DIGEST-V8-i1

4 TPC Digest Maribeth F. Jorgensen, William E. Schweinle The Research Identity Scale: Psychometric Analyses and Scale Refinement O ne of the most important elements in modern day clinical work is evidence-based theory and approach. There has been an increased demand for counselors to seek and provide evidence that their approach, or theory, is actually helping their client base (i.e., measured outcomes). The American Counseling Association Code of Ethics indicates there is an ethical responsibility for professional counselors to monitor their effectiveness. This is similar to what is required of training programs; counselor training programs that are accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP) must define and measure learning that takes place (i.e., student learning outcomes). These standards hold programs accountable to provide the highest quality training by both assessing and reflecting on their practices. Over the years, CACREP has continued to expand on their requirements and have suggested multiple dimensions of professional counselor identity (e.g., researcher, consultant, supervisor, advocate). More recently, there has been an increase in the quality and quantity of CACREP research standards for both entry- and doctoral-level programs. Ultimately, the new demands to quantify professional efficacy have required the counseling profession and training programs to acquire more of an empirical research orientation. Researchers have explored both the promotion and the impact of these research-oriented CACREP training standards on professional counselor identity development at the program level. Out of that research, the concept of research identity (RI) developed; counseling students view and experience research as a dimension of their overall professional counselor identity. Within the field of psychology, the term science-practitioner has been popular for decades and may be a similar concept to RI. To date, RI has only been defined and explored through qualitative research. Researchers have described RI as including beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes about research and professional identity. Further, RI is impacted by external factors such as conceptualization of research, professional identity development, faculty, training program, research courses, colleagues, and peers. Even though the qualitative studies have provided the field with a comprehensive understanding of RI, there has been a need for research to quantitatively assess RI. Specifically, previous researchers have recommended using their qualitative research to create a scale to measure RI. They suggested that development of an RI measure would not only expand the understanding of RI, but might also provide another option for counselor training programs to objectively examine student learning outcomes and program effectiveness in executing CACREP research standards. Qualitative methods can be used to inform scale development and are perceived as appropriate and sufficient within the research community. The aim of the current study was to implement the recommendations of previous researchers by creating a scale to measure RI. A 68-item Research Identity Scale (RIS) was developed from qualitative data. Classical psychometrics and an item response analysis were used to examine reliability and validity and to reduce the number of scale items. The RIS provides counselor education programs with another option to monitor their effectiveness and model the practice of valuing and using research to advance practices, which is expected of counselors-in-training and practitioners. Maribeth F. Jorgensen, NCC, is an assistant professor at the University of South Dakota. William E. Schweinle is an associate professor at the University of South Dakota. Correspondence can be addressed to Maribeth Jorgensen, 414 East Clark Street, Vermillion, SD 57069, maribeth.jorgensen@usd.edu.