Dados do Trabalho

Título

PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF THE PSYCHOLOGIST AND COUNSELLOR SELF-EFFICACY SCALE IN A BRAZILIAN CONTEXT

Introdução

Self-efficacy is the construct related to the individuals' ability to perform activities and believe that they will achieve the expected results. The perception of self-efficacy by people is directly related to their performance in their tasks, mainly when analyzed in the workplace. Research on self-efficacy among health professionals is prevalent, especially among physicians and nurses, but there are no studies among psychologists. A more significant number of studies regarding performance and self-efficacy among psychologists and psychology students may help develop instruments aiming at improving the performance of these professionals in several work situations and discuss curricular issues regarding psychology education in Brazil. However, there are still no instruments adapted and validated in Brazil to assess self-efficacy in this population.

Objetivo

This work aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Psychologist and Counsellor Self-Efficacy Scale (PCES) in a Brazilian context among women.

Método

The PCES was translated into Portuguese by different bilingual judges following specific protocols for instrument translation. The translated and back-translated versions were sent to the researchers who initially created the PCES for their approval.

Resultados

At the end of this process, the PCES was applied to 1,557 participants (psychology students and psychologists) to perform the validation. The scores obtained were analyzed employing multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and network analysis. The network analysis performed confirmed the scale's validity for this specific population because there was a centrality between nodes, which ensures the correlation of the items among themselves and their good functioning in the application for the given sample used. The multigroup confirmatory factor analysis also showed an adequate score (.992) for women, indicating that the PCES has reasonable fit rates in this population.

Conclusão

This scale showed necessary psychometric validity; after performing three different types of analysis, it showed scores within the standards already obtained from the original scale in all of them. The data indicated that the PCES is an instrument that can be used for application and future research on self-efficacy among psychologists and psychology students in the context of females. This research was funded in part by the Conselho Nacional Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).

Palavras-chave

Self-efficacy; Scale; Psychologists; Psychometrics; Validation