The Measurement of Parent Behavior

It is the purpose of this paper to describe the Fels Parent-Behavior Rating Scales. Whether the reader is interested in using the scales, in evaluating the results of their use in research, or merely in problems of measurement in social psychology, he will perhaps wish to know something of the rationale which lies behind the final product. With this in mind, the following topics are treated: the human judge as a psychometric instrument; the rating scale as a device for the expression of judgments, its strengths and weaknesses, and a reinterpretation of some classic objections; an improved rating-scale format; specifications for good behavior cues; and a procedure by which the cues may be scaled.