Psychometric Characteristics of Megargee's Work Performance and Interpersonal Adjustment Rating Schedules

Abstract

Since their introduction in 1972, the Megargee Interpersonal Adjustment (IAR) and Work Performance Rating (WPR) forms have been adopted at a number of state and federal correctional institutions to facilitate the systematic recording of quantifiable observations of inmate behavior. Interpretation of these forms has been hampered by the lack of information regarding the psychometric characteristics of those instruments. In this report, approximately 2,500 reports filed on a cohort of 1,344 young adult offenders at a medium security Federal prison were analyzed; means, standard deviation, T-score equivalents, skew, kurtosis, and intercorrelations of the items on each form are reported. Factor analysis yielded one general factor for each instrument and factor weights are provided for those wishing to calculate a composite factor T-score for each instrument.