Abstract
ObjectiveThe Self-Importance of Moral Identity Scale (SMIS) was developed by Aquino and Reeds with the purpose of measuring how people evaluate their private (Internalization subscale) and public (Symbolization subscale) moral identity. SMIS has become commonly and broadly used in many studies. The aim of this paper is to validate the Polish version of SMIS by analyzing its structure and relation to similar measures (such as The Moral Self-Concept Scale developed by Stake and The Moral Self-Image Scale created by Jordan, Leliveld and Tenbrunsel), declared past prosocial behaviors and readiness to donate money.MethodsThe translation-back-translation procedure was used to maintain semantic, idiomatic, and conceptual equivalence of the original scale. Throughout four separate studies the psychometric properties of the Polish version of the scale were assessed: Study 1 (N = 529) was carried out to derive the factor structure using the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and cross-validate it; Study 2 (N = 602) and Study 3 (N = 899) were performed to confirm and replicate the structure with the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA); gender-balanced Study 4 (N = 862) was conducted to assess measurement invariance over gender using multigroup CFA, and to normalize the scale. Validity of the scale was assessed based on each study.ResultsA stable two-factor structure using 10 items was replicated in four different samples. The results showed that reliability (α) was between 0.71 and 0.81 for Internalization, and 0.76 and 0.81 for Symbolization. Validity was confirmed in terms of the expected pattern of correlations with morality measures and factorial structure. Metric invariance across gender was confirmed with possible exception of factor loadings on two items regarding communication of values. Polish normalization for men and women was constructed.ConclusionsPolish validation of SMIS proved to be a structurally consistent and valid measure.
Highlights
Psychology is affected by the replication crisis [1], which can be caused by many sources, including poor methodology of the original studies or the development of statistics
Each study had its own objective, they all included Self-Importance of Moral Identity Scale (SMIS) and constructs that served as evidence of validity such as the Moral Self-Concept (MSC), Moral Self-Image (MSI), past prosocial behaviors (PPB) and declared readiness to donate money (RDM)
Scalar model was compared to the error variance invariance model which resulted in significantly poorer fit (LR test χ2(12) = 34.49, p< 0.001, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.05, 90%CI 0.04–0.07, Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) = 13145.28, Bayesian information criterion (BIC) = 13307.57, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.96, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.96) showing that measurement error differs across gender
Summary
The Self-Importance of Moral Identity Scale (SMIS) was developed by Aquino and Reeds with the purpose of measuring how people evaluate their private (Internalization subscale) and public (Symbolization subscale) moral identity. SMIS has become commonly and broadly used in many studies. The aim of this paper is to validate the Polish version of SMIS by analyzing its structure and relation to similar measures (such as The Moral Self-Concept Scale developed by Stake and The Moral Self-Image Scale created by Jordan, Leliveld and Tenbrunsel), declared past prosocial behaviors and readiness to donate money
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