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Psychometric re-evaluation of the Women in Science Scale (WISS)
Abstract
The Women in Science Scale (WiSS) was first developed in 1984, and is still being used in contemporary studies, yet its psychometric properties have not been evaluated with current statistical methods. In this study, the WiSS was administered in its original 27-item form to 1,439 middle and high school students. Confirmatory factor analysis based upon the original description of the WiSS was modestly supportive of the proposed three-factor structure, but the claimed dimensions showed substantial redundancy. Therefore, we split our sample and performed exploratory factor analyses on one half. The most satisfactory solution, a two-factor model, was then applied to the crossvalidation sample with a confirmatory factor analysis. This two-factor structure was supported with a total of 14 items. Factor 1, Equality, contains eight items, and factor 2, Sexism, six items. Although our data are limited to adolescents, the WiSS, with improved psychometric properties, may be used descriptively to assess attitudes toward women in science and with additional stability and repeatability testing, may be used in evaluation research. The shortened WiSS should result in shorter administration time, fewer missing data, and increased acceptance among survey administrators in classroom settings. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 1461–1478, 2007
... The Women in Science Scale (WiSS) (Erb & Smith 1984) has been used in several contemporary studies (e.g. Bailer, 1998; Ching, 1992; Clark, 1986; Giacobbi, 1998; Owen et al., 2007; Ridgill, 1987; Stake & Malkin, 2003, Wyer, 2003a, 2003b Wyer et al. 2007), and this scale has the virtue of incorporating perceptions of scientists with attitudes toward women. However, the WiSS has significant limitations in both form and scope for capturing stereotypes about scientists, since this strength is also a weakness—some items confound attitudes toward women with stereotypes about scientists. ...
... Items were developed using multiple sources, including focus groups, earlier published scales aimed at capturing images of scientists (Krajkovich & Smith, 1982; Erb & Smith, 1984; Owen, Toepperwein et al., 2007; Spence, Helmreich, & Stapp, 1973), and scholarship about gender and science (Birke, 1986; Harding, 1991; Keller, 1977; Schiebinger, 1999). Although the objective of the research was to create a quantitative measure of undergraduates' stereotypes of scientists, focus groups were included to inform the wording of questionnaire items (Ulin, Robinson, & Tolley (2005), generate new items (e.g., Wolff, Knodel, & Sittitrai, 1993), improve instruments as a whole (e.g., O'Brien, 1993), and help to adapt items (e.g., Fuller, Edwards, Vorakitphokatorn, & Sermsri, 1993). ...
... An initial principal axis factor analysis with promax rotation with Kaiser normalization did not yield a clear solution. Therefore, based on a scree plot analysis and the results of research conducted previously using the Image of Scientists Scale (ISSS) (Krajkovich & Smith, 1982) and the Women in Science Scale (WiSS) (Erb & Smith, 1984; Owen, Toepperwein et al., 2007), a forced two-factor solution was run. A loading cutoff of .40 or higher was implemented. ...
The purpose of this study was to develop a contemporary measure of undergraduates' stereotypes of scientists that will make it possible to examine similarities and differences across time, place, culture, and demographics. The Stereotypes of Scientists (SOS) Scale is intended to be a catalyst for research that explores the degree to which college students' current stereotypes of scientists vary by their gender, ethnicity, country, education level, and academic major. The research was designed to identify the character and content of contemporary college students' images of scientists, both what they ‘do' in their day-to-day work and who they ‘are' as people. The majority of participants (n = 1,106) were college students. Fifty-seven possible items were generated from several sources. Results of exploratory factor analyses for the Stereotypes of Scientists (SOS) Scale indicate a twenty-two item, two-factor solution with the constructs of Professional Competencies (13 items) and Interpersonal Competencies (9 items). Further analyses of the SOS Scale found no effect of participants' gender on the construct validity or reliability of the scale. Thus, in the sample, women and men had similar responses to the items. A review of the items in the two factors suggests that students have complex, and sometimes contradictory, images of scientists, which resonate with but do not neatly reproduce an alignment between images of ‘scientists' and Western norms related to masculinity.
... These assertions have mainly been developed from existing assertions from research and reports included in the current of « public understanding of science » et « public understanding of research » (Girault & Lhoste, 2010), from international report (Commision Européenne, 2005, OCDE, 2006, The Gallup Organization, 2008) and research on student opinions about science and its links with society ( Aschbacher, Li & Roth, 2010 ;Schreiner & Sjoberg, 2004), nature of sciences (Park, 2012), research career (Sjøberg, 2000) and place of women in scientific professions (Owen et al., 2007). ...
In the context of the IRRESISTIBLE project in Greece, five highly qualified and
experienced in-service teachers of primary and secondary education developed and
implemented a teaching module on Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) using topics
from the fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology (NST). The teachers were active members
in a ''Community of Learners'' (CoL) consisting of two science education researchers, two
nanoscience researchers and three science museum experts. The final outcome of the
implementation of the module was science exhibits, constructed by students to communicate
their new knowledge to the wider public. Therefore in this study we investigate: a) how
teachers reconstruct a new area of science focused on RRI aspects into content for instruction
and b) to what extent primary and secondary students are able to construct exhibits on RRI
issues based on topics from the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology in order to
communicate to wider public the knowledge acquired. Since the members of the CoL were
located in three different parts of Greece, teleconferences and face to face meetings were used
in order to develop the module. During the implementation of the module, students had the
opportunity to visit virtually or face to face a science research institute and a science museum.
Data were collected through questionnaires from teachers and students, video recordings of
the CoL meetings, interviews with teachers, focus group interview with students and field
notes. The results of the study strongly support that the whole process enhanced students’
knowledge on NST and raised awareness in general on social and ethical issues related to
science and technology.
... Therefore, data were tentatively deemed Missing at Random (MAR) as opposed to Missing Not at Random (MNAR). Given that data were found to be MAR, and the percentage of missing data was less than 30% (Owen et al., 2007;Peugh & Enders, 2004), Expectation Maximisation (EM) methods were used to substitute missing values. Using EM, the available quantitative data were used to estimate the values each participant would have entered into the missing cells (Allison, 2003). ...
Background: Resistant hypertension is a chronic condition in which the arterial blood pressure remains persistently above goal despite concurrent treatment with three or more antihypertensive agents of different classes. It appears relatively common in clinical practice, despite the established effectiveness of antihypertensive medications. Clinical factors such as inadequate dosing of antihypertensive medications, white coat hypertension (the phenomenon in which blood pressure is higher in clinical settings versus other settings), improper blood pressure measurement, and poor adherence to antihypertensive treatment all preclude a diagnosis of resistant hypertension. Poor adherence is considered the most common cause of pseudo-resistance to treatment among patients with apparent treatment-resistant hypertension and can result in unnecessary treatment escalation and referral to specialist hypertension clinics at significant cost to the patient and the healthcare system. Despite forming a core component of the definition and diagnosis of resistant hypertension, the extent, predictors and patient perspectives of non-adherence have not been extensively examined for this group.
Aim: The aim of this research is to examine the extent, theoretical predictors, and patient perspectives of non-adherence to antihypertensive medications for apparent treatment-resistant hypertension in primary care.
Methods: This research comprised: (1) a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the extent of medication non-adherence in the published literature, and the study-level predictors thereof; (2) a quantitative cross-sectional study to examine the extent of poor adherence among a large sample of patients with apparent treatment-resistant hypertension receiving treatment in primary care using multiple diverse adherence measures, as well as the predictive value of theoretical constructs drawn from the Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation (i.e., treatment-favourable beliefs, coherence of beliefs resulting from experience with treatment, and medication-taking habit strength); and (3) a qualitative comparison of high and low adherers to delineate factors associated with good and poor adherence using thematic analysis.
Findings: (1) The systematic review and meta-analysis revealed that approximately one-third of patients classed as having apparent treatment-resistant hypertension in the published literature may be more appropriately classed as pseudo-resistant due to poor adherence. Subgroup analysis further revealed that adherence estimates were dependent on the type of adherence assessment method used, with the highest non-adherence observed for physical tests for medications in bodily fluids. There was a small but significant difference in adherence estimates across study settings, with lowest non-adherence estimates observed in primary care settings, suggesting that a proportion of patients may be prematurely referred for specialist treatment without adequate assessment of adherence in primary care. (2) The cross-sectional quantitative study indicated that, even among a single sample of participants, the measure used to assess adherence has a considerable impact on the adherence estimates obtained. Habit strength was demonstrated to be the strongest predictor of adherence behaviour across all analyses. Treatment-related beliefs and coherence of beliefs did not predict adherence, even for patients with relatively weak habits. Treatment burden was also not associated with adherence or habit strength for this sample. (3) The qualitative comparison of high and low adherers identified that illness- and treatment-related beliefs, coherence of beliefs, and medication-taking habits are all important factors in determining whether a patient will adhere to treatment. Most patients described the important role of the general practitioner in promoting good adherence, but highlighted system-related factors as potentially diminishing people’s confidence in their care. Overall differences between high and low adherers were subtly nuanced, highlighting the challenges for healthcare practitioners in clearly identifying poor adherence and potential determinants.
Conclusion: The findings of this research provide important new insights into adherence among patients with apparent treatment-resistant hypertension. The quantification of the problem of non-adherence and identification of methodological limitations in the existing literature, quantitative examination of theoretical predictors of adherence, and qualitative investigation into characteristics of high and low adherers with apparent treatment-resistant hypertension together contribute to the evidence base for the development of targeted behavioural interventions to promote antihypertensive adherence in primary care.
... The measure was developed with male and female adolescent samples, and the items ask participants to consider statements about women in science such as, "A successful career is as important to a woman as it is to a man" (Erb & Smith, 1984, p. 393). This scale has shown high internal reliability as well as convergent validity with perceptions of scientists (e.g., Image of Science and Scientists Scale; Erb & Smith, 1984) and has been used with both adolescent and college samples (Owen et al., 2007). ...
Although the effect of biases and stereotype threat on women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields is well documented, less is known about how men and women attribute an undergraduate woman’s anxieties in a STEM class. We examined how undergraduate men and women perceive a woman facing emotional struggles in a physics class (Study 1: N = 309; Study 2: N = 271) and having her contributions ignored in an environmental science class (Study 3: N = 344) in three studies and an internal meta-analysis. Across the studies and meta-analysis, we found gender differences in reactions to the stories. Men were less likely than women to attribute the student’s anxiety to bias-related factors, such as awareness of stereotypes or instructor treatment, and more likely than women to attribute the anxiety to the student’s lack of preparation. Women were more likely to view the narratives as reflecting real-life experiences of women in STEM. The results indicate a lack of awareness, on the part of undergraduate men, of the difficulties faced by women in STEM classes. Based on the current findings, educators and researchers should consider the role that gender plays in how women’s emotional responses in STEM contexts are interpreted. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684318754528
... The scale was developed in 1984 and has not been updated since. A paper by Owen et al. (2007) revalidated the scale with multiple middle and high school age groups and updated its construction. The article also has useful appendices that lay out the key factors in some other studies (although not an exhaustive review) that have used the WiSS. ...
Several initiatives that include Girl Scouts, MESA, and Project Lead the Way in the private sector and Engineer Girl by the National Academy of Engineering, have been taken to encourage the involvement of women in the engineering profession. The Women in Science Scale (WiSS) is an important set of questionnaire items used in many research projects that involve middle and high school students. Several schools are implementing curricula to increase young people's connection with engineering and design. An important gender gap that remains, and has widened, is in the extent to which high school seniors report playing video/computer games. A study by Angela Johnson (2007) showed that recognition is an important part of retention and success for minority women. Johnson found that minority women value the ability to know the professor rather than being a passive student in a classroom. Practicing industrial engineers reported that adaptable problem-solving skills and process evaluation and analyses are critical skill sets for engineers.
... The survey included five questions for categorical data (sex, year in college, number natural and physical science courses and women's studies courses, and major). Four questions assessing attitudes toward women in science were taken from the equity subsection of the revised Women in Science Scale (WiSS; Owen et al., 2007). We designed Likert-scale questions on values and multidisciplinarity based on concepts presented in a publication on values and ethics in research (NAS et al., 1995). ...
Diversification of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce requires a climate supportive of underrepresented groups. We studied undergraduate student attitudes to uncover perceptions that may be addressed through targeted pedagogies. We surveyed undergraduate students pursuing science and humanities programs to quantify their attitudes toward gender equity, the importance of values, the perceived contribution of competition and collaboration to science, and to examine their understanding of multidisciplinary collaborations in science. Women more strongly supported gender equity, were more likely to recognize women's contributions, and had a more positive view of female scientists' lives. Women perceived science as more collaborative, identified a broader range of disciplines, including social sciences and humanities, to include, and viewed collaboration as working directly with others rather than using published work. We relate our results to the need for gender-sensitive pedagogies and other changes in the college science curriculum.
... Interest statements were designed to assess interest in science, in pursuing science studies, and in specific programs on our campus. Questions about women in science were from the equality and sexism categories of the Women in Science Scale (WiSS) that measures attitudes toward women in the sciences (Erb and Smith 1984;Owen et al. 2007;Wyer et al. 2007). Four statements on NOS were distinct in their content and were based on a widely used questionnaire to assess views on the nature of science 44 L. Fuselier et al. (Lederman et al. 2002). ...
Background and purpose:Jump to sectionBackground and purpose:Sample:Design and method:Results:Conclusion:IntroductionScientific literacyFeminist science studiesInterdisciplinary collaborationMethodsResultsCurriculumDiscussionThe purpose of this exploratory case study is to describe how scholars negotiated disciplinary divides to develop and communicate to their students an understanding of the basic features of scientific knowledge. Our goals were to examine boundary crossing in interdisciplinary collaboration and to assess the efficacy of adding science content to an introductory Women’s Studies course.Sample:Jump to sectionBackground and purpose:Sample:Design and method:Results:Conclusion:IntroductionScientific literacyFeminist science studiesInterdisciplinary collaborationMethodsResultsCurriculumDiscussionWe studied a collaboration between faculty in Biology and Women’s Studies and evaluated science modules in a Women’s Studies course at a regional four-year university in the Midwestern USA. The study included 186 student participants over three semesters and four faculty from Philosophy, Women’s Studies and Biology.Design and method:Jump to sectionBackground and purpose:Sample:Design and method:Results:Conclusion:IntroductionScientific literacyFeminist science studiesInterdisciplinary collaborationMethodsResultsCurriculumDiscussionWomen’s Studies and Biology faculty collaborated to design and implement science content learning modules that included the case of women and science in an introductory Women’s Studies course. Qualitative data collected from faculty participants in the form of peer debrief sessions and narrative reflections were used to examine the process of interdisciplinary collaboration. Students exposed to curriculum changes were administered pre- and post-lesson surveys to evaluate their understanding of issues faced by women in science careers, the nature of science, and interest in science studies. Data from collaborators, student journal reflections, and pre-/post-lesson surveys were considered together in an evaluation of how knowledge of science was understood and taught in a Women’s Studies course over a longitudinal study of three semesters.Results:Jump to sectionBackground and purpose:Sample:Design and method:Results:Conclusion:IntroductionScientific literacyFeminist science studiesInterdisciplinary collaborationMethodsResultsCurriculumDiscussionWe found evidence of discipline-based challenges to interdisciplinarity and disciplinary boundary crossing among collaborators. Three themes emerged from our collaboration: challenges posed by disciplinary differences, creation of a space for interdisciplinary work, and evidence of boundary crossing. Student participants exhibited more prior knowledge of Women’s Studies content than nature of science but showed learning in the areas of scientific literacy and the understanding of issues related to women in science careers. Student understanding of science content was enhanced by the participation of a woman scientist in the learning module.Conclusion:Jump to sectionBackground and purpose:Sample:Design and method:Results:Conclusion:IntroductionScientific literacyFeminist science studiesInterdisciplinary collaborationMethods
ResultsCurriculumDiscussionThis case study illustrates how creating an inclusive space for interdisciplinary collaboration led to successful curriculum transformation and academic boundary crossing by faculty participants. Success is evident in the legacy of interdisciplinarity in the curriculum and learning gains by students. Use of a feminist science studies framework was successful at helping students learn about the influence of values on science and the tentative nature of scientific conclusions. It was less successful in teaching the distinction between science and other ways of knowing and the conception that science is an evidence-based approach to understanding the natural world. This study highlights the importance of interdisciplinary teams of faculty members collaborating to help students learn about science by modeling that there are multiple ways of knowing.
... Stereotypes of Scientists (SOS) Scale. The primary set of items, focusing on stereotyping in science, was drawn from instruments such as the Images of Scientists and Science Scale or ISSS (Krajkovich and Smith, 1982;She, 1992) and the Women in Science Scale or WiSS (Erb and Smith, 1984;Owen and others, 2007). Additionally, the focus group process used the Draw-A-Scientist-Test or DAST (Chambers, 1983;Rahm and Charbonneau, 1997) as a framework for stimulating discussion around stereotypes in science. ...
The authors describe the scale development process for three new scales designed to measure attitudes and perceptions about scientists and offer implications for how these tools can be used on college campuses and for future research.
... Reviews of science attitude instruments have found that few have sufficient psychometric data and called for more rigorous analyses of existing tools P. L. Gardner, 1975;Munby, 1980;Osborne, Simon, & Collins, 2003). Applying modern psychometric analyses to historically accepted and used instruments can result in shorter, more compact scales with stronger psychometric properties, thus setting the stage for further study Owen et al., 2007). Alternately, such an approach may reveal that a scale does not have sufficient psychometric properties to warrant recommendation for continued use Lichtenstein et al., 2008). ...
The Simpson–Troost Attitude Questionnaire (STAQ) was developed as part of a study to assess adolescent commitment to and achievement in science. For this psychometric reappraisal of the 57-item STAQ, data were analyzed from a convenience sample of 1,754 secondary students. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses were applied, and results suggested that the STAQ can be shortened from 57 to 22 items spanning five revised dimensions. These five dimensions were arranged into an exploratory structural equation model, which showed some grade and gender differences and strong associations among classroom environment, self-directed effort, and science affect. Findings raise the potential for teacher professional development to improve science classroom activities, and influence student self-directed effort and science affect. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed92:1076–1095, 2008
... The analysis thus proceeds in an exploratory mode to determine how and to what extent the observed variables [ We had no prior knowledge that the items of the Science Motivation Questionnaire did, indeed, measure the motivational components discussed in the self-regulatory learning literature that were used to develop the items. For this reason, we used exploratory factor analysis to examine relationships among the items and identify a set of factors that describes in a concise and understandable manner how students view those relationships (Anderson, Fisher, & Norman, 2002; Owen et al., 2007; Pett, Lakey, & Sullivan, 2003). Our purpose was to examine the constructs measured by those items and obtain information that would be useful in the refinement of those items: ...
This study examined how 770 nonscience majors, enrolled in a core-curriculum science course, conceptualized their motivation to learn science. The students responded to the Science Motivation Questionnaire, a 30-item Likert-type instrument designed to provide science education researchers and science instructors with information about students' motivation to learn science. The students' scores on the Science Motivation Questionnaire were reliable and related to students' high school preparation in science, GPA in college science courses, and belief in the relevance of science to their careers. An exploratory factor analysis provided evidence of construct validity, revealing that the students conceptualized their motivation to learn science in terms of five dimensions: intrinsic motivation and personal relevance, self-efficacy and assessment anxiety, self-determination, career motivation, and grade motivation. Women and men had different profiles on these dimensions, but equivalent overall motivation to learn science. Essays by all of the students explaining their motivation to learn science and interviews with a sample of the students were used to interpret Science Motivation Questionnaire scores. The findings were viewed in terms of a social-cognitive theory of learning, and directions for future research were discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 127–146, 2009
Despite girls enjoying and being good at physics, the proportion of girls studying physics and going into physics related careers still lags behind that of boys. A large volume of research exists on the factors related to the uptake of girls into physics, however little research looks at the link between parents and their child's physics uptake. Research shows that children's attitudes towards physics correlate strongly with their parents' attitudes, but more research is needed. The evidence presented here moves the research forward by modelling a number of parental attitudes and background characteristics to establish the strength of association with their child participating in physics in the future. It also develops validated scales for use with parents and suggestions for interventions to establish causality. 2,049 parents and carers of 13/14 year old children in England completed the survey. The findings indicate that parents who enjoyed physics, consider physics useful for getting a job and judge their child as academic, have the strongest associations with their child's future participation in physics. Other key variables include the parent valuing physics, the parent attending school outside of the UK, the child being a boy and parents judging daughters as courageous and/or determined. ARTICLE HISTORY
Following a systematic review procedure, the psychometric properties of science education attitude instruments (N = 62) retrieved from the WOS and SCOPUS database were in-depth analyzed. Findings reveal that attitude instruments published in science education between 2004 and 2018 years are generally lacking theoretically underpinnings and validity psychometric evidences, which calls into question the results obtained to date, demands a re-examination of the conclusions reached in this line of research, and highlights the need to improve practices in instrument validation.
The purpose of this study is to adapt Scientific Attitude Inventory-II into Turkish and to examine its factor structure. The English and Turkish versions of the scale were tested out on the students in the Department of English Language Teaching (N=40) at Dokuz Eylul University a week apart and a high degree of correlation was found between the scores of the two applications. Then Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted with the data collected from 292 students in order to examine the factor structure of the scale. Following the CFA, 12, 6, 3 and 1 factor structures did not fit the data. When Exploratory Factor Analysis was conducted with the same data set, it was determined that the items in the scale could be grouped under four factors. The scale was tested out on different 255 students and CFA was conducted again. After the CFA, the four-factor structure was found to be adequate fit with the data.
Science education research has demonstrated the influence of affect on learning. The National 4-H Science Logic Model outlines outcomes from youth participation in 4-H science programs, which includes attitude and interest outcomes. The associated measure, the National 4-H Science Common Measure, assesses these attitude constructs and not other affective factors. Tie study reported here sought to determine whether additional affective constructs were separate from the general constructs assessed on the Common Measure. We found the additional measures have good reliability and moderate correlations among the outcomes, suggesting the new measures assess different constructs than currently assessed by the Common Measure.
The empirical short-form literature has been characterized by overly optimistic views of the transfer of validity from parent form to short form and by the weak application of psychometric principles in validating short forms. Reviewers have thus opposed constructing short forms altogether, implying researchers are succumbing to an inappropriate temptation by trying to abbreviate measures. The authors disagree. The authors do not oppose the development of short forms, but they do assert that the validity standards for short forms should be quite high. The authors identify 2 general and 9 specific methodological sins characterizing short-form construction and offer methodological suggestions for the sound development of short forms. They recommend a set of 6 a priori steps researchers should consider and 9 methodological procedures researchers can use to develop valid abbreviated forms of clinical-assessment procedures.
This wide-ranging 1975 review of the literature was based on the author's 1972 PhD thesis at Monash University and expanded during a year of work as a visiting scholar at the University of London's Centre for Science Education in 1973.
The review is organised into nine sections under two broad headings.
THE MEASUREMENT OF ATTITUDES
1. Attitudes to science: meaning and significance
2. Survey of types of instruments
3. Methodological issues
RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER VARIABLES
4. Other educational variables
5. Personality
6. Sex
7. Structural variables
8. School variables
9. Curriculum and instructional variables.
(The author, now aged 80, is delighted that 45 years later, this paper has been read or cited by several hundred other researchers.)
This article offers a review of the major literature about attitudes to science and its implications over the past 20 years. It argues that the continuing decline in numbers choosing to study science at the point of choice requires a research focus on students' attitudes to science if the nature of the problem is to be understood and remediated. Starting from a consideration of what is meant by attitudes to science, it considers the problems inherent to their measurement, what is known about students' attitudes towards science and the many factors of influence such as gender, teachers, curricula, cultural and other variables. The literature itself points to the crucial importance of gender and the quality of teaching. Given the importance of the latter we argue that there is a greater need for research to identify those aspects of science teaching that make school science engaging for pupils. In particular, a growing body of research on motivation offers important pointers to the kind of classroom environment and activities that might raise pupils' interest in studying school science and a focus for future research.
Summated rating scales to measure attitudes (and other human characteristics) commonly consist of numerous items whose scores are summed to yield a total score. A central assumption underlying the use of this technique is that the items in the scale reflect a common construct. If this assumption is not met, the scoring procedure produces largely meaningless, uninterpretable data. Although this important psychometric principle has been known for a long time, numerous studies in the research literature demonstrate a neglect of this principle. Some studies make no attempt at all to conceptualise the construct to be measured; others conceptualise the construct but then ignore the possibility that it may be multi‐dimensional; still others actually contain evidence which indicates that the construct is multi‐dimensional and then proceed to ignore that evidence. A possible contributor to the confusion is the widespread misunderstanding about the related yet distinct concepts of internal consistency and uni‐dimensionality. This paper presents case studies of poor and good instrument design, in the (forlorn?) hope that clarification of the issues might make a difference in the future.
Contemporary research on gender and persistence in undergraduate education in science and engineering has routinely focused on why students leave their majors rather than asking why students stay. This study compared three common ways of measuring persistence-commitment to major, degree aspirations, and commitment to a science or engineering career-and emphasized factors that would encourage students to persist, including positive images of scientists and engineers, positive attitudes toward gender equity in science and engineering, and positive classroom experiences. A survey was administered in classrooms to a total of 285 female and male students enrolled in two required courses for majors. The results indicate that the different measures of persistence were sensitive to different influences but that students' gender did not interact with their images, attitudes, and experiences in predicted ways. The study concludes that an individual student's gender may be a more important factor in explaining why some female students leave their science and engineering majors than in explaining why others stay.
Summated ratings attitude scales commonly consist of numerous items whose scores are summed to yield a total score. An assumption
underlying this technique is that the items in the scale reflect a common construct. If this is not met, the procedure produces
uninterpretable data. Although this psychometric principle has been known for a long time, numerous studies in the literature
demonstrate a neglect of it. Some make no attempt to conceptualise the construct to be measured; others conceptualise the
construct but then ignore the possibility that it may be multidimensional; still others contain evidence indicating that the
construct is multidimensional and then proceed to ignore that evidence. A possible contributor to the confusion is the misunderstanding
of the related yet distinct concepts of internal consistency and unidimensionality. This paper presents examples of poor and
good instrument design, in the hope that clarification of the issues might make a difference in the future.
Attitudes are often referred to, researched and considered in the discipline of health education and health promotion. This paper highlights Q methodology as an appropriate and relevant means of exploring and studying attitudes within this field. It begins by discussing the difficulties in defining attitude and the problems inherent in attitude measurement. A brief history of Q methodology is given, followed by an explanation of what Q methodology is and the processes involved. This paper argues the case for the use of Q methodology when studying attitudes and justifies why Q methodology should particularly be selected in the study of attitudes within the health field. There are many reasons for this assertion which are explored throughout the paper. The principle one is that Q methodology is a more robust technique, than alternative methods, for the measurement of attitudes and subjective opinion. This paper concludes by proposing that Q methodology is taken up by researchers within health education and health promotion who are concerned with exploring attitudes and subjective opinion.
Four studies evaluate the new Self Description Questionnaire II short-form (SDQII-S) that measures 11 dimensions of adolescent self-concept based on responses to 51 of the original 102 SDQII items and demonstrate new statistical strategies to operationalize guidelines for short-form evaluation proposed by G. T. Smith, D. M. McCarthy, and K. G. Anderson (2000). Multiple-group confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the factor structure based on responses to 51 items by a new cross-validation group (n=9,134) was invariant with the factor structures based on responses to the same 51 items and to all 102 items by the original normative archive group (n = 9,187). Reliabilities for the 11 SDQII-S factors were nearly the same and consistently high (.80 to .89) for both groups. Multitrait-multimethod analyses support the internal validity of responses over time. Gender and age effects on the 11 SDQII-S factors were invariant across the archive and cross-validation groups.
IAUC 5925 available at Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.
The authors provide a cautionary note on reporting accurate eta-squared values from multifactor analysis of variance (ANOVA) designs. They reinforce the distinction between classical and partial eta-squared as measures of strength of association. They provide examples from articles published in premier psychology journals in which the authors erroneously reported partial eta-squared values as representing classical etasquared values. Finally, they discuss broader impacts of inaccurately reported etasquared values for theory development, meta-analytic reviews, and intervention programs.
The purpose of this paper is to consider a number of issues relating to research in the area of high school pupils’ attitudes to science. Teachers appear to consider that pupils’ attitudes to science, and to what is being studied in science lessons, exert a profound influence on levels of engagement with the subject. Yet, perhaps because of the difficulties which appear to be associated with such work, studies of attitudes to science appear far less frequently in the literature than was the case 10 or 15 years ago. This paper attempts to map out the area of interest more clearly by considering issues to do with the meanings of key terms, methodology and the purpose of research into pupils’ attitudes to science. A number of key questions emerge from the discussion, and possible answers are used to argue a case for looking again at attitudes to science and to sketch an agenda for future work.
This article offers a review of the major literature about attitudes to science and its implications over the past 20 years. It argues that the continuing decline in numbers choosing to study science at the point of choice requires a research focus on students? attitudes to science if the nature of the problem is to be understood and remediated. Starting from a consideration of what is meant by attitudes to science, it considers the problems inherent to their measurement and what is known about students' attitudes towards science and the many factors of influence such as gender, teachers, curricula, cultural and other variables. The literature itself points to the crucial importance of gender and the quality of teaching. Given the importance of the latter we argue that there is a greater need for research to identify those aspects of science teaching that make school science engaging for pupils. In particular, a growing body of research on motivation offers important pointers to the kind of classroom environment and activities that might raise pupils' interest in studying school science and a focus for future research.
Examines how computer use produces generic benefit to all children and differential benefits to minority and poor children. Analyzes data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) of 1988-1992. (Contains 13 references.) (Author/YDS)
Examines the relationship between gender attributions of science and academic attributes for undergraduate science, mathematics, and technology majors from the perspective of gender schema theory. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/YDS)
In 1974, the Women's Educational Equity Act expanded math, science, and technology programs for all females. Current reform movements focus on providing more equitable education by changing the curriculum, teaching, and assessment. Research suggests that girls and boys currently receive different education and that girls have less exposure to science equipment than boys. The Sisters in Science (SIS) Program focuses on fourth and sixth grade students, its goals being to increase: (1) interest, achievement, self-esteem, environmental awareness, career awareness, and attitudes in the areas of mathematics and science; (2) inservice and preservice teachers' knowledge of the relationship between gender and effective instruction; and (3) parental knowledge of the importance of science and mathematics education in the lives of their children. (Contains 36 references.) (YDS)
Describes a study of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Program for Women and Girls (PWG) conducted by the Urban Institute between 1998 and 2000. Assesses the PWG's contributions to the field of science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) education and gender equity. Concludes that the PWG successfully effected both positive, short-term changes in human capital and long-term changes in knowledge capital and social capital resources to improve equity in SMET. (Author/KHR)
Subtlety and complacency mask ongoing gender bias in today's classrooms. Updates are presented concerning career segregation; single-sex classrooms; safety and health problems; dropout rates; gifted programs; male/female stereotypes; classroom interactions; SAT scores; math, science and technology gender gaps; political reversals; and female college enrollments. (10 references) (MLH)
The biennial reports on women, minorities, and persons with disabilities
produced by the National Science Foundation (NSF) because of
congressional mandate laid the statistical foundation for NSF
initiatives to redress the underrepresentation of these groups. Programs
established in the 1980s such as Research Opportunities for Women,
Visiting Professorships for Women, Graduate Fellowships for Women, and
Career Advancement Awards provided support to individual women for their
research. In the 1990s, the NSF also began to focus on systemic
initiatives, creating the Program for Women and Girls, although it
continued to address the problem through support of individual
researchers in the newly created Professional Opportunities for Women in
Research and Education (POWRE) initiative. The responses from more than
400 awardees during the 4 years of POWRE provide insights into the
current issues these women perceive surrounding their grants, funding,
and interactions with NSF bureaucracy and staff members. The results of
the POWRE survey support the institutional, systemic thrust of the
NSF’s new ADVANCE initiative to attempt to solve problems such as
balancing career and family that cannot be addressed solely by
supporting research projects of individual female scientists and
engineers.
(Publisher-supplied data) The classic text is Psychometric Theory. Like the previous edition, this text is designed as a comprehensive text in measurement for researchers and for use in graduate courses in psychology, education and areas of business such as management and marketing. It is intended to consider the broad measurement problems that arise in these areas and is written for a reader who needs only a basic background in statistics to comprehend the material. It also combines classical procedures that explain variance with modern inferential procedures.
This book is intended to assist those who wish to develop their own attitudes scales. After introducing the topic of attitude measurement, the method of paired comparisons is discussed together with the associated significance tests. In succeeding chapters, the methods of equal-appearing intervals, successive intervals, summated ratings, and scalogram analysis are described. A method for selecting an initial set of statements to meet the requirements of a Guttman scale, the scale-discrimination technique, and the H- and W-techniques for improving the scalability of a set of statements are considered in the final two chapters. Suggested readings, questions and problems are given at the end of each chapter. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Presents a short (25-item) version of the Spence-Helmreich Attitudes toward Women Scale. Correlations between scores on the short and the full (55-item) version for groups of male and female students (N = 527) and groups of their parents (N = 524) were .95 or above. Results of a factor analysis and part-whole correlations indicate the similarity of the 2 forms. Normative data for the student and parent samples are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Boys consistently have expressed more negative attitudes toward women in science than have girls. The basis of these negative male attitudes was explored in a sample of 159 male and 158 female science-oriented high school students. The students participated in a science enrichment program in which positive information about women in science was provided. Consistent with theories of prejudice and stereotyping: (a) at the beginning of the program, more negative attitudes toward women in science were linked to lower science self-confidence among boys, but not among girls; and (b) following the program, analysis of residual post-scores (with pre-scores controlled) indicated that changes in self-confidence over the course of the program were related significantly to changes in attitudes toward women in science among boys but not among girls. Implications for girls’ and women's participation in science are discussed.
The intention of this research was to measure attitudes of young children toward women scientists. A 27-item instrument, the Early Childhood Women in Science Scale (ECWiSS) was validated in a test case of the proposition that differential socialization predicts entry into the scientific talent pool. Estimates of internal consistency indicated that the scale is highly reliable. Known groups and correlates procedures, employed to determine the validity of the instrument, revealed that the scale is able to discriminate significant differences between groups and distinguishes three dimensions of attitude (role-specific self-concept, home-related sex-role conflict, and work-related sex-role conflict). Results of the analyses also confirmed the anticipated pattern of correlations with measures of another construct. The findings suggest the utility of the ECWiSS for measurement of early childhood attitudes in models of the ascriptive and/or meritocratic processes affecting recruitment to science and more generally in program and curriculum evaluation where attitude toward women in science is the construct of interest.
This article describes a study of the academic self-concepts, attributions and achievements of male and female Asian American and Caucasian students who won Westinghouse Awards in 1984 and 1985. The results of the study showed that fewer Caucasian female recipients anticipated college majors in the technical areas. Furthermore, this group of females scored lower on both parts of the SAT, scored lower on all of the self-concept scales, and also scored lower on both attribution scales. In contrast, the Asian females optimized courses for the gifted and specialized research courses to distance themselves from the American females in almost all areas. The author linked these ethnic, gender differences to underlying psychological and sociological forces that are responsible for the self-concept and attribution differences. It is these forces that must be altered for Caucasian females to rectify the gender inequalities that exist in the technical areas.
This article examines the adequacy of the “rules of thumb” conventional cutoff criteria and several new alternatives for various fit indexes used to evaluate model fit in practice. Using a 2‐index presentation strategy, which includes using the maximum likelihood (ML)‐based standardized root mean squared residual (SRMR) and supplementing it with either Tucker‐Lewis Index (TLI), Bollen's (1989) Fit Index (BL89), Relative Noncentrality Index (RNI), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), Gamma Hat, McDonald's Centrality Index (Mc), or root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA), various combinations of cutoff values from selected ranges of cutoff criteria for the ML‐based SRMR and a given supplemental fit index were used to calculate rejection rates for various types of true‐population and misspecified models; that is, models with misspecified factor covariance(s) and models with misspecified factor loading(s). The results suggest that, for the ML method, a cutoff value close to .95 for TLI, BL89, CFI, RNI, and Gamma Hat; a cutoff value close to .90 for Mc; a cutoff value close to .08 for SRMR; and a cutoff value close to .06 for RMSEA are needed before we can conclude that there is a relatively good fit between the hypothesized model and the observed data. Furthermore, the 2‐index presentation strategy is required to reject reasonable proportions of various types of true‐population and misspecified models. Finally, using the proposed cutoff criteria, the ML‐based TLI, Mc, and RMSEA tend to overreject true‐population models at small sample size and thus are less preferable when sample size is small.
In order to change the attitude of early adolescent female and male students toward scientists and women in science, students in the middle school/junior high grades were exposed over a two months' period to women science career role models as part of their science instruction. This treatment positively affected the students' attitude toward scientists and toward women in science. It is suggested that teachers of science in the middle school/junior high should periodically bring community resource people who use science in their careers to the classroom to act as role models and that women should be included among this group so that the attitudes of both male and female students toward scientists and women in science might be improved.
This article will describe an in-school intervention project that used female role models to change the attitudes of 964 Iowa girls and boys in 57 ninth-grade science classes toward science, math, and technical curricula and careers. The differences between the students' mean pretest and posttest scores on each of six factors found to be associated with students' attitudes toward science and math and technical careers were analyzed to determine which of five experimental groups responded most positively to the intervention. Higher difference scores indicated that the attitudes of girls and boys who participated in the intervention improved more than the attitudes of girls and boys in the control groups, suggesting that the use of female role models in the science classroom is an effective way to change students' attitudes toward science, math, and related careers.
The purpose of this study was to measure attitude of adolescents toward women in science careers. To do so, researchers in the Career Oriented Modules to Explore Topics in Science Project validated a 27-item instrument, the Women in Science Scale (WiSS). The scale had high reliability whether measured by estimates of internal consistency or test-retest reliability. The validity was established using the known groups and correlates procedures. The test clearly distinguished between known groups and resulted in the predicted pattern of correlations with measures of other constructs. The WiSS could prove to be a valuable instrument for basic research or curriculum evaluation where adolescent attitude toward women in science careers is a variable of interest.
Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Houston, 1998. Degree granted by College of Education. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [78]-90).
Typescript. Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1992. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 119-132). Microfilm.
The empirical short-form literature has been characterized by overly optimistic views of the transfer of validity from parent form to short form and by the weak application of psychometric principles in validating short forms. Reviewers have thus opposed constructing short forms altogether, implying researchers are succumbing to an inappropriate temptation by trying to abbreviate measures. The authors disagree. The authors do not oppose the development of short forms, but they do assert that the validity standards for short forms should be quite high. The authors identify 2 general and 9 specific methodological sins characterizing short-form construction and offer methodological suggestions for the sound development of short forms. They recommend a set of 6 a priori steps researchers should consider and 9 methodological procedures researchers can use to develop valid abbreviated forms of clinical-assessment procedures.
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Equity, diversity, and retention: Using concepts of equity to achieve diversity by increasing the retention of women and underrepresented minorities in the science Appendix B (Continued)
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Appendix B (Continued)