Abstract

SUMMARY Introduction: Attitudes About Reality Scale is an instrument used for measuring differences in individual epistemology. The scale was developed by Unger, Draper and Pendergrass and aims to evaluate individuals’ attitudes on the nature of social reality in a scale varying between logical positivist and social constructivist tendencies (1). The scale is used in fields of psychology and education. A scale to assess medical students’ approaches to reality that satisfies validity and reliability criteria has never been encountered in Turkish. Purpose: The purpose of this study is the adaptation of short form of Attitudes About Reality Scale to Turkish and to assess its validity and reliability on medical students. Method: The scale was adapted to Turkish with translation re-translation method, and given its final form after evaluating the feedbacks of a Turkish language specialist and participating students in the pilot study. The data for this study had been gathered from 2nd term students in Dokuz Eylul University Medical Faculty in October 2015. Of the forms gathered, 210 (N=317) were found suitable and taken into data analysis. For assessing the reliability of the scale Cronbach’s alpha and for assessing construct validity confirmatory factor analysis were used. The study has been approved by Dokuz Eylul University Ethics Committee for Non-Interventional Research. Findings and Conclusion: After confirmatory factor analysis, 12 items on the original scale were left out. The 16 item, one dimensional scale obtained, were found to have a 0.716 coefficient of Cronbach’s alpha. “Attitudes About Reality Scale” with its new format is considered a highly valid and reliable measurement instrument; appropriate to use.

Authors and Affiliations