Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MA

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Daniel E. Hursh.

Committee Co-Chair

Paul E. Chapman

Committee Member

Floyd L. Stead

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a questionnaire that could assess students' attitudes and behaviors as they related to the trait "responsibility." Content validity was obtained using the delphi process. Reliability was estimated using a test of internal consistency. The questionnaire was completed by a small group of eighth graders. The test items were based on the definition of responsibility provided by the Character Counts organization. The questionnaire included twenty Likert-type items with eleven measuring perceptions of behavior and nine measuring perceptions of attitude.;Internal consistency tests showed Cronbach's Alpha to be .834 for the entire questionnaire, .752 for the questions measuring behavior and .637 for the questions measuring attitude. Internal consistency tests should be repeated with additional pilot groups to obtain further evidence that the questionnaire is reliable. Future refinement of the questionnaire should incorporate other methods of establishing validity and reliability.

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