Date of Award

Fall 1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Robert M. McIntyre

Committee Member

Terry L. Dickinson

Committee Member

Janis Sanchez-Hucles

Committee Member

Robert R. Albright

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.P65 P253

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to continue in the development of an equal opportunity climate survey, suitable for small groups, by establishing the construct validity of this newly developed measure. Four-hundred and twenty-nine members of 7 United States Coast Guard Units were administered the Small Unit Equal Opportunity Climate Survey (SUEOCS), an attitudinal instrument suitable for small groups. Conceptual analyses, item and scale analyses, and a confirmatory factor analysis via LISREL VIlI (Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989), were used to establish the factor structure of the SUEOCS. The results of these analyses indicated that the hypothesized factor structure was well fitted to the data (NNFI=.95 , CFI=.97, RMSEA=.07). Next, an analysis of the SUEOCS' convergent and discriminant validity evidence was conducted using correlation and known group difference analyses. For the correlation analyses, participant scale scores from the SUEOCS were correlated with participant scale scores from the Military Equal Opportunity Climate Survey (MEOCS), an equal opportunity climate survey suitable for larger units. Hypotheses were generated as to which scales would logically correspond based on similarities in content domain and levels of analysis. For the discriminant validity analyses, it was necessary to identify pairs of scales from the MEOCS and SUEOCS that were not as logically similar to one another as were the convergent pairs of scales. The known-group difference analyses were conducted by investigating differences in SUEOCS scale scores for various demographic sub-groups. Results for both analyses indicated initial evidence for convergent and discriminant validity. Potential explanations for the lack of support for some of the convergent and discriminant validity hypotheses are provided.

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