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Psychometric evaluation of the Malay version Self-Rated Creativity Scale among secondary school students in Malaysia

Authors:
Chee-Seng Tan at Wenzhou-Kean University
Chee-Seng Tan
Anna Wen-Huey Ong
Anna Wen-Huey Ong
Soon Aun Tan at Tunku Abdul Rahman University
Soon Aun Tan
Cheng Siew May at Tunku Abdul Rahman University
Cheng Siew May
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Abstract and Figures

Zhou and George’s (2001) 13-item supervisory rating scale has been modified and used for individuals’ self-report creativity. This present research has particularly translated and investigated the psychometric properties of the Malay version Self-Rated Creativity Scale (SRCS-M) through two studies using two different adolescent samples (N = 753). A one-factor model was identified after the removal of three items following low factor loading and item-total correlation in exploratory factor analysis in Study 1. Study 2 then examined and compared the 10-item and 13-item one-factor model besides the 12-item bifactor model. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the 10-item one-factor model was superior compared with other competing models. Moreover, the test of measurement variance supported partial scalar invariance between two gender groups in the 10-item one-factor model. The 10-item SRCS-M also showed good reliability and validity. In a nutshell, the sound psychometric properties of the SRCS-M suggest its practical use on Malaysian adolescents.
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Psychometric evaluation of the Malay version Self-Rated Creativity
Scale among secondary school students in Malaysia
Chee-Seng Tan
1
&Anna Wen-Huey Ong
1,2
&Soon-Aun Tan
1
&Siew-May Cheng
3
Published online: 8 September 2020
#Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Zhou and George’s(2001) 13-item supervisory rating scale has been modified and used for individuals’self-report creativity. This
present research has particularly translated and investigated the psychometric properties of the Malay version Self-Rated Creativity
Scale (SRCS-M) through two studies using two different adolescent samples (N= 753). A one-factor model was identified after the
removal of three items following low factor loading and item-total correlation in exploratory factor analysis in Study 1. Study 2 then
examined and compared the 10-item and 13-item one-factor model besides the 12-item bifactor model. Confirmatory factor analysis
results indicated that the 10-item one-factor model was superior compared with other competing models. Moreover, the test of
measurement variance supported partial scalar invariance between two gender groups in the 10-item one-factor model. The 10-item
SRCS-M also showed good reliability and validity. In a nutshell, the sound psychometric properties of the SRCS-M suggest its
practical use on Malaysian adolescents.
Keywords Adolescents .Confirmatory factor analysis .Exploratory factor analysis .Malay version Self-Rated Creativity Scale .
Measurement invariance
The focus of research on creativity varies from one discipline to
another. As such, the 4P model introduced by Rhodes (1961)
conceptualizes creativity through four different dimensions,
namely product (“what”), process (“how”), person (“who”),
and press (“where”). Most creativity research aims to understand
the mechanism of the creation process, generate creative prod-
ucts, and explore environmental factors and individual character-
istics (e.g., personality) that encourage (or impede) the
development of creativity. Researchers (e.g., Corazza 2016;
Runco and Jaeger 2012) have generally agreed that novelty
and usefulness are the two main ingredients of creativity. Put
differently, a product (e.g., idea, tangible output) would only be
recognized as creative if it is different and sufficient for problem-
solving.
Essentially, individual creativity is shown through one’sabil-
ity in producing novel and useful products apart from demon-
strating individual behaviors and strengths ranging from pur-
chase intensions (Tan 2016), subjective well-being (Tan et al.
2017a), mental health (Stuckey and Nobel 2010) to meaning in
life (Tan et al. 2017b). Following these perspectives, self-rated
creativity in the present study refers to individuals’evaluations of
their ability in generating applicable novelty.
As creativity research has grown significantly in the past
two decades, one challenging issue concerns the measurement
of creativity through a variety of methods and measurements
proposed and used by researchers to examine creativity. For
example, divergent thinking tests have been widely used to
assess creative potentials (Runco and Acar 2012), while some
researchers such as Carson et al. (2005) believed that past
achievements were the objective indicators of creativity.
On the other hand, it must be noted that self-report is one
commonly used assessment method in the creativity research.
For instance, Karwowski and colleagues (Beghetto and
The data used in the present study were collected for and used in a larger
project: Tan, C. S., Tan, S. A., Hashim, I. H. M., Lee, M. N., Ong, A. W.
H., & Yaacob, S. N. B. (2019). Problem-solving ability and stress mediate
the relationship between creativity and happiness. Creativity Research
Journal,31,15–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2019.1568155.
*Chee-Seng Tan
cstan@outlook.my
1
Department of Psychology and Counselling, Faculty of Arts and
Social Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Jalan
Universiti, Bandar Barat, 31900 Kampar, Perak D.R., Malaysia
2
Present address: Centre for American Education, INTI International
College Subang, Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
3
Department of Languages and Linguistics, Faculty of Arts and Social
Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR),
Kampar, Malaysia
Current Psychology (2022) 41:5264–5271
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00772-7
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Thus, this result confirms that adapting psychometric tools to specific populations, such as university students, is necessary for obtaining more reliable measurements Compared to earlier studies, which focused on creative personality scales designed for secondary school students, the findings highlight a significant novelty (Cropley, 2018(Cropley, , 2020. While previous scales successfully measured creativity among younger students, they did not fully capture the complexities of university-level creativity (Tan, 2022). The current study demonstrates that university students require a more nuanced measurement tool that reflects their advanced cognitive abilities and social experiences. ...
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... Unlike quantitative studies that are limited to examining the hypothetical effect of the selected variables (e.g., parenting styles), the qualitative approach allows inputs that are helpful to understand the parental perception of creativity and methods used by parents in Malaysia to promote children creativity, as well as challenges that parents encountered along the process. Moreover, creativity studies in the Malaysian context have shown differences in the perception of creativity (e.g., Tan & Qu, 2012;Tan & Viapude, 2015;Tan et al., 2020). Therefore, it is critical to understand whether parents in Malaysia perceive creativity as similar to or different from the notion of creativity proposed in the literature. ...
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... Despite the numerous studies of the influence of intelligence on the creative generation of students, few attempts have been made to explore the impact of self-efficacious belief on creative outcomes (Azim et al., 2019;Tan et al., 2020); S. (Wang et al., 2023). Following the understanding of self-efficacy and identity theory, students with creative self-efficacious beliefs culminate productive creative outcomes (Bandura, 1977;Bandura, 1982;Karwowski, 2015). ...
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