Development and Testing of the Science Appreciation Scale for Human Service Professionals

Background:  This study examined the reliability and validity of a new scale, The Science Appreciation Scale for Human Service Professionals (SASHSP). This inquiry included an examination of the factor structure of the scale as well as the relationship between scale scores and variables thought likely to be related to science appreciation.  One of the components of the social work curriculum is scientific research where students are required to demonstrate knowledge of research methods.  It is assumed that knowledge will lead to the use of research methods for informing practice.  Underlying this goal is an appreciation of the nature of scientific inquiry that undergirds the knowledge base.  It is asserted that social workers need both knowledge and appreciation of science in order to fully employ research for informing practice.  A means for measuring science appreciation is the scale examined in this paper. Science appreciation for human service professionals is defined as a tendency to embrace science as a way of knowing, especially as it reflects a positive evaluation of evidence as a guide for practice and a tendency to give priority to endeavors that support science as a way of knowing, and to value this behavior in others. 

Method:  The SASHSP has 10 items that each pose a situation that reflects an attitude about science and provides five categories for response from a low of very unlikely to a high of very likely.  Each item asks how likely the respondent would engage in a given behavior or demonstrate value for it.   Graduate and undergraduate social work students enrolled in one school of social work (N=88) were given this scale and asked to respond to questions that measured potential correlates of science appreciation such as (a) prior courses in research or statistics, (b) appreciation for the value of these courses, (c) having mentors who demonstrated an appreciation for science, and (d) anticipated grade in the present research course, (e) self-confidence in being able to conduct a research study.

Results: All analyses were computed with SPSS version 21. A principal-axis factor analysis, using direct oblimin rotation, was conducted on the ten items. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was .737, indicating that the items shared a sufficient amount of common variance for factor analysis. Furthermore, Bartlett’s test of spherecity was significant, indicating that the items relate to each other enough to warrant factor analysis, χ² (45, N=88) = 178.504, p<.001.

            A visual scree test was used to determine how many factors to extract (Cattell, 1966). Three factors were extracted with eigenvalues of 3.19, 1.40, and 1.07 respectively. As indicated on the pattern matrix, each of the 10 items loaded at least .40 on one factor. The interpretation of the factors appears straightforward (see factor items below). Factor 1 contains 4 items, and factors 2 and 3 contain 3 items.

Implications:  This scale can be used in the evaluation of social work curriculum or individual courses that have science appreciation as an objective. Future studies could further examine the psychometric properties of this scale.