Reworded versus new interest items

Abstract

In revising the SVIB, 49 items were reworded and 101 items were replaced by new ones. The change in content between the original and reworded items was judged too slight to affect scoring of these items using current weights. The change in content between the original items and new items was judged too significant to allow these items to be scored on existing scales using current weights. To determine whether these judgments were correct, control and experimental groups responded to the items in a test-retest situation with a 3-day interval. 3 measures of stability agreed very well but not perfectly. An average of the 3 procedures indicated that 10 of the 49 reworded items should be classified as new instead of reworded. The criterion, stability of items, is a useful one in the selection of new items. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)