Validation

Reading aloud is recommended as a simple technique to measure speaking ability (Hughes & Hughes, 2020; Madsen, 1983). Reading aloud is currently used in the Pearson Test of English and a couple of other international English as a second language proficiency tests. Due to the simplicity of the technique, it can be used in conjunction with other techniques to measure foreign and second language learners’ speaking ability. One issue in reading aloud as a testing technique is its psychometric modelling. Because of the peculiar structure of reading aloud tasks, analysing them with item response theory models is not straightforward. In this study, the Rasch partial credit model (PCM) is suggested and used to score examinees’ reading aloud scores. The performances of 196 foreign language learners on five reading aloud passages were analysed with the PCM. Findings showed that the data fit the RPCM well and the scores are highly reliable. Implications of the study for psychometric evaluation of reading aloud or oral reading fluency are discussed.

Teaching media literacy to students pursues several goals, including creating creative, critical, and scrutinizing thinking about the media content and performance, as well as recognizing the visual forms of communication using it, along with other reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills. This research aimed to design a curriculum model for media literacy in the second grade of elementary school and to validate it. The research method was qualitative-quantitative and it was applied in terms of purpose. In the qualitative part, the media literacy curriculum model was identified using the synthesis research method based on the analogical model and the Klein model. Then, in order to validate the mentioned components, the obtained information was provided to experts in the field of curriculum planning and media and information management. The scope of the research was in the range of 2006 to 2021 for domestic documents and in the range of 2005 to 2021 for foreign documents. The statistical population in line with the model validation was experts in curriculum planning and media and information management. In order to validate the entire research, the statistical sample consisted of two groups of 10 experts in the field of curriculum planning and media and information management, who were selected based on the minimum number required to evaluate content validity. The data collection method in the validation stage was researcher-made questionnaires. Lawshe’s Content Validity Ratio (CVR) was used to measure the content validity. Results showed that the goals of the media literacy curriculum in the second grade of elementary school include two kind of goals: general goals (achieving Iranian-Islamic media culture) and partial goals (empowering students and teachers). The content of the media literacy curriculum in the second grade of elementary school included functional consumption education, critical consumption education, functional production-consumption education, and critical production-consumption education. The learning-teaching strategies used were presented in two sections: teacher’s activities (teaching method) and students’ activities, and the evaluation element was defined in three levels: students, teachers, and curriculum and educational content. Also, the results showed that the grouping in the media literacy program in the second grade of elementary school should be based on the individual and socioemotional characteristics of the students. The required resources and facilities were continuous improvement of the media literacy curriculum for the second grade of elementary school, compilation of the media literacy textbook for the second grade of elementary school, provision of educational facilities and media training assistance for second grade of elementary school students, and development of research in the field of media education. In choosing the time and place in the media literacy program, time and place flexibility in the presentation of teaching content was emphasized. Based on the results of this research, the suggested model of the media literacy curriculum of the second grade of elementary school can be used and implemented in the education system.

Aim: Taking into account the importance of creativity and the effective role of creative self-efficacy (CSE) in it, several attempts have been performed to develop appropriate measures. One of the multi-dimensional tools to assess CSE is Abbott’s (2010) creative self-efficacy inventory. The current study is an attempt to investigate factor structure and psychometric properties of Abbott’s CSE Inventory (2010) in Persian sample. The other objectives were to examine the differences in CSE regarding age and gender.Methods: The participants of this study were students in the age range of 13-19 years and also were schooling in 7th-12th grades of West Azerbaijan high schools (N= 400). Abbott’s CSE Inventory (2010) and intellect/imagination subscale of five factors personality Mini-IPIP scale were used. CFA was executed using AMOS and the data was analysed by SPSS software.Results: Reliability coefficients of raters for creative thinking self-efficacy (CTSE) and creative performance self-efficacy (CPSE) were 0.96 and 0.97 respectively (p<0.01). In addition, internal consistency of the whole scale, CPSE, and CTSE based on Cronbach’s alpha was 0.95, 0.88, and 0.93 respectively. The results showed that two factors were identified by the EFA, with eigenvalues greater than 1. These two factors were retained with 59.529 % of the total variance. The CFA supported construct validity of the CSE Inventory and its multi-factor structure. Also, there was no difference between the genders in terms of CSE, while CSE and age were directly related.Conclusion: The current research revealed that the structure and psychometric properties of the CSE Inventory for the Iranian sample are adequate

Aim: The Ethical and Legal Issues Self-Efficacy in Counseling (ELICSES) has been developed to evaluate counselors' and psychologists' self-efficacy in ethical and legal issues. Psychometric properties of the ELICSES in Iranian counselors and psychologists remain a largely unexplored realm. Method: The present study, therefore, seeks to translate the scale from English to Persian while also investigating the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the ELICSES. Online sampling was utilized to collect data from four hundred and forty-seven counselors, psychologists, and trainees who participated in the study. Ethical and Legal Issues in the Counseling Self-Efficacy Scale and Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale were used in the study. Results: The results of face (all items earned greater than 1.5 except one item (1.2)), content (overall CVI > 0.79, CVR > 0.62), and construct validity (CMIN=3.65, CFI=0.922, RMSE=0.45; also AVE> .5 and CR> .7) indicated that the ELICSES held appropriate validity and reliability. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis confirm the three factors of the ELICSES among Iranian counselors, psychologists, and trainees. Conclusion: These results suggested the validity and reliability of the ELICSES in evaluating self-efficacy when it comes to ethical and legal issues among Iranian counselors, psychologists, and trainees

While the issue of intercultural competence has received considerable attention in second language learning and teaching over recent decades, the lack of a practical, valid, and dependable instrument to cross-culturally measure intercultural competence is strongly felt. For this reason, the current study aimed at developing and validating an inventory to examine EFL learners’ intercultural competence within the context of Iran. Following a qualitative-quantitative descriptive method research design, an instrument consisting of items adapted from intercultural competence-based survey instruments was generated. Accordingly, the study recruited 200 Iranian EFL learners to fill out the inventory. Furthermore, nine Iranian university professors in Applied Linguistics received an earlier draft of the Intercultural Competence Inventory (ICI) after it was prepared. The experts were requested to provide feedback on the developed Inventory’ content and face validity. After expert/content validation, the construct validity of the inventory was checked using R software running Mokken Scale Analysis. The analyses aimed to determine the structure of the inventory and verify the effectiveness of a five-point Likert response scale. The results concerning item attributes and the quality of the response scale provided confirmation of the scale's internal validity. Hopefully, the presence of this inventory in the Iranian context, characterized by strong internal consistency, internal validity, and construct validity, can contribute valuable insights to the study of intercultural competence among language learners.

The present study intends to extend the current ancillary understanding horizons of the developmental theory of individual-differences relationship-based (DIR) framework and emotioncy framework, to investigate aspects of emotioncy tensions that include identity-related attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs by providing "what-to-do" information when enacting identity tensions. Through validating the Student Identity Emotioncy Tension Scale (SIETS), the researchers suggested that social identities are also associated with specific emotional tensions by providing "what-to-feel" information during identity enactment. To do so, a total number of 300 students filled out the scale. In the validation process, statistical procedures were exerted to validate the scale. First, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to ascertain the underlying factors. Then, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Communalities were checked for the relevance of component variance. Cronbach’s coefficient was used to check the reliability of the 18 items. The results indicated that the scale can be best explained by a three-factor solution with an acceptable reliability. In the qualitative phase of cognitive interviews, students were interviewed to further examine the quality of the items. In the end, the findings were elucidated and implications for future research and practice were presented.

Objective: The present study was conducted with the aim of designing and validating a pessimism questionnaire in married people.Methods: The research method was based on the applied objective and the mixed research method (qualitative-quantitative). The socio-statistics of the research were all professors and experts of clinical psychology and family counselors of Ardabil province in 2022. Among the statistical population, 15 people (11 men and 4 women) were selected based on the principle of opinion saturation as a statistical sample of the qualitative part, and 250 people (136 men and 114 women) were selected as a sample of the quantitative part as a non-random sampling available (easy access) became Interviews and researcher-made questionnaires were used to collect information. Thematic analysis was used with MAXQDA 2018 software to code the interview texts. Additionally, Cronbach's alpha method, construct validity (convergent and discriminant validity), and partial least squares (PLS) were used to analyze the data from the researcher-made questionnaire using SPSS and SmartPLS software.Results: The results indicated that the reliability and validity of the structure (convergence and divergence) were confirmed at an excellent level, and then the confirmatory factor analysis models were confirmed both in the mode of standard coefficients and the mode of absolute significance (p<0/05). Based on the results of this research, it is suggested that due to the innovation of this questionnaire, this questionnaire should be administered to couples before marriage in counseling centers and psychotherapy under the supervision of experienced professors with university experience and couples with pessimism problems before starting life.Conclusion: The joint should be examined and treated during effective protocols to prevent the problems caused by pessimism, which sometimes leads to the disintegration of the joint life if it is aggravated.

Axioms are crucial to epistemic frameworks, as several schools of the history of science have recognized. The issue of the current research is that in the validation of axioms, what defects does the intuitive approach entail, and how can the intersubjective approach (based on the ideas of Islamic philosophers) be explained as an alternative, less-known system? The former is dedicated to clarifying and criticizing what is called the intuitive approach to validating axioms: this approach is attributed to classical philosophers and consists of assuming that axioms are propositions whose truth is immediately evident upon taking into account the terms they are based on. The latter focuses on clarifying the alternative approach, called the intersubjective approach of validating axioms (IAVA): this approach is attributed to a specific Islamic tradition, developed by Avicenna and Mullā Ṣadrā, and consists of assuming that axioms are propositions that cannot be rationally proved, denied, or doubted, without being already assumed. In this article, we present the intersubjective approach from a historical point of view.

Avicenna’s floating man thought experiment has been examined and criticized for over a thousand years from various philosophical perspectives. While traditional and modern criticisms exist, the latter primarily focus on the confusion between epistemology and ontology. The ontological dimensions have received significant attention, but the epistemological aspects remain underexplored. I propose a modern critique suggesting that if valid, the thought experiment may not support substance dualism. However, some modest versions could bolster modest dualism, which posits that mental properties are distinct from physical ones, without adhering to Cartesian concepts. I present seven versions of the thought experiment. The first differs from Avicenna’s original and focuses on the individuation of self and body, but is vulnerable to modern critiques due to its conflation of ontological and epistemic aspects. The remaining six versions avoid this issue and do not assert that the mind is an immaterial substance. The second version examines epistemic differences between basic self-knowledge and knowledge of the body. The third addresses self-referential and self-verifying aspects of self-knowledge. The fourth explores modal properties, while the fifth highlights the self's necessary relationship to self-knowledge. The sixth emphasizes the environmental neutrality of basic self-knowledge, and the final version utilizes the self as a critical reasoner. I also support and revise these six versions with eleven general remarks.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to validate the Emotional Responses to Sexual Infidelity Scale in individuals affected by sexual infidelity. Methods: This research employed a descriptive-analytical validation approach. The statistical population comprised individuals affected by sexual infidelity by their spouses, who sought assistance from psychological counseling centers and the Dispute Resolution Council in the city of Gorgan in 2023. A sample of 415 individuals was selected using a sample size estimation method. Data were collected using the Emotional Responses to Sexual Infidelity Scale developed by Turliuca & Scutarua (2014). After evaluating content validity, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to assess construct validity. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to examine reliability, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient test was applied for further investigation of the main research variables. Analyses were conducted using SPSS and AMOS24 software. Findings: Confirmatory factor analysis findings demonstrated that the single-factor model of the Emotional Responses to Sexual Infidelity Scale exhibited good fit, based on the following indices: RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.92, TLI = 0.91, and IFI = 0.92. The reliability of the 27-item Emotional Responses to Sexual Infidelity Scale was determined to be 0.81 based on Cronbach’s alpha. The content validity of the questionnaire exceeded 0.99. Bartlett’s test yielded a chi-square value of 748.65, degrees of freedom of 105, a significance level of 0.001, and KMO = 0.77. Conclusion: The results indicate that the present scale has favorable psychometric properties for use in the Iranian population of individuals affected by sexual infidelity. It can be employed as a reliable instrument in future research and diagnostic contexts.