| This study investigated the convergent-discriminant validity of Rational Emotive Therapy's (RET) irrationality construct and the temporal stability of irrationality as well as the reliability of Thought Listing (TL), a method used to assess irrational self-statements, and the Rational Behavior Inventory (RBI), a method used to assess irrational beliefs.;Spearman Rank order Correlation and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation assessed the relationships among TL, RBI, state-anxiety assessed by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the short-form Bem Sex-Role Inventory and the Shipley Institute of Living Scale. All the hypotheses required a .05 significance level for acceptance or rejection. The test-retest reliability required a .05 or lower significance and a minimum .70 reliability correlation for acceptance.;Irrational self-statements, as measured by TL, were not related to irrational beliefs, as measured by the RBI, nor to state-anxiety (based on RET theory the measures were expected to be related). The results suggested that TL did not assess irrationality.;The relationship between the RBI and the state-anxiety demonstrated convergence; RBI with gender identity and intelligence failed to demonstrate discrimination. In addition, the RBI test-retest correlation of .61 did not meet the reliability criterion. The results of this research leave doubt that the current methods used to assess irrationality are adequate.;Subjects for this research were recruited from a class in Introductory Psychology at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. The subjects received extra credit for participating in the research. Of the 60 subjects recruited, 55 completed the research; 5 subjects were not in attendance when the posttests were administered. The group consisted of 30 females (28 white, 2 black) and 25 males (20 white, 4 black, 1 native Alaskan). The mean age was 20.1 with a range 18-31. |
