TRENDS IN REPORTING PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF SCALES USED IN COUNSELING PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH

Reports of reliability and validity estimates are necessary to determine the adequacy of scales' psychometric properties. In this study we examined the frequency of reports of psychometric properties for scales described in the 1967, 1977, and 1987 volumes of the Journal of Counseling Psychology. The results indicated that researchers have increasingly provided reference citations for scales and reliability estimates as well as reliability estimates for their samples. At the same time the majority of the scales in the 1987 volume had no reported sample or cited reliability estimates. The modal number of items per scale over the 3 time periods remained at 1. A set of guidelines for reporting scale characteristics is proposed, and potential explanations for researchers' frequent omission of psychometric data are discussed.