Psychometric Characteristics of Megargee's Work Performance and Interpersonal Adjustment Rating Schedules

Abstract

Since their introduction in 1972, the Megargee Interpersonal Adjustment (IAR) and Work Performance Rating (WPR) forms have been adopted at a number of state and federal correctional institutions to facilitate the systematic recording of quantifiable observations of inmate behavior. Interpretation of these forms has been hampered by the lack of information regarding the psychometric characteristics of those instruments. In this report, approximately 2,500 reports filed on a cohort of 1,344 young adult offenders at a medium security Federal prison were analyzed; means, standard deviation, T-score equivalents, skew, kurtosis, and intercorrelations of the items on each form are reported. Factor analysis yielded one general factor for each instrument and factor weights are provided for those wishing to calculate a composite factor T-score for each instrument.

Predicting prison adjustment with structured personality inventories.

“…These instruments, which have been described in detail in previous ' See the Testing Procedures section for the criteria used to determine validity. publications (Fowler & Megargee, 1976;Megargee, 1972b), consist respectively of eight (Adjustment) or nine (Work) 5-point bipolar anchored scales evaluating such dimensions as response to supervision, interpersonal relations, and so forth. Developed with the assistance of custodial and supervisor personnel, they enjoyed a high degree of user acceptance.…”

Assessment research in correctional settings: Methodological issues and practical problems.

“…Quarterly or monthly ratings tend to be stereotyped with little variation across scales or among prisoners. Weekly ratings are much better, but daily evaluations would be best if raters could be persuaded to make them that often (Fowler & Megargee, 1976).…”

Predicting prison adjustment with MMPI correctional scales.

“…Three other measures were specially collected for the longitudinal research project that supplied the data for the present study. They were (a) ratings of adjustment and behavior in the living units made at 90-day intervals by custodial officers (assigned to each dormitory) on Megargee’s Adjustment Rating forms (Fowler & Megargee, 1976; Megargee, 1972); (b) ratings of behavior and adjustment in the work settings made at 90-day intervals by work supervisors on Megargee’s Work Performance rating forms (Fowler & Megargee, 1976; Megargee, 1972); and (c) ratings of behavior, adjustment, and progress in the educational program made monthly by the teachers. Unlike the three “prison” measures, these three “staff” measures reflected positive as well as negative adjustment, and their utilization adds a new dimension to prison adjustment research.…”