The development of three new content-homogeneous subscales for the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) Social Introversion (Si) scale designed to replace the Serkownek (1975) subscales, which were not included in the revised MMPI, is described. The subscales, termed Shyness/Self-Consciousness, Social Avoidance, and Self/Other Alienation, were developed with data provided by college students (515 men and 797 women). Data analyses with this and the MMPI-2 normative sample demonstrated that the new subscales independently contribute to the assessment of nearly 90% of the variance in the full Si scale, that they display both convergent and divergent validity, and that these attributes generalize beyond the sample with which they were developed.
Some researchers, concerned over the length of the MMPI, have attempted to reduce item administration yet provide equivalent, interpretable scales. This article reviews the research on reduced itemadministration procedures for the MMPI, addressing issues related to the use of shortened forms. The MMPI has recently undergone a major revision, and the MMPi-2 is available; however, the issues discussed here have relevance to the revised instrument, as it is about the same length as the original. Three basic strategies for reducing item administration have been developed: abbreviating the administration by having the S respond only to items on the basic validity and clinical scales (about 399 in the original MMPI and 370 in the MMPI-2); actually reducing the number of items on the standard scales (short form); and using adaptive item-administration strategies to reduce the number of items presented. Future item-abbreviation issues and strategies are discussed.
This paper reports the results from a mixed methods study of recent college graduates who were asked if and why they used blogs as sources for continued learning purposes. Findings are based on 1,651 online survey responses and 63 follow-up telephone interviews with young graduates from 10 U.S. colleges and universities. Despite the media’s declarations about the impending demise of the blogosphere, almost two-thirds of the respondents (62 percent) had read blogs to fulfill their learning needs during the past 12 months. Blogs were an affordable source of information to these readers, especially for acquiring additional knowledge and closing skill gaps in their personal lives after college. Results from a logistic regression analysis indicated respondents were more likely to have read blogs during the past 12 months if they needed step-by-step instructions for hobbies, do-it-yourself household repairs, or money management and creating a personal budget. Respondents who used blogs were also more likely to also use complementary sources, such as educational videos on YouTube, to meet their learning needs. The concept of shared utility is introduced as a basis for explaining reasons for use of the blog format, and conclusions are drawn about why blogs, an early Web form, are still useful to millennials as sources of continued learning.
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