Reliability and Validity of Decision Making Styles Questionnaire in Iranian Students

In order to test the reliability and validity of Decision Making Styles Questionnaire (DMSQ; Scott & Bruce، 1995)، a sample of 427 Iranian females and 513 Iranian males، aged 17-32 years (mean=21)، who were students in Payame Noor University completed the DMSQ and Risk Perception Inventory (RPI; Benthin، 1993). Calculating the internal consistency of the DMSQ revealed that all 23 items were highly correlated with the total score. Reliability assessment by computing Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for the questionnaire was 0. 75. The Correlation coefficient by retest in a 4 week time interval was 0. 68 and correlation coefficient 0. 75 was obtained by administering a parallel form، both of which were significant (p<0. 01). In order to assess content validity، the questionnaire was given to a few psychologists who approved the potency of DMSQ in assessing decision making styles. Also factor analysis was used to evaluate the internal validity، which extracted 4 factors including rational decision making style، Intuitive decision making style، dependent decision making style، and avoidant decision making style with an eigenvalue of greater than one، which could explain 38% of the total variance. The Pearson correlation coefficient between RPS and rational، intuitive، dependent، and avoidant decision making styles were 0. 28، -0. 118، 0. 181 and 0. 099 respectively، confirming their convergent and divergent validity. The results showed that the DMSQ is a reliable and valid inventory for measuring decision making styles among Iranian students.