The Validity Of A Behavioral Rating Scale: Application Of A Psychophysical Technique

A multidimensional scaling technique (MDS) was used to assess the content and construct validity of a behavioral rating scale constructed to measure appropriate and inappropriate classroom behavior. A group of teachers was asked to rate a number of videotaped samples of these two behavior categories. The MDS technique was used to construct the psychological maps or structures that the teachers used when making judgments about the behaviors. The structures are represented spatially and show the distance of each behavior from every other behavior and the fundamental properties of each group of behaviors. The results showed that the classroom behavior rating scale was generally a valid measure of students' classroom behavior on both content and construct validation measures. The majority of behaviors specified by the scale as inappropriate were judged by the teachers to be inappropriate, while all of the appropriate behaviors on the scale were considered valid by the teachers. Similarly the construct validity of the scale was confirmed by the teachers. They judged most of the scale-specified components of the construct labels "inappropriate" and "appropriate" as relevant and valid. The results suggest that MDS techniques represent a useful means of resolving complex problems of validity inherent in current methods of behavior analysis.