if there were significant differences among the mean ESPQ Factor B raw scores of subjects designated as mentally retarded, learning disabled, or normal. Specifically, it was tested if there were significant differences between the mean ESPQ Factor B raw scores of (1) the mentally retarded subjects and the learning disabled subjects, (2) the mentally retarded subjects and the normal subjects, and (3) the learning disabled and the normal subjects.

In the first case, all of the validity coefficients obtained for Factor B of the ESPQ were significant at the .001 level with the exception of the validity coefficient obtained from the correlation of the ESPQ Factor B raw scores with the raw scores of the WISC-R Coding subtest. It was concluded that the ESPQ Factor B raw scores, to a degree, measured the general mental ability of the developmentally disabled subjects much like the raw scores of the WISC-R measured the general mental ability of the developmentally disabled subjects employed in the study.

In the second case, the results indicated that there were significant differences at the .001 level among the mean ESPQ Factor B raw scores of the mentally retarded, learning disabled, and normal subjects. The mean ESPQ Factor B raw scores of the learning disabled subjects and the normal subjects were found to be significantly higher than the mean ESPQ Factor B raw scores of the mentally retarded subjects, and (2) the mean ESPQ Factor B raw scores of the learning disabled subjects and the normal subjects did not significantly differ. Respectively, it was concluded that (1) the learning disabled and normal subjects were higher than the mentally retarded subjects in mean level of general mental ability as measured by the ESPQ Factor B raw scores, and (2) the learning disabled subjects and the normal subjects were about equivalent in mean level of general mental ability as measured by the ESPQ Factor B raw scores. The latter finding was interpreted as agreeing with a generally accepted criterion for diagnosing learning disabilities in that learning disabled children are generally differentiated from normal children on the basis of specific differences in basis Psychological processes rather than on the basis of differ-ences in general mental ability. It was concluded that the ESPQ Factor B raw scores apparently were not an accurate measure of those specific aspects of psychological processes which differentiated the learning disabled child from the normal child in the study.

The general findings of the study suggested that the ESPQ Factor B raw scores, to a good degree, were a valid measure of the general mental ability of the subjects employed in the study since (1) the validity coefficients obtained for Factor B were generally substantial with the sample of developmentally disabled subjects employed, and (2) significant differences in mean ESPQ Factor B raw scores were measured among the subjects designated as mentally retarded, learning disabled, or normal.

Comments

49 leaves ; 28 cm. Bibliography: leaves 34-36.

Added Title: Early school personality questionnaire.

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.