PSYCHOLOGY MASTER'S THESIS ABSTRACT

Wendy Faye Smith
MA-Research
December 2000

Development and Validation of the Perceived Self-Efficacy for Statistics Scale

    The aim of this research was to create a reliable and valid scale measuring students’ self-efficacy for statistics.  Proposed scale items were administered to 141 statistics students at the University of Washington, who rated 50 items reflecting self-perceptions of statistics.  Reliability and principal components analyses led to a final scale consisting of 26 items divided into three subscales measuring anxiety, avoidance, and self-efficacy for statistics.  The scale showed adequate internal consistency reliability to be used as a research instrument, but validation procedures indicated the scale is more related to attitudes than the self-efficacy construct.  The factor structure of the scale and high correlations with attitude measures indicate the scale should be used as an attitude measure for statistics, conforming to a triarchic model in which attitudes are composed of affect, cognition and behavior.

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