Validity of the physics affective characteristics scale for Flemish pharmacy and biology majors

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to validate the physics affective characteristics scale (PACS) by investigating its psychometric properties. The PACS is a revised version of the affective characteristics scale (ACS), which was developed for Turkish students following introductory physics courses. The questionnaire includes 51 items in 11 subscales: situational interest in physics, personal interest in physics, relevance of physics to everyday life, relevance of physics to future career, relevance of physics to other courses, physics course anxiety, physics test anxiety, student motivation in physics, self-efficacy in physics, self-concept in physics, and physics achievement motivation. In this version, the relevance subscale—named as importance subscale in the previous version—was revised, and the aspiring extra activities related to physics subscale was removed. The PACS was administered to 240 nonphysics (biology and pharmacy) majors enrolled in an introductory physics course at a Flemish university. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the factor structure of the questionnaire. The results showed that the model fits well indicating that the revised questionnaire also has satisfactory psychometric properties, and supporting a multidimensional relevance construct. As expected, the indicators all showed significant positive factor loadings. The results of this study suggest that the Dutch version of the PACS is a useful instrument with sufficient reliability and validity to measure nonphysics majors’ affective characteristics.