Validity of scale - Essay Example

Validity of Scale VALIDITY OF SCALE The intrinsic motivation theory is a multidimensional measuring device that intends to assessthe subjective experience of the participants related to the target’s activity. This instrument tests; interest, effort, value, tension, felt pressure, perceived competence, and perceived choice of the participants while doing a specific activity. It thus yields a score with six subscales. A seventh subscale has recently been added in order to get the experience of relatedness.

The interest subscale is viewed as a measure of self report for intrinsic motivation, so even if the report is called IMI, it is the lone subscale that per se investigates intrinsic motivation. Therefore, the interest subscale has increased items than do the rest of the subscales. The value subscale is utilized to internalize the study, while the subscale of relatedness used to study interpersonal interactions. The IMI contains varied item numbers from the above subscales, all showing themselves to be stable across a collection of settings, conditions, and tasks, as well as being analytically coherent factor wise.

Generally, the criteria for item inclusion include a factor loading of approximately 0.6 on the subscale with cross loadings more than 0.4 being absent. However, loadings for this report exceeded this. The items of the IMI have been slightly modified to fit the activity. This has ensured that they do not affect the validity of the report. These items are not subtle, but rather straightforward and thus need to be interpreted with caution. For example, the report’s co-relation between interest self reports and indices of behaviour are modest, around 0.4. It was also important for the report to interpret why the participants reported as they did, with dynamics of psychology, reactance, ego involvement, presentation styles considered (McAuley et al, 1989).

Another issue that is of importance has to do with redundancy (McAuley et al, 1989). Items on the subscales, considerably overlapped, even though making their presentation random makes most participants view it as being less salient. However, the shorter versions utilized, were found to be satisfactory and reliable. The incremental R that characterized items that were more than four for any of the listed factors was considerably small. It is still of great importance to recognize subscales with multiple items that outperformed consistent single items for reasons that were quite obvious, on top of having increased external validity.

There are five sections on the article consisting of scales. First, we have all of the forty-five items that are constitutive of the seven sub-scales being shown; together with information about construction of ones own personal IMI and how to score it. There are then specifically four versions of this IMI, which have been utilized in studies, conducted earlier (McAuley et al, 1989). This was aimed at giving a sense of the different ways that it has been utilized. The report had a version that was standard with 22 items and also consisting of four sub-scales that were; perceived competence, tension or pressure, perceived choice, and enjoyment or interest.

Secondly, the study contains a brief version with nine items, which is concerned with reading of various text materials, and it consists of three subscales. These are tension or pressure, perceived competence, and enjoyment or interest. There is, then, the version with 25 items on it that as utilized to internalize the study and it includes three subscales of perceived choice, enjoyment, and usefulness or value. Finally, the study had a version with 29 items of the questionnaire on interpersonal relatedness, which consisted of five subscales that were effort, tension or pressure, perceived choice, enjoyment or interest, and relatedness.

Ultimately, the study conducted by Tammen, McAuley and Duncan found strong evidence to support its reliability and validity.ReferenceMcAuley E, Duncan T, Tammen V. (1989). Psychometric Properties of the Intristic Motivation Inventory in a Competitive Sport Setting: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis. RESEARCH QUATERLY FOR EXERCISE AND SPORT, 48-58.