THE SELF-DIALOGUE ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE FOR WOMEN: TESTING A SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIAL COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT (COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT, WOMEN).
Contributors: Louisiana State University Medical Ctr. In New Orleans, S. Of Nursing.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 190
Subjects: Psychology, Psychometrics.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Women's Studies.
Description: As a person perceives, an internal dialogue orders the environment. Mental processes like description, inference, and problem-solving mediate perception. The concept of self-dialogue is an aspect of the cognitive mediation of perception.

The Self-Dialogue Assessment Questionnaire for Women (SDAQW) is a 14 item semantic differential instrument which measures self-dialogue. The SDAQW uses a 6 adjective pair response set to measure the evaluation, activity, and potency dimensions of the meaning of self-dialogue. The SDAQW was tested in a non-random, convenience sample (N = 314) of women between the ages of 18 and 75. The sample was primarily Caucasian, and educated above the high school level.

The SDAQW was reviewed by readers and content experts to determine content validity. The SDAQW was correlated with the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ-30; Hollon & Kendall, 1980) and the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist-Revised (MAACL-R; Zuckerman & Lubin, 1985) to investigate the relationship between self-dialogue and related constructs. The SDAQW had a moderate to low statistically significant correlation with the ATQ-30 scales and the negative MAACL-R affect scales, and a moderate to low statistically significant positive correlation with the positive affect MAACL-R scales.

As a result of factor analysis and conceptual review, three scales were developed to measure self-dialogue: Substance, Process, and Function. An acceptable level of internal consistency reliability was obtained for the SDAQW as a whole, and each of its three factors. Test-restest reliability of the SDAQW was.78 when given to the same group (n = 69) two weeks apart.

A one-way analysis of variance indicated no significant differences in the SDAQW results related to age or work. However, a significant effect (p =.0376) was found for race. This finding is suspect, however, due to the low number of non-Caucasian women in the sample. Further testing is necessary to determine if any significant differences occur, or if this was simply a result of the sampling distribution.

New information was sought in this study about the psychometric characteristics of the SDAQW. With a better understanding of cognitive processes and a valid and reliable measure of self-dialogue, health professionals may gain the ability to more effectively intervene at the mediating self-dialogue level and enhance the effectiveness of psycho-educational cognitive interventions aimed at health promotion.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-01, Section: B, page: 0606.

Thesis (D.N.S.)--LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CTR. IN NEW ORLEANS, S. OF NURSING, 1990.

School code: 1053.