Are topic-specific measures of socio-political control justified? Exploring the realm of citizen participation in natural resource decision making

Measuring the Intrapersonal Component of Psychological Empowerment: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Sociopolitical Control Scale

“…SPCS items such as "I would rather not try something I'm not good at" would be considered negatively worded. In the only other published study examining the underlying structure of the 17-item SPCS, Smith and Propst's (2001) factor analysis yielded similar findings-the hypothesized factors of leadership competence and policy control emerged, but several negatively worded items failed to produce significant loadings. Although both of these studies failed to use confirmatory factor analysis techniques to test the measure's factor structure, they strongly suggest that method bias from the use of negatively worded items may have a detrimental effect on the SPCS's psychometric properties and future research should investigate and, if needed, rectify this measurement problem.…”

“…This study tested the hypothesized factor structure of the SPCS, a widely used measure of the intrapersonal component of PE (e.g., Carballo-Dieguez et al, 2005;Hamilton & Fauri, 2001;Holden et al, , 2005Itzhaky, 2003;Itzhaky & York, 2000Peterson & Hughey, 2004;Peterson & Reid, 2003;Speer, 2000;Speer et al, 2001;Speer & Peterson, 2000;Smith & Propst, 2001, Zimmerman et al, 1997. Our findings indicate that method bias had an effect on the factor structure of the SPCS.…”

“…Although other conceptual frameworks and operational definitions of empowerment exist (Becker, Israel, Schulz, Parker, & Klem, 2002;Frymier, Shulman, & Houser, 1996;Hardiman & Segal, 2003;Israel, Checkoway, Schulz, & Zimmerman, 1994;Kim, Crutchfield, Williams, & Hepler, 1998;Matthews, Diaz, & Cole, 2003;Segal, Silverman, & Temkin, 1995;Spreitzer, 1995;Wallerstein, 1992Wallerstein, , 2002, the Sociopolitical Control Scale (SPCS) (Zimmerman & Zahniser, 1991) has been widely used in studies of the construct (e.g., Carballo-Dieguez et al, 2005;Hamilton & Fauri, 2001;Holden, Crankshaw, Nimsch, Hinnant, & Hund, 2004;Holden et al, 2005;Itzhaky, 2003;Itzhaky & York, 2000Peterson & Hughey, 2004;Peterson & Reid, 2003;Speer, 2000;Speer, Jackson, & Peterson, 2001;Speer & Peterson, 2000;Smith & Propst, 2001, Zimmerman, Ramirez-Valles, Suarez, de la Rosa, & Castro, 1997. Itzhaky and York (2003), for instance, translated the SPCS into Hebrew to study PE among immigrants participating in community development activities in Israel.…”

“…Given the findings of previous research (i.e., Smith & Propst, 2001;Zimmerman & Zahniser, 1991), it is vital to test the possible effect of method bias on the SPCS. One useful strategy to examine the effects of method bias on the factor structure of a scale was described by Bollen and Paxton (1998).…”

The involvement of university faculty members in social planning: motivating and hindering factors

“…In this context, many studies have shown a correlation between political efficacy and participation in institutions. The public tends to be more involved when it believes in its ability to influence the local institutions, administrators in municipal organizations, and officeholders (Almond and Verba 1963;Berry et al 1993;Kobayashi and Suzuki 1988;Petterson and Rose 1996;Smith and Propst 2001;Wandersman 1981;Zimmerman 1989). The next hypothesis, then, is:…”