Quantifying interpersonal tendencies of engineering and science students: a validation study

• Autores: Justin L. Hess, Anthony Chase, Grant A. Fore, Brandon Sorge
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 34, no. 6, 2018, págs. 1754-1767
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Engineering and science programs seek to foster a wide range of skills among students, including a myriad of professionalskills. This study describes the design of two survey constructs that align with many important professional skills,Interpersonal Self-Efficacy and Emotion Regulation. We validate these constructs alongside two prominently usedempathy constructs: Perspective-Taking and Empathic Concern. By validating these constructs, this study provideseducators with an easily implementable and trustworthy means of ascertaining changes in student growth resulting fromtheir own curricular interventions. As a first step in this study, the constructs’ componential structures were defined.Second, confirmatory factor analysis was employed to identify the fit of the factor structures. Third, Pearson bivariatecorrelationswere examined to ascertainrelationshipsbetween constructs.The results indicatethat,with modification, eachconstruct was structurally valid. While Interpersonal Self-Efficacy and Emotion Regulation showed moderate relation-ships with Perspective-Taking and Empathic Concern, Interpersonal Self-Efficacy exhibited the strongest overallcorrelations. Constructs componential structures are used to help explain findings and to provide concrete insights intothe nuances between phenomena. These findings can facilitate future explorations on engineering and science students’professional formation.