The Study of Psychometric Properties of the Socio-Moral Reflection Measure - Short Form in Students with Intellectual Disabilities
Article Type:
Research/Original Article (دارای رتبه معتبر)
Abstract:
Introduction
Conformity to a set of moral norms and values is essential for individuals to achieve self-guidance, purposefulness and a sense of flow in their everyday life; otherwise, they will display inconsistent behaviors. This highlights the significance of educating people who conform to right moral values and this issue has been a matter of concern to many scholars and scientists for many years. Indeed, the study of moral development and the cultivation of moral values in contemporary modern societies is quite essential and should be placed on top of the educational agenda.
In this regard, several researchers highlight the significance of education in developing morally competent individuals. The best way to develop morally competent individuals, Lind (2006) believes, is to provide them with the opportunity to learn the right way to do things; that is, the condition in which they feel secure and can freely express their moral opinions. Hence, the more critical the situation is for the individual’s moral development, the more they require education for that. As a typical instance of such a critical situation, one can refer to intellectual disability.
Although individuals with intellectual disability undergo the same stages of moral development as do ordinary people, they pass through the stages at a slower pace than do their ordinary peers. Due to the weaknesses in their cognitive abilities and the inadequate heed given to them, these people are more likely to be exploited or to be involved in such crimes as as breaking the law, robbery, rape, or membership in antisocial groups.
While the moral development of ordinary people has been widely studied in previous research, little heed has been given to that of people with intellectual disability and even in the few studies that have been conducted so far, non-standard instruments have been used to assess the moral development of intellectually disabled people. This highlights the need for devising an instrument for assessing the moral development of people with intellectual disability, based on which an appropriate educational program could be developed. In response, the present study aims to investigate the psychometric properties (validity, reliability and factor analysis) of the Socio-Moral Reflection Measure – Short Form(Gibbs & et al, 1992), in students with intellectual disabilities in Shiraz.
Research Questions
1. Is the Socio-Moral Reflection Measure – Short Form (SRM-SF) scale adequately reliable and valid?
2. How many dimensions is the of Socio-Moral Reflection Measure – Short Form scale composed of?
Methods
This study is an applied research. The statistical population of this research included all the secondary students with intellectual disability who were over 16 years old in Shiraz. Participants in the study were, on one hand, 80 students with minor intellectual disability, selected from schools in four different districts, using cluster sampling method. On the other hand, the study involved the participation of 80 students without intellectual disability, selected through randomized matching technique (gender and age) to investigate discriminant validity. The validity of the scale was determined using factor analysis, and checking its internal consistency, face validity and discriminant validity. The reliability of the scale was calculated by test-retest, Cronbach's alpha and inter-rater correlation. The content of scale was analyzed with Principal component analysis.
Results
The Result indicated three factors (trust, life and law). The correlation between the dimensions and the total score in all cases was significant and varied between 0/47- 0/87. On the other hand, the reliability coefficient of the scale using Cronbach's alpha was 0/82 for the total scale and 0/77, 0/57, 0 /59 for the first, second and third components, respectively. the reliability coefficient of the scale, assessed through inter- rater correlation, was 0/95 and was 0/91 when test-retest method was used. The results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and the independent t-test indicated that there were significant differences between the two groups of students both in their total scores for moral judgment and in its various aspects (p
Discussion
In this study, different methods were used to assess the validity and reliability of the stated scale. The results showed that the reliability and validity of this scale is acceptable for the Iranian students with intellectual disability. In the present study, the scale questions were analyzed through factor analysis. The results showed three factors, named, respectively "trust", "life", and "law". In the main form of this scale, seven dimensions were identified, while the results of the factor analysis in the present study showed three dimensions. It is worth noting that this scale could discriminate between students with and without intellectual disability both in the overall scores it yielded for moral judgement and in its evaluation of the various dimensions of moral judgment so that students with intellectual disability had lower grades than the normal students. This finding could be taken as evidence corroborating the validity of this scale. The study, nonetheless, has certain limitations. Primarily, the research sample was in the age group of 16 and older, so the generalization of the results to other age groups should be done with caution. Moreover, the sample in this study was selected only from intellectually disabled students in Shiraz; therefore, for the results to be more generalizable, further research is required to be conducted in other cities to explore the psychometric properties of the scale with participants from different ethnicities, language backgrounds, and age groups.
In the end, based on the analyses conducted on the "short form of reflection of social morality" scale, it can be stated that the scale, used for the first time in Iran, could be employed as a valid and reliable instrument for measuring moral judgment in people with intellectual disability.
Language:
Persian
Published:
Studies in Learning & Instruction, Volume:10 Issue: 1, 2018
Pages:
168 to 188
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