MEASURING ADVANCED COGNITIVE SKILLS IN YOUNG ADULTS: DEVELOPMENT AND PSYCHOMETRIC VALIDATION OF THE POST-FORMAL THINKING SCALE FOR EMERGING ADULTS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12955/pss.v4.396Keywords:
post-formal thinking, cognitive skills, emerging adults, developmental psychologyAbstract
The Post-Formal Thinking Scale for Emerging Adults (PFTSEA) is a novel self-report instrument developed to measure advanced cognitive skills associated with post-formal thought in individuals aged 18-26/29 years. The scale was created through a rigorous multi-stage process in accordance with established guidelines for psychological test construction and was adapted for the emerging adult population in Romania.
An initial item pool was generated based on theory and empirical research on post-formal thinking as conceptualized by Sinnott & Johnson (1997). This framework posits that cognitive capacities continue developing beyond Piaget's stage of formal operations to include skills like dialectical reasoning, multidimensional perspective taking, and systems thinking. Focus groups with emerging adults provided qualitative feedback to refine item wording and content.
A panel of five experts in scale development and post-formal thinking then evaluated items for relevance, clarity, and representativeness to establish content validity. Their feedback resulted in revisions to optimize the scale's content domain coverage.
The PFTSEA was then administered to a sample of 420 emerging adults in Romania along with validation measures. Exploratory factor analysis supported the retention of 16 items loading onto 4 interpretable factors representing key aspects of post-formal thought: Dialectical Thinking, Multidimensional Perspective Taking, Complexity, and Contextual Reasoning. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the robustness of this theoretical factor structure.
Reliability and validity analyses demonstrated strong psychometric properties. The internal consistency values for the subscales ranged from 0.82 to 0.87, while the overall scale demonstrated a high internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.91. Moderate to strong correlations with related constructs provided evidence for convergent validity, while weaker correlations with unrelated variables supported discriminant validity.
In summary, the PFTSEA was developed through rigorous methodology to provide researchers and practitioners with a reliable and valid measure of advanced cognitive skills specific to emerging adulthood. Its strong psychometric properties support the potential for meaningful applications in assessing post-formal thought capacities.
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