As I mentioned in class last week, I think the scale of Perceived Collective Family Efficacy from Bandura's (2006) guide to constructing self-efficacy scales contains a lot of items that can work for the scale we are trying to build, so I am going to post some of those items here that I have adapted slightly:
1) Agree to decisions that require giving up personal interests
2) Resolve conflicts when members feel they are not being treated fairly
3) Prevent disagreements from turning into heated arguments
4) Get members to share responsibilities
5) Support each other in times of stress
6) Bounce back quickly from adverse experiences
7) Help each other to achieve their personal goals
8) Build respect for each other's particular interests
9) Help each other with work demands
10) Get members to carry out their responsibilities when they neglect them
11) Celebrate group traditions even in difficult times
12) Serve as a good example for the community
13) Remain confident during difficult times
14) Accept each member's need for independence
Hi Marissa,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting these items, they are great! I like that some of them have "barrier" phrasing that we were talking about. If we decide to phrase all items through barirers wording, we can alternate some of the items. For example, in the first one we can say: I beliee that I can agree to group decisions even if they require giving up personal interest.
I want to point out two things here. First, some items don't seem to fit well in my view. These are:
11) Celebrate group traditions even in difficult times
12) Serve as a good example for the community
I can see how they fit into family context, but if you take many other groups - say, gamers, sportsmen, small groups in schools - they do not celebrate group traditions (they just don't have it - or I might get the wording wrong, probably?) nor do they serve as a good example to the community (DOTA players as a good example for the community? Ahahahahaha :D).
Since we're trying to make the items more universal, I think we should exclude these two.
Further, I'm not sure about these items:
2) Resolve conflicts when members feel they are not being treated fairly [I tink that items "everyone can stick to and respect group ground norms" and "we can resolve conflicts" will be sufficient and more precise rather than this one].
10) Get members to carry out their responsibilities when they neglect them [it's hard to tell why I don't like this one, but maybe it seem repetitive after "Get members to share responsibilities"?]
13) Remain confident during difficult times [confident in what exatly?]
Another thing is that these items do not address "I" or "We" comnponents of collective efficacy. For example, the first item can be phrased in two ways:
1) I am confident that I can agree to decisions that require giving up personal interests.
2) I am confident that our groups can agree to decisions that require giving up everyone's personal interests.
In sum, I think we need to create items that reflect the necessary, really important qualities of group work and divide items into "I" and "we" component.
Wow, that's a lot of words :D So what do you think about it?
Thanks for all your feedback, Ira! I agree that Item 12 is not a great item. For Item 11, I wonder if it would make more sense if it read "Celebrate group accomplishments in difficult times"? For Items 2 and 10, I agree that the items you mentioned may be sufficient in their place. I also agree that Item 13 needs to be more specific. Perhaps we could say "Remain confident in the group's ability to succeed during difficult times"?
DeleteFinally, I definitely agree with your point about making sure we address both the "I" and "We" components of collective efficacy. Perhaps we do not alter the items, but perhaps offer the same items twice with two different sets of directions. In the first set of directions, we can say "When thinking about yourself as an individual within your group, please indicate on the scale below how confident you are that you can help your group with each of the following tasks." In the second set of directions, we can say "When thinking about your group as a whole, please indicate on the scale below how confident you are that your group can complete each of the following tasks."
What do you think about these updates?
Thank you for sharing this! They look great. I like these items because they are very specific and contains the idea of "barriers" in them.
ReplyDeleteOne item that was not clear to me was "7) Help each other to achieve their personal goals". Achieving personal goals might conflict with group goals and I'm not sure if personal goals are the main goal of collaboration...
Good point, Yeoeun! I agree that this item may not work well with our scale.
DeleteGood point, Yeoeun! I agree that this item may not work well with our scale.
DeleteI agree with both Yeoeun and Marissa on this. Certainly, a groups' overall goal is comprised of many smaller tasks carried out by many people. In that sense, personal goals, if they are in reference to their goals within the group, I would argue it could be a useful item.
ReplyDeleteIn general, I agree with Marissa in that Bandura’s Perceived Collective Family Efficacy Scale is a useful tool to reference. A successful group typically resembles a well functioning family unit in several ways. However, I also agree with Irina that numbers 11, 12 don’t necessarily apply to the scale we are wanting to develop. There are others as well that would need to be tweaked a bit. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks, Chris! I agree that Item 7 could be useful, but would probably need to be worded a bit differently in order to be effective. Perhaps if we said "Help each other to achieve the group's goals"?
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