Kilpatrick, Doreen Leila2025-06-162025-06-161975https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22390Research concerning the behaviour of children beyond the preschool years has of ten relied on the use of rating scales as a meansof assessing child behaviour. In the present study, ratings by both parents of normal children, and ratings by both parents and child care workers , acting as "surrogate" parents, on maladjusted children, were analyzed. It was found that the degree to which ratings reflected favourable assessments was dependent on both the sex of rater and the sex of child. The degree of consensus obtained between male and female raters was dependent on the sex and the diagnosis of the child (normal or maladjusted). There was a difference in rating style between male and female raters, with female raters demonstrating more frequent use of the extreme rating categories than males. These results were discussed and interpreted in terms of a common frame of reference (sex role training) for female raters, the tendency toward idiosyncratic or individualized responses for male raters, and the effect of differing degree of rater/child contact.enAvailable to the World Wide WebThesis