Robert Terry

This study broadly addresses some of the criticisms associated with authentic leadership theory related to measurement and antecedents. Measurement: One purpose of this study was to verify the dimensionality of authentic leadership by testing the construct validity of three measures for authentic leadership: the Authentic Leadership Questionnaire (ALQ), the Authentic Leadership Inventory (ALI), and the Authentic Leadership Integrated Questionnaire (AL-IQ), proposed by Levesque-Cote et al. (2018) as an improvement on the previous two scales. This study was designed to replicate and extend Levesque-Cote et al. (2018) study with an English-speaking sample to further test the structural validity of the AL-IQ. This study was not designed to test the nomological network, associated outcomes for Authentic Leadership, or convergent and divergent validity. As such, we first employed confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), experimental structural equation modeling (ESEM), and bifactor analytic modeling (BAM) to validate the structure of the two original scales and the combined AL-IQ. In line with the Levesque-Cote et al. (2018) study, a four-factor ESEM model best fit the data for the AL-IQ, suggesting that the scale will work similarly in English-speaking samples. Antecedents: A second purpose of this study was to examine correlations between the three measures of authentic leadership and the perceived emotional intelligence of leaders. This study failed to establish discriminant validity between authentic leadership and emotional intelligence, as there were very strong correlations between all four scales, suggesting that emotional intelligence is an essential part of authentic leadership.

This study investigated the appropriateness of the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) as it relates to physical activity (PA) behavior in the back pain population. The motivational and volitional constructs of the HAPA, PA, and back pain-related disability variables were assessed in a sample of 350 men and women with back pain. HAPA model fit was satisfactory accounting for 21% of the variance in PA intentions and 28% of PA behavior. All motivational phase constructs relate to PA intention. Action/coping planning and recovery self-efficacy do not relate to PA behavior. PA intentions are the strongest predictor of PA behavior. An expanded model, including disability-specific variables, satisfactorily fit the data, accounting for 32% of PA intentions and 29% of PA participation. These data partially support assumptions of the HAPA for the back pain population. For the back pain population, interventions designed to affect PA behavior must account for disability-specific variables.

Reliability is a fundamental concept of test construction. The most common measure of reliability, coefficient alpha, is frequently used without an understanding of its behavior. This article contributes to the understanding of test reliability by demonstrating that questions which lower reliability are inconsistent with the bulk of the test, being prone to test‐taking tricks and guessing. These qualitative characteristics, obtained from focus groups, provide possible causes of lower reliability such as poorly written questions (e.g., the correct answer looks different from the incorrect answers), questions where students must guess (e.g., the topic is too advanced), and questions where recalling a definition is crucial. Quantitative findings confirm that questions lower reliability when students who answer correctly have lower overall scores than students who answer incorrectly. This phenomenon is quantified by the “gap” between these students' overall scores, which is shown to be highly correlated with other item metrics. An increasing number of concept inventory tests are being developed to assess student learning in engineering. Scores and student comments from the Statistics Concept Inventory are used to make these judgments.

A goal of concept inventories is to assess students' misconceptions. However, it is often unclear whether students possess an incorrect conceptual framework or are merely guessing. To distinguish between these possibilities, students who completed the statistics concept inventory (SCI) rated confidence in their answers. A positive trend was found between percent correct and mean item confidence across items (r = +0.306, p = 0.031). This study allows comparison with previous research on statistical reasoning skills, with student interviews the next logical step in the process