A report about the design and evaluation of a psychometric scale focusing on empathy in health care workers recruitment.
Various personality traits contribute to the uniqueness of a person. However, certain traits are more important when working in certain sectors. With regard to the healthcare sector evidence suggests that empathic behaviour has a positive impact on healthcare outcomes and plays an important role in the everyday working environment of the healthcare professional. Therefore, having psychometrically sound empathy scales is highly important for the assessment of care-workers
Table of Contents
Item Generation
Benchmarking & Content Validation
Questionnaire Administration
Initial Item Reduction
Structural Validity
Internal Consistency
Convergent & Discriminate Validity
Limitations
Conclusion
Research Objectives & Key Themes
The primary objective of this report is to develop and validate a short, statistically sound emotional empathy scale tailored for the recruitment and screening process of care-workers. The research aims to provide an efficient tool that effectively identifies candidates with the necessary empathic traits for working with elderly individuals.
- Development of a psychometrically valid 10-item emotional empathy scale.
- Application of factor analysis to reduce and refine assessment items.
- Validation of the scale through internal consistency and construct-related testing.
- Integration of benchmark scales to ensure convergent and discriminant validity.
- Practical implementation of the instrument within care-worker recruitment workflows.
Excerpt from the Book
Item Generation
The first stage of our scale development was the creation of items that will assess emotional empathy. By using the deductive approach already available scales as suggested by the literature and the definition of emotional empathy were central in determining what our items needed to assess, e.g., the ability to share feelings and to tune into another person’s situation. As suggested by Harvey, Billings and Nilan (1985), four items per scale are needed to test the homogeneity of items within each latent construct. It is also known that approximately one half of the created items will be retained for use in the final scales (Hinkin, 1998). Therefore, we created 21 items to ensure at least 10 final items (see appendix 1).
The length and the vocabulary of the items were worded carefully. Ideally, since these were to assess the empathy of care-workers and respective applicants, our items should have been assessed within this target group. However, due to time constraints, a general academic audience was used instead. Nevertheless, based on research (Skills for Care, 2015) our perfect target sample would have consisted of middle-aged women (30-50 years old) with a low to medium level of education, stemming from various ethnics and nationalities. Therefore, we maintained a simple vocabulary and kept the items short sentenced. Moreover, to avoid “double-barreled” items each only looked at one single-issue to avoid confusion between two different constructs. To keep the item creation simple and efficient no reversed-scored items were used.
For the item scaling it was decided to use the 5-point Likert-type scales (strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree and strongly agree). Indeed, according to Kerlinger (1986), the Likert scale is the most useful in behavioural research and the most commonly used in survey questionnaire research (Cook et al., 1981). As there were no questions related to frequency, requiring another scale, a constant scale for all items could be used.
Summary of Chapters
Item Generation: This section details the deductive creation of 21 initial items based on literature, focusing on simple vocabulary and 5-point Likert scaling for efficient assessment.
Benchmarking & Content Validation: This chapter describes the integration of the Big-Five Inventory-10 to test the nomological network and the use of expert review to ensure item relevance.
Questionnaire Administration: This section covers the online distribution of the survey, achieving a near-target response rate of 81 participants to ensure robust statistical analysis.
Initial Item Reduction: This chapter explains the use of preliminary factor analysis, including KMO and Bartlett’s tests, to confirm the suitability of the data for structural reduction.
Structural Validity: This section details the iterative factor extraction process, leading to the identification of three distinct sub-constructs: personal distress, perspective taking, and caring behaviour.
Internal Consistency: This chapter confirms the reliability of the final 10-item scale using Cronbach’s alpha, demonstrating a satisfactory result of .731.
Convergent & Discriminate Validity: This section evaluates the scale's construct validity by correlating it with Big-5 personality traits, successfully confirming theoretical expectations.
Limitations: This chapter acknowledges constraints such as the use of a student sample instead of care-workers and the absence of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).
Conclusion: This final section affirms that the developed scale is a valid, reliable, and practical tool for improving the recruitment process of care-workers.
Keywords
Emotional empathy, scale development, psychometric properties, care-workers, factor analysis, construct validity, internal consistency, Likert scale, recruitment, Big-Five Inventory, screening process, personal distress, perspective taking, caring behaviour.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core focus of this research?
The research focuses on the development and psychometric validation of an emotional empathy assessment tool specifically designed for the recruitment of care-workers.
What are the primary themes addressed?
The work covers scale design, item generation, factor analysis, structural validity, internal consistency, and convergent/discriminant validity testing.
What is the main objective of the study?
The goal is to create a concise, 10-item Likert-based scale that effectively screens job applicants for the empathic qualities necessary for elderly care.
Which scientific methodology is employed?
The study follows a deductive approach, utilizing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and reliability testing (Cronbach’s alpha) to refine the measurement instrument.
What topics are discussed in the main body?
The main body examines the entire psychometric lifecycle: item creation, content validation against Big-Five benchmarks, factor structure identification, and statistical reliability checks.
Which keywords characterize this publication?
Key terms include emotional empathy, psychometric testing, scale development, structural validity, care-worker recruitment, and factor analysis.
Why was the Big-Five Inventory-10 included in this study?
It was used as a benchmark to establish a 'nomological network', allowing the researchers to verify that their empathy scale correlates correctly with relevant personality traits.
What are the three sub-constructs identified in the final scale?
The factor analysis identified three specific dimensions of emotional empathy: 'personal distress', 'perspective taking', and 'caring behaviour'.
How were the 21 initial items reduced to the final 10?
Items were removed through an iterative process of factor analysis, excluding those with multiple factor loadings, low scores, or poor alignment with the definition of emotional empathy.
What are the limitations regarding the research participants?
Due to accessibility constraints, the validation study was conducted with university students (HRMB, WOB, and OB students) rather than the intended target group of professional care-workers.
- Quote paper
- Nina Vöge (Author), 2017, Design, Evaluation and Report of Psychometric Properties. Empathy Scale for Health Workers, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/368479
