Development, psychometric analysis, and validation of an error-choice test to measure attitudes toward persons with epilepsy.

The Test Of Knowledge About Epilepsy (KAE) is a disguised indirect measure of attitudes toward persons with epilepsy consisting of 20 error-choice test items requiring respondents to select one of four incorrect alternatives. To hide the true purpose of the test, 20 items of general knowledge about epilepsy are interspersed with the error-choice items. Study # 1 involved the development of the KAE and psycho- metric analyses of prototype KAE data from a sample of 406 respondents. Results indicated satisfactory item characteristics, adequate reliability and homogeneity, and preliminary support for the measure's construct validity. In Study #2, analyses of data from a revised KAE obtained from a second sample of 325 respondents substantiated both the adequacy of the instrument's psychometric characteristics and its construct validity. The concurrent and discriminant validity of the KAE were supported by analyses of the associations of the KAE with a summated-rating direct measure of attitudes, a measure of social desirability responding, and measures of respondents' sociodemographic and experiential attributes. The KAE may be useful as a supplement to more traditional direct measures for the investigation of human-service providers' attitudes toward persons with epilepsy.

[1]  Christine Y. Mason,et al.  Teaching Medical Students About Epilepsy , 1990, Epilepsia.

[2]  R. Levin,et al.  Psychosocial Dimensions of Epilepsy: A Review of the Literature , 1988, Epilepsia.

[3]  H. Livneh,et al.  The Measurement of Attitudes Toward People With Disabilities: Methods, Psychometrics and Scales , 1988 .

[4]  J. Gutteling,et al.  Previous Experiences with Epilepsy and Effectiveness of Information to Change Public Perception of Epilepsy , 1986, Epilepsia.

[5]  E. Gade,et al.  Employers' Attitudes toward Hiring Epileptics: Implications for Job Placement. , 1983 .

[6]  R. Antonak,et al.  Measurement and analysis of Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Epilepsy and Persons with Epilepsy. , 1982, Social science & medicine.

[7]  R. Beran,et al.  Doctors' Perspectives of Epilepsy , 1981, Epilepsia.

[8]  I. Ajzen,et al.  Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior , 1980 .

[9]  K. Whitmore,et al.  A Study of Children with Epilepsy Attending Ordinary Schools. II: Information and Attitudes Held by Their Teachers , 1974, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[10]  S. S. Zalkind,et al.  Effects of an Educational Campaign to Change Employer Attitudes toward Hiring Epileptics , 1972, Epilepsia.

[11]  C. Bagley.  Social Prejudice and the Adjustment of People with Epilepsy , 1972, Epilepsia.

[12]  J. Brigham,et al.  The Influence of Attitude on Judgments of Plausibility: a Replication and Extension , 1970 .

[13]  E. Goffman.  Stigma; Notes On The Management Of Spoiled Identity , 1964 .

[14]  D. Marlowe,et al.  A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology. , 1960, Journal of consulting psychology.

[15]  D. Suits.  Use of Dummy Variables in Regression Equations , 1957 .

[16]  D T CAMPBELL,et al.  Galvanic skin response to Negro and white experimenters. , 1955, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[17]  Richard F. Antonak,et al.  Direct and indirect methods to measure attitudes toward persons with disabilities, with an exegesis of the error-choice test method. , 1995 .

[18]  H. Livneh,et al.  Indirect methods to measure attitudes toward persons with disabilities. , 1994 .

[19]  Judith M. Tanur,et al.  Questions About Questions: Inquiries into the Cognitive Bases of Surveys , 1993 .

[20]  H. Livneh,et al.  A review of research on psychosocial adjustment to impairment among persons with epilepsy , 1992 .

[21]  Russell H. Fazio,et al.  New technologies for the direct and indirect assessment of attitudes. , 1992 .

[22]  R. Antonak.  Psychometric analysis and validation of the scale of attitudes toward persons with epilepsy , 1990 .

[23]  J. Tsai,et al.  [Parental attitude and adjustment to childhood epilepsy]. , 1990, Zhonghua Minguo xiao er ke yi xue hui za zhi [Journal]. Zhonghua Minguo xiao er ke yi xue hui.

[24]  G. Scambler,et al.  Generating a model of epileptic stigma: the role of qualitative analysis. , 1990, Social science & medicine.

[25]  B. Hermann,et al.  Psychopathology in epilepsy : social dimensions , 1986 .

[26]  B. Tabachnick,et al.  Using Multivariate Statistics , 1983 .

[27]  David Brinberg,et al.  Forms of validity in research , 1982 .

[28]  Gilbert Sax,et al.  Principles of educational and psychological measurement and evaluation , 1980 .

[29]  J. Finn.  A General Model for Multivariate Analysis , 1978 .

[30]  E. W. Stude.  Evaluation of Short-Term Training for Rehabilitation Counselors: Effectiveness of an Institute on Epilepsy. , 1973 .