The Development and Validation of the Inquiry Beliefs and Practices Scale

Abstract

The Inquiry Beliefs and Practices Scales (IBPS) was designed to measure the philosophical beliefs and scholarly practices of social science researchers. Three philosophies were identified for us in the development of items (i.e., post-positivism, interprevitism, and critical theory). Using a sample selected from the membership of AERA, APA, and ASA, multiple sources of evidence were sought for the construct validity of scores derived from the IBPS. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in the expected patterns of item loadings. Overall, 84% of the items loaded on factors as anticipated and the pattern was seen for both beliefs and practices items. The correlations among the scales also demonstrated expected patterns and the correlations between the IBPS scores and time since degree earned were in expected directions. Finally, the results from ANOVA suggest that researchers’ responses differed systematically in the anticipated direction, according to both professional organization affiliation and responses to an open-ended description of research activities.