Development and Validation of Scores on a Measure of Six Academic Orientations in College Students

Abstract

This article describes the development and score validation of a 36-item measure of six academic orientations in college students: structure dependence, creative expression, reading for pleasure, academic efficacy, academic apathy, and mistrust of instructors. Results from three studies indicate that the measuring instrument, the Survey of Academic Orientations (SAO), has six factorially distinct scales (Study 1) whose scores are stable across different semesters, yielding test-retest coefficients that range from .63 to .86 (Study 2). Also, each of the six scales relates in expected ways to basic personality traits, yielding validity coefficients of .30 to .69 (Study 3). Scores on the six scales are internally consistent, yielding coefficients alpha that range from .59 to .85 (Studies 1-3). Scale scores and a summative score of all 36 items, called the Adaptiveness index, are examined for their potential in predicting a variety of important student outcomes.

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