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Staff ratings of children's behaviour in hospital: Comparability of factor structures
Author(s) -
Clough Fred
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1978.tb01632.x
Subject(s) - comparability , psychology , scale (ratio) , factor analysis , social psychology , correlation , reliability (semiconductor) , statistics , sample (material) , inter rater reliability , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , rating scale , mathematics , quantum mechanics , power (physics) , physics , geometry , chemistry , chromatography , combinatorics
Behaviour‐ratings for a common sample of 108 young adolescent girls in an orthopaedic hospital situation were obtained concurrently from three independent groups of ward‐staff observers. The ratings were factor analysed both within observer groups, and across groups (using mean scale item scores), and factorial structures were analysed for comparability. It was found that the independently derived group structures were highly similar, replicating a four‐dimensional system common to a number of analyses in other social settings, and recently given prominence in a review by Howarth (1976). In particular, the separation of fearful from hostile emotional behaviours, and from a neutral sociability dimension, was predicted and confirmed. However, whilst correlations between matched factor loadings were generally high, those between matched factor scores were much lower. It is argued that the procedure of averaging judges' ratings prior to factor analysis is useful not only to increase reliability, but to improve validity by extending the range of sampling across different role situations. Hence in spite of a relatively low inter‐judge agreement, the combined solution offers a more valid composite criterion of ‘characterstic ward behaviour’ having a high multiple correlation with the independently derived predictor group observations.