Scale Development in Behavioral Sciences (Based on Exploratory Factor Analysis)

In the measurement of a trait in behavioral sciences two basic approaches stand out: Those are psychometric and impressionistic approaches. Psychometric approach places emphasis on development of measurement instruments based on scientific methods with high validity and reliability and is guiding at the same time. In this study, scale development process in behavioral sciences, problems encountered, steps to be taken and statistical methods to be used are discussed in detail and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) as a technique used in search of dimensions of a scale is mentioned. This study is anticipated to guide the researchers in scale development process. Davranis bilimlerinde, herhangi bir ozelligin olculmesi soz konusu oldugunda iki temel yaklasim one cikmaktadir. Bu yaklasimlar, psikometrik ve izlenimci yaklasimdir. Psikometrik yaklasim, bilimsel yontemlere dayanarak gecerligi ve guvenirligi yuksek olcme araclarinin gelistirilmesine onem verir, ayni zamanda yol gosterir. Bu makalede, davranis bilimlerinde olcek gelistirme sureci, karsilasilabilecek sorunlar, izlenmesi gereken adimlar ve kullanilabilecek istatistiksel yontemler ayrintili olarak ele alinmis, olcek boyutlarini kesfetmek amaciyla basvurulan aciklayici faktor analizi (AFA) teknigine yer verilmistir. Makalenin, olcek gelistirmek isteyen arastirmacilara yol gosterecegi umulmaktadir.