Home

EdITS Career Development Newsletter

 

Featured Products
COPSystem Supplemental Materials

Handbook in Research
and Evaluation (3rd Ed.)

The Handbook is a compilation of methods and guidelines used to plan and design behavioral sciences research studies.

Educational research, program evaluation, and statistical issues are also presented to provide a comprehensive review of modern research issues.

Research Opportunity

We are currently developing a new mood survey!

Free assessments may be available for your research project if you qualify to participate in our affiliates program for either Career Guidance or Psychological Assessment.

Learn more about how to become a research affiliate.

Marriage Family Therapy


Combine these assessments to measure intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships:

Personal Orientation Inventory (POI)

Caring Relationship Inventory (CRI)

Pair Attraction Inventory (PAI)

Dimensions Of Self-Concept: Form W For Working Adults

The Dimensions Of Self-Concept (DOSC) continues to be a valuable tool for measuring noncognitive factors that are associated with self-esteem or self-concept in an academic setting. This self-report
measure is designed to identify students who are likely to experience academic, social, or learning difficulties due to low self-esteem. The DOSC-W (DOSC for Working Adults) is an alternate form of the DOSC, and has been developed to measure self-concept in the adult working context, primarily as it relates to job performance.  Learn more about the DOSC-W scales.

dosc-w_newsletter_smallerThe DOSC-W is not complicated to score and interpret. This instrument is a valid and efficient diagnostic tool for managers, human resources personnel and counseling professionals who are interested in conducting team building and leadership development workshops, or managerial training seminars.

The rationale that guided the development of the DOSC-W
is based on using conceptually similar motivational factors related to academic learning and achievement because these factors tend to differ very little from those that affect adults in a working environment. This parallel tends to be especially strong in work settings that demand a relatively high level of formal education.

While academic and work environments may require some of the same personality traits and coping strategies, there are also important differences to consider. To make the DOSC more appropriate for use with working adults, the authors have included a new scale: Level of Job Stress.  This measures the degree to which an employee is able to cope with unforeseen challenges, such as tight deadlines or changing work conditions. Data show that this scale is distinguishable from Level of Anxiety, which is a scale that measures fear of losing status in the eyes of others and other negative judgments or perceptions directed toward self from others.

Development of the DOSC-Form W (DOSC for Adults)

Two studies have been completed that lend support to the reliability and validity of the DOSC Form W. The first study (Crowder, & Michael, 1991) was conducted on a sample of 162 employees in a major electronics/computer company. The two major purposes of this study were to (1) develop a shortened form of the original 180-item instrument entitled DOSC-W for workers in high technology organizations (Crowder, & Michael, 1989a) and (2) to provide evidence for the reliability and  construct validity of the six 15-item scales which are: Level of Aspiration, Anxiety, Job Interest and Satisfaction, Leadership and Initiative, Identification vs. Alienation, and Job Stress. This study was a continuation of two previous pilot studies in which field test data from an initial version of 180 items  (Crowder, & Michael, 1989a) and a subsequent form of 120 items (Crowder, & Michael, 1989b) were used to create a test of only 90 items.

Based on the psychometric data, the authors conclude:

1. The 90-item DOSC-W demonstrated satisfactory levels of reliability for all six scales; in fact, this revised form furnished reliability estimates at least as high as those obtained with the two longer previous forms.

2. In general, the presence of relatively low intercorrelations among the six scales gave support to the discriminant validity of the instrument. The correlations were somewhat lower than those found for the two longer forms.

3. Additional evidence for construct validity was apparent through both orthogonal and oblique exploratory factor analyses.

4. The confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analysis lends strong support to the presence of six distinct dimensions.

5. The 90-item form of the DOSC-W shows promise as a reasonably reliable and construct-valid measure that might be used to provide relevant information to personnel directors and counselors in assisting employees who may have been experiencing psychological problems thought to be related to one or more of the six constructs assessed by this instrument.

In a subsequent study, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis again indicated good construct validity for each of the six 15-item subscales of the DOSC-W (Foraker, & Michael, 1994). This sample consisted of 212 Air Force active duty military personnel (179 males, 33 females). Coefficient alpha reliability estimates for the six subscales fell between .87 and .92.

The following demographic variables were considered in the analysis of the data: Level of Formal Education, Number of Years of Military Duty, Age, Gender and Military Rank. The only subscale to show statistically significant correlation coefficients with any of the five demographic variables was that of Leadership and Initiative, which yielded coefficients of .30, .28, .30 and .23 (all ps<.001) respectively, with Level of Formal Education, Number of Years of Military Duty, Age and Military Rank. A coefficient of -.11 for Gender was not statistically significant.

Individuals with high self-esteem tend to be more successful in the workplace. Having low self-esteem may interfere with work activities and co-worker relations. The DOSC-W is useful in identifying problems that keep employees from maximizing their professional potential. A human resources professional or other related specialist should be consulted when interpreting DOSC-W scores. The DOSC-W Manual includes suggestions for dealing with the problems associated with a low self-concept.

References
      Crowder, B., & Michael, W. B. (1991). The development and validation of a short form of a multidimensional self-concept measure for high technology employees. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 51, 447-454.
      Crowder, B., & Michael, W. B. (1989a). The measurement of self-concept in an employment setting. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 49, 19-31.
      Crowder, B., & Michael, W. B. (1989b). The construct validity of a revised form of self-concept measure for employees in a work setting. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 49, 421-428.
      Foraker, B. M., & Michael, W. B. (1994). Reliability and construct validity of the Dimensions Of Self-Concept (DOSC) Form W measure for an Air Force sample. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 54, 409-416.