Self–other agreement on multidimensional self-concept ratings: Factor analysis and multitrait–multimethod analysis.

Abstract

College students were asked to complete the Self-Description Questionnaire III (SDQ III;Marsh & O'Niell, 1984) and to ask the person who knew them the best to complete the SDQ III as if they were the person who had given the particular student the survey. The purposes of the study are to examine psychometric properties of the SDQ III, to determine the ability of an external observer to accurately infer multidimensional self-concepts, and to describe new methodological approaches to this type of study. Separate factor analyses of both self-ratings and responses by significant others identified the 13 dimensions of self-concept that the SDQ III was designed to measure. For each set, the internal consistences of the 13 scales were high, whereas the average correlation among the factors was close to zero. Selfother agreement was quite high (mean r = 0.58), demonstrating that significant others are able to accurately infer multidimensional self-concepts of someone who they know well. Multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) analyses, based on Campbell-Fiske criteria and confirmatory factor analysis, supported both the convergent and divergent validity of the SDQ III factors. A methodological extension of the MTMM design is introduced and its implications for other research are discussed.

Reliability of observer ratings in the assessment of personality disorders: A preliminary study

“…This finding appears to contradict research that indicates that only raters who know subjects well are accurate in their judgment (Marsh, Barnes, & Hocevar, 1985; McCrae, 1982; Mellor, 1986). However, it could be argued that how well people know one another is more than a function of the amount of time they spend together.…”

Adolescents' competence and the mutuality of their self-descriptions and descriptions of them provided by others

“…The increase in mutuality from age 12 to age 14 is in agreement with suggestions by Marsh et al (1985) and by Petersen et aL (1984) that older subjects know themselves better and are more likely to use similar criteria a significant others do in providing a self-description. This would cause a growing insight of adolescents in their functioning, as well as convergence between the adolescents' view of themselves and the view others have.…”

Gender Gaps in Overestimation of Math Performance

“…1 Women who had a more positive historical experience with math estimated their performance more positively. On the y-axis, positive numbers indicate overestimation of past performance (i.e., positivity bias), negative numbers indicate underestimation been found to be a valid and reliable measure of math selfefficacy (Byrne 1988a, b;Marsh 1992;Marsh and O'Neill 1984;Marsh et al 1985Marsh et al , 1986, with reliability scores typically ranging from .80 to .95 (Marsh 1992).…”