The development of a trustworthiness scale (T-scale) and the establishment of its reliability, validity and norms

• Main Authors: Garcia, Filipinas M., Hernando, Othella Gae C., Samson, Jhouanna P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1995
• Subjects: Reliability; Psychometrics; Personality tests; Character; Honesty; Self-reliance; Tests and scales > Validity; Trustworthiness
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/9925
• Institution: De La Salle University

The aim of the study is to develop a psychological test that would determine the level of trustworthiness of a person. The Trustworthiness Scale (T-Scale) is a self-report instrument developed developed through the use of the survey method. Surveys were conducted in various commercial banks in Metro Manila and Tagum, Davao with bank employees as respondents. The initial item pool was subjected to item review by Psychology teachers and Psychometrics professors. A preliminary tryout was conducted to determine the clarity of items according to the respondents' point of view. The main tryout sample consisted of 100 bank employees from commercial banks in the Greenhills, San Juan area. They belong to the 19-52 age bracket. To establish construct validity, contrasted groups and factor analysis were utilized. The main tryout form was also administered to 18 prison inmates from the Manila City Jail with estafa, illegal recruitment, theft and robbery cases. Data from these two groups were utilized to establish the contrasted groups validity of the instrument. T-test procedures revealed that the instrument is able to distinguish a trustworthy individual from one who is not. Per item, the t value must be less than .05. As a whole, the t-computed (1-6.40/) is greater than t-critical 1.918). There is significant difference between the scores obtained by the bank employees and the prison inmates. Results of the factor analysis procedures generated six factors, namely: I-Dependability (12.12), II-Honesty (7.56), III-Loyalty (6.28), IV-Integrity (5.86), V-Confidentiality (5.52), and VI-Genuineness (5.39). The reliability coefficients of 0.95 and 0.93 were obtained through the use of the Coefficient Alpha method and Split-Half method respectively. The reliability coefficient per factor was also computed: I-0.873, II-0.805, III-0.676, IV-0.760, V-0.657, and VI-0.783. The final form of the test consists of 48 items. A norm table for the whole instrument was constructed using percentile ranks.