The development of research self-efficacy scale

The purpose of this research is to develop a scale towards identifying research-related self-efficacies of universitystudents. Research Self-Efficacy Scale (RSS) has been applied to 310 students pursuing academic education at theNear East University (NEU). For structural validity of the Scale, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed. Asa result of the EFA, a structure with a single factor composed of 18 items and explaining 31% of the variation hasbeen identified. Structural validity has been especially observed also through the Scale scores of those groupswhose properties are known. Analysis results have shown a higher Scale point in favour of those who have takenresearch methods modules as opposed to those who have not, and those who have previous research experienceas opposed to those who do not. The analysis for concurrent validity has produced a significant negativecorrelation between the Scale scores and the scores of the research anxiety scale, and a significant positivecorrelation between the Scale scores and perceived academic achievement. The alpha coefficient of the Scalescores is .87 and the split-half reliability coefficient is .85.