Structural and correlational analysis of two common measures of personal epistemology

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The current inquiry is a factor analytic study which utilizes first and second order factor analytic methods to examine the internal structures of two measurements of personal epistemological beliefs: the Schommer Epistemological Questionnaire (SEQ) and Epistemic Belief Inventory (EBI). The study also examines the psychometric properties of each instrument and seeks to determine if a hierarchical factor structure emerges from the subscales across both instruments. To examine the association between factor scores and theoretically related constructs, multiple regression was utilized to explore the relationship between the factors and associated constructs of motivation, use of strategy, and implicit theories of intelligence, as measured by the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and Implicit Theories of Intelligence Scale, respectively.

Findings and Conclusions: Supporting previous inquiries, the psychometric properties of the SEQ and EBI were less than optimal. Alpha coefficients were low to moderate, and principal axis factoring revealed poorly structured dimensions. Three and four factors were extracted for the SEQ and EBI respectively. As the statistical criteria for hierarchical factor analysis were not met, the intended second order factor analysis was abandoned, and the theoretically related constructs were regressed on first order factor scores. Of the three constructs, a significant relationship was only found between scores of motivation and the first order factor scores.