CREATION AND VALIDATION OF THE SOCIAL WORK STUDENT SELF- APPRAISAL ...

243 Pages·2003·0.63 MB·English

CREATION AND VALIDATION OF THE SOCIAL WORK STUDENT SELF-
APPRAISAL INVENTORY

by

MICHAEL EUGENE KING

(Under the direction of PATRICK BORDNICK)

ABSTRACT

Current efforts to evaluate social work education rely on traditional outcome
measures with well-known limitations (Buchan, 1991). The fact that students in both
B.S.W. and M.S.W. programs continue to report feeling unprepared for practice in real
world settings (DeWeaver & Kropf, 1995) and the lack of emipirical evidence showing
that specific skills taught in class transfer to practice (Sowers-Hoag & Thyer, 1985) are
evidence of these shortcomings. To address such problems, educators have begun to
apply Bandura's (1977) construct of perceived self-efficacy to professional social work
education (Cherniss, 1993; Holden, Meenaghan, Anastas, & Metrey, 2002; Koob, 1998).
The social work student Self-Appraisal Inventory (SAI) was developed to provide a
reliable and valid measure of perceived self-efficacy, based on current professional
curriculum standards, for use specifically with social work students.
The purpose of the first phase of this study was to create and pilot test a pool of
items that reflect the content of the most recent version of the Council on Social Work
Education’s policy and accreditation standards. Internal consistency reliability and
factorial validity, using exploratory factor analysis, of the SAI were estimated in phase
one. The second phase of this investigation was designed to be an initial validation of the
SAI, using confirmatory factor analysis. A cross-sectional survey methodology and
correlational analyses were used to investigate convergent, discriminant, and factorial
construct validity and internal consistency reliability of the SAI with a non-random
sample BSW and MSW students.
The results of both phases of inquiry provided good preliminary support for the
reliability and validity of the social work student Self-Appraisal Inventory. Such an
empirically validated self-efficacy instrument could provide a valuable onging measure
of student capability in CSWE-accredited schools of social work. The SAI could be used
by educators to tailor curricula and provide feedback on program strengths, potentially
improving the quality of services provided by students in practice settings. Despite the
need for future cross-validation studies using the SAI, the findings of this investigation
suggest that the SAI would be an appropriate and effective measure of social work
student self-efficacy in academic settings.
INDEX WORDS: Self-efficacy, Social work, Scale development, Instrument
validation, Exploratory factor analysis, Confirmatory factor
analysis
CREATION AND VALIDATION OF THE SOCIAL WORK STUDENT SELF-
APPRAISAL INVENTORY

by

MICHAEL EUGENE KING
B.A., The University of Arkansas, 1993
M.S.W., The University of Arkansas, 1994

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

ATHENS, GEORGIA
2003
© 2003
Michael Eugene King
All Rights Reserved
CREATION AND VALIDATION OF THE SOCIAL WORK STUDENT SELF-
APPRAISAL INVENTORY

by

MICHAEL EUGENE KING

Approved: Patrick Bordnick
Committee: Kevin DeWeaver
Edwin Risler

Electronic Version Approved:

Maureen Grasso
Dean of the Graduate School
The University of Georgia
May 2003
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To being, I’d like to acknowledge the continuing patience and encouragement of
my doctoral committee members and others from the University of Georgia, Athens. My
sincere gratitude goes to Patrick Bordnick, Kevin DeWeaver, and Ed Risler for going
above and beyond the call of duty time and again. I’d like to thank Bruce Thyer and Jeff
Koob for helping me find my way through this project and the doctoral program, even
when I wanted to quit. Likewise, without the expertise and generous wisdom of Marty
Lund, my dissertation would never have seen the light of day.
Next, I’d like to thank my parents. I am eternally grateful to my mother, Lynne,
for not raising a quitter and to my father, John, for showing me that the best road isn’t
always the easiest.
Finally, I’d like to express my love and appreciation to my wife, Elizabeth, for
being my best friend, cheerleader, and steadfast supporter throughout. And to my son,
Connor, for showing me what is really important in life.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.........................................................................................iv
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................ 1
Statement of Problem................................................................ 3
Purpose of Study....................................................................... 4
Research Questions....................................................................6
Conceptual Framework..............................................................7
Summary..................................................................................12
2 LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................14
Social Cognitive Theory..........................................................14
Self-efficacy.............................................................................17
Empirical Studies of Self-Efficacy..........................................24
Summary..................................................................................43
3 METHODOLOGY..............................................................................45
Overview..................................................................................45
Phase 1.....................................................................................45
Phase 2.....................................................................................56
Summary..................................................................................74

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4 RESULTS............................................................................................76
Phase 1.....................................................................................76
Phase 2.....................................................................................89
Summary................................................................................108
5 DISCUSSION....................................................................................110
Overview................................................................................110
Limitations of the Study.........................................................115
Conclusions and Implications................................................118
Suggestions for Future Research...........................................119
Summary................................................................................121
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................122
APPENDIX
A CSWE (2001) EDUCATIONAL POLICY AND
CURRICULUM STANDARDS.......................................................142
B FACE VALIDITY QUESTIONNAIRE............................................146
C INFORMED CONSENT DOCUMENT............................................155
D DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEY.............................................................158
E PILOT SELF-APPRAISAL INVENTORY (SAI-P) ........................161
F SELF-APPRAISAL INVENTORY ((SAI))......................................169
G LIFE ORIENTATION TEST- REVISED (LOT-R)..........................174
H THE CENTER FOR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES
DEPRESSION SCALE (CES-D)......................................................176
I THE CLINICAL ANXIETY SCALE (CAS)....................................178
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J THE SOCIAL WORK SELF-CONCEPT SCALE (SWSC).............180
K SELF-APPRAISAL INVENTORY (SAI) – FINAL VERSION...... 182
L TABLES............................................................................................185
M FIGURES...........................................................................................226
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Challenged to provide evidence of professional accountability and effective
practice, the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has mandated that accredited
schools of social work in the United States provide content in eight different domains: (a)
social work values and ethics, (b) diversity, (c) social justice, (d) human behavior in the
social environment, (e) social welfare policy and services, (f) social work practice, (g)
research, and (h) field education (Council on Social Work Education, 2001). However,
despite recent revisions, the CSWE Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards
(EPAS) document has been a source of growing debate. Professional social work
educators have questioned whether the EPAS represents a relevant, evidence-based
listing of professional tasks and abilities (see Gambrill, 2002). Similarly, Buchan (1991)
and others (Hull, Mather, Christopherson, & Young, 1994) have criticized the utility of
traditional educational outcome measures, like grades and national licensure exams,
routinely used to determine student mastery of CSWE-mandated knowledge. Such
criticism is based on the fact that social work students continue to report feeling
unprepared for practice in “real world” settings (DeWeaver & Kropf, 1995; Koerin &
Miller, 1995), and there is little empirical evidence that social work knowledge and skills
taught in classroom settings actually transfer to practice settings, such as field placements
(Dickson & Bamford, 1995; Sowers-Hoag & Thyer, 1985).

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