Development and Psychometric Validation of the Political Silence Scale

Öz

Political silence refers to the failure of political thought to translate into political action for various reasons. Individuals may remain silent out of fear that future interests will be harmed or to secure specific benefits. This study aims to conceptualize political silence among individuals as a multidimensional construct by focusing on academics in Türkiye and to develop a valid and reliable measurement scale. The research, based on a quantitative design, includes scale development and psychometric validation. During the scale development process, an item pool was generated from the relevant literature, and content validity was established through expert evaluation. To examine the construct validity of the scale, an Exploratory Factor Analysis was performed on data from 640 academics in the first stage, and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis was conducted on data from 643 academics in the second stage. The scale’s reliability was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, and convergent and discriminant validity were assessed using composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE), and the Fornell–Larcker criterion. The findings demonstrate that the political silence scale developed in this study is a valid and reliable measurement instrument comprising four subdimensions: protest-based, perceived risk-based, conformity-based, and value-based political silence.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Silence
• Political silence
• The spiral of silence

Siyasal Sessizlik Ölçeğinin Geliştirilmesi ve Psikometrik Doğrulaması

Öz

Siyasal sessizlik, bireyin sahip olduğu siyasal düşüncenin kamuoyu önünde ifade edilmemesidir. Bireyin siyasal düşüncesini ifade edememesi menfaat elde etmek ya da korku gibi çeşitli sebeplere bağlı olarak ortaya çıkabilir. Bu çalışma, akademisyenlerin siyasal sessizlik nedenlerini çok boyutlu bir biçimde ele almayı ve siyasal sessizliği ölçmeye yarayacak bir ölçek geliştirmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Araştırma nicel araştırma desenine dayalı olarak ölçek geliştirme ve psikometrik doğrulama sürecini içermektedir. Ölçek geliştirme sürecinde literatürde yer alan bilgilerden yola çıkılarak madde havuzu oluşturulmuş ve oluşturulan madde havuzunun kapsam geçerliliği uzman görüşleri doğrultusunda elde edilmiştir. Ölçeğin yapı geçerliliği için ilk aşamada 640 akademisyenden elde edilen verilerle Açımlayıcı Faktör Analizi, ikinci aşamada ise 643 akademisyenden elde edilen verilerle Doğrulayıcı Faktör Analizi gerçekleştirilmiştir. Ölçeğin güvenirliği Cronbach alfa katsayısı ile hesaplanmış, yakınsak ve ayrışma geçerliği ise bileşik güvenirlik (CR), ortalama açıklanan varyans (AVE) ve Fornell–Larcker kriterleri temelinde incelenmiştir. Elde edilen sonuçlar, geliştirilen siyasal sessizlik ölçeğinin protesto temelli, algılanan risk temelli, uyum temelli ve değer temelli olmak üzere dört alt boyutlu geçerli ve güvenilir bir ölçme aracı olduğunu göstermektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Sessizlik
• Siyasal Sessizlik
• Suskunluk Sarmalı

Kaynakça

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