Becoming a Brilliant Star
Holistic Assessment

Annotated Bibliography

Prepared by: W. Huitt
Last revised: September 2008

Core Elements Across Ages

Spiritual Development

• Kass, J. (1996). Self tests: Spirituality and well-being. Spirituality and Health Web site, http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/newsh/items/selftest/item_234.html
  Index of Core Spiritual Experiences (INSPIRIT): a self-test that provides quantitative results of a connection with one’s spiritual core. While there are concerns with this type of assessment tool, the instrument is widely used and can bring the participant to a greater level of self-awareness. The test does refer to a Supreme Being, but provides the participant with a definition that can be applied to other belief systems. The INSPIRIT test does address the relationship between self and others. Integrating INSPIRIT into the classroom setting would be simple and the results possibly meaningful to the participants. However, the scope of the participant’s spiritual knowledge may be limited.

• Paloutzian, R. , & Ellison, C. (1982). Loneliness, spiritual well-being, and the quality of life. In Peplau, L. A., & Perlman, D. (Eds.), Loneliness: A sourcebook of current theory, research and therapy. New York: Wiley; Bufford, R., Paloutzian, R., & Ellison, C. (1991). Norms for the spiritual well-being scale. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 19, 56-70.
  Spiritual Well-Being Scale: This assessment tool has two dimensions: religious and existential. It is a 20-item self-administered test that yields a total score, a religious well-being summed score, and a summed score for the existential well-being. It has a test-retest reliability of .93; the internal consistency coefficients ranged from .94 to .89 in 7 different studies.

• Berg, G. (1997). Living waters spiritual assessment software. St. Cloud, MN: Living Water Software. Available from http://www.spiritualassessment.com/index.htm
  Developed an online assessment instrument based on the work of McSherry (1987). The instrument provides scores for strength of religious belief, spiritual injury, and a series of scores for types of stress.
  

• Pruyser, P. (1976). The minister as diagnostician, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press.
  Pruyser’s model includes seven categories: things that are sacred, hope and trust, commitment, thankfulness, guilt, connectedness, and purpose in life and work. When utilizing this instrument, the instructor listens to students’ stories, asking questions that relate to the seven themes.

• Fitchett, G. (1993). Assessing spiritual needs: A guide for caregivers. Minneapolis: Augsburg.
  Fitchett’s approach also focuses on seven areas: beliefs and meaning, vocation and consequences, experiences and emotion, courage and growth, ritual and practice, community, authority and guidance, which provide an understanding of the student’s spirituality in a broader context.
  

• Nino, A. (1997). Assessment of spiritual quests in clinical practice. International Journal of Psychotherapy, 2(2), 192-212.
  Nino’s spiritual quest is based on 10 items that lead the participant to create a detailed autobiographical story.

Moral Character

• Battisch, V., Solomon, D., Watson, M., Solomon, J., & Schaps, E. (1989). Effects of an elementary school program to enhance prosocial behavior on children’s cognitive-social problem-solving skills and strategies. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 10, 147-169.
  Describes a variety of techniques to address measuring prosocial skills. For example, the researchers used an interview approach and pictures to present three conflict situations to kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade children. These conflicts involved a focal child whose use of an object was inter­fered with by another child. The oral presen­tation was followed by a set of open-ended ques­tions. The responses were scored for eight variables including (1) the interviewee’s under­standing of the thoughts and feelings of the conflict participants, (2) his or her belief that their actions will solve the problem, (3) means-ends thinking (planning, consi­dering alterna­tives, anticipating obstacles and consequences), (4) the type of strategies suggested, and (5) the proportion of prosocial and antisocial strategies offered.

• Hoffman, M. (1970). Moral development. In P. Mussen (Ed.), Charmichael’s manual of child psychology (3^rd ed., 251-359). New York: Wiley.
  Presents students with story beginnings and asks them to write endings.

• Hogan, R., & Dickstein, E. (1972). A measure of moral values. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 39(2), 210-214.
  Measure of Moral Values: students are presented with fifteen brief statements they hear in everyday conver­sation and are asked to write one-line reactions to each. These reactions are scored for (1) concern for the sanctity of the indivi­dual, (2) judgments based on the spirit rather than the letter of the law, (3) concern for the welfare of society as a whole, and (4) the capacity to see both sides of an issue.

• Kohlberg, L. (1979). The meaning and measurement of moral development. Heinz Werner Memorial Lecture. Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.
  The Moral Judgment Interview presents dilemmas followed by a series of open-ended questions.

• Rest, J. (1979). Manual for the Defining Issues Test: An objective test of moral judgment development (Rev. ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  Presentation of questions that have ready-made responses from which to choose. Students can be asked to choose the response that reflects their views or they can be asked to rank the responses from most to least desirable.

• Vessels, G. (1998). Character and community development: A school planning and teacher training handbook. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

  • Classroom Observation Form uses a combination of event recording (32 types of interpersonal interactions), quality ratings, and whole-interval time sampling for observable aspects of instruction.

  • School Climate Survey is specifically designed to assess the social-environmental effects of character education programs and whether or not critical elements of a character-building community are present. There is an emphasis on leadership and relationships among members of the school community. There are also classroom-climate instruments for the elementary level.

  • The early elementary (VSCQ-EE), late elementary (VSCQ-LE), and high school (VSCQ-HS) student character questionnaires attempt to assess all aspects of individual moral functioning including moral feeling, moral thinking, moral skills, moral behavior.

Personal Style

• Values in Action: Inventory of Strengths: http://www.viastrengths.org
  Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. New York: Oxford University Press. 
  Self-report measure consisting of 240 questions related to the twenty-four character strengths and virtues addressed in the book. A short version and a youth version of the online instrument are also available.

• Jung Typology Test -- http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp [48-item test: http://similarminds.com/jung.html}
  Seventy-two item online self-report instrument based on Carl Jung's theory of human personality and Isabel Myers-Briggs interpretation of that theory. Provides score for four dimensions and corresponding statement of personality type.

• Learning style online-- http://www.learning-styles-online.com/
  Seventy-item online self-report related to seven dimensions of learning style (visual-spatial, aural-auditory, verbal-linguistic, physical-bodily-kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, social-interpersonal, and solitary-intrapersonal)

• Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire -- http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html
  Forty-four item online self-report instrument designed for college students related to four dimensions of learning style (active vs. reflective; sensing vs. intuitive; visual vs. verbal; sequential vs. global); can easily be used with high school students.