Examination of Psychometric Properties of the Irrational Performance Belief Inventory-2
Akıldışı Performans İnançları Envanteri–2’nin Psikometrik Özelliklerinin Sınanması
Rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), developed by Albert Ellis (Ellis, 1957), is a humanistic and cognitive behavioral approach (Turner, 2016). According to REBT, the reasons for emotional and behavioral problems are irrational beliefs. Irrational beliefs are illogical, extreme, and rigid (Dryden & Branch, 2008; DiGiuseppe, Doyle, Dryden, & Backx, 2014). REBT, which has been applied for many years for psychological problems of individuals, has recently become widespread in applied sports psychology (Turner, Slater, Dixon, & Miller, 2018). Research shows that irrational beliefs can be associated with performance and psychological skills (Cunningham & Turner, 2016; Deen, Turner, & Wong, 2017; Wood, Barker, & Turner, 2017). One of the most important steps of studies on irrational beliefs is to measure the irrational beliefs of athletes. In this phase, semistructured interviews and quantitative measurement tools can be used (Turner & Barker, 2014). The Irrational Performance Belief Inventory-2 was developed to measure irrational beliefs about performance of athletes. The purpose of this study is to test the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Irrational Performance Belief Inventory-2 (iPBI-2) for athletes .
Method
One hundered ninty six male (Mage= 23.73, SSage = 6.81) and 107 female (Mage= 21.49, SSage = 3.46), totally 303 athletes (Mage= 22.94, SSage = 5.94) voluntarily participated in this study. The iPBI-2 (Turner & Allen, 2018) is the short form of the 28-item Irrational Performance Belief Inventory which was developed by Turner et al. (2016). The iPBI-2 is a five point Likerttype scale and includes 20 items. The iPBI-2 assess the irrational beliefs of athletes on four subscales -Demandingness, Awfulizing, Low Frustration Tolerance, Depreciation-. High scores on the scale mean high irrational performance beliefs. Item analysis was performed to determine the discriminatory properties of the scale items. In this context, mean, standard deviation and corrected item total correlation coefficient of each item were examined. Confirmatory factor analysis and convergent validity were used to test the construct validity. Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the convergent validity. The χ2 (Chi-square for goodness of fit), RMSEA (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation), RMR (Root Mean Square Residual), CFI (Comparative Fit Index), GFI (Goodness of Fit Index) were examined in this study as fit indexes. The criteria suggested by Byrne (2010), Kline (2011) and Hu and Bentler (1999) as model fit criteria were used. The Sports Anxiety Scale-2, The Irrational Belief Scale Short Form and the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale were administered to test the convergent validity of the iPBI-2. In addition, internal reliability coefficients (Cronbach Alpha) were computed for each subscale.
Results
The mean values of scale items ranged between 2.46 and 3.41. The corrected item total correlation coefficients ranged between .39 and .57. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the results of the construct validity of the Turkish scale were consistent with the original four-factor structure (Demandingness, Awfulizing, Low Frustration Tolerance, Depreciation) of the iPBI-2 (χ2 /df= 2.36, GFI = .89, CFI = .92, RMR = .06, RMSEA = .07). For the scale, standardized factor loadings were between .64 and .80 for all the scale. Pearson correlation analyses revealed significant and positive relationships between Demandingness, Awfulizing, Low Frustration Tolerance and Depreciation subscales and sport anxiety, irrational belief and sport perfectionism (rs = .24 - .51, p < .01). The internal consistency of the total scale was .88, and of the subscales ranged between .83 (Demandingness subscale) and .86 (Low Frustration Tolerance and Depreciation subscales).
Discussion
The confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the scale has acceptable fit (Byrne, 2010; Hu & Bentler, 1999; Kline, 2011). This finding is similar to the findings of the original form (Turnet et al., 2016) and of the short form (Turner & Allen, 2018) of the scale. The correlation coefficient between sport anxiety, sport perfectionism and irrational beliefs were investiagted for the construct validity of scale. The Pearson correlation analysis revealed significant and positive correlations between irrational performance beliefs and anxiety, irrational belief and perfectionism which provided support for the construct validity of the scale. The internal consistency coefficients of the scale factors and the total score indicate that the scale were highly reliable (Field, 2009). These finding are consistent with the ones of the original form of the scale (Turner & Allen, 2018). The corrected item total correlation coefficient of the scale indicates that the items of the scale are distinctive (Büyüköztürk, 2012).
To sum up, it can be concluded that the four-factor model of the iPBI-2 is appropriate for measuring irrational beliefs about performance of the Turkish athletes. It is the first measurement tool to measure the irrational beliefs of athletes about their performance. The adaptation of the scale will contribute to conducting further studies on irrational performance beliefs. Further studies sould investigate the irrational beliefs of athletes from different age and sport groups. Beside, irrational beliefs of diffferent performance-oriented situations such as academia, business, military can be examined. In addition, the psychometric proporties of the scale should be investigated via different methods such as Rash analysis (Andrich, 1988), Multi-trait Multi-method (MTMM; Campbell & Fiske, 1959), Item Response Theory (Hambleton & Swaminathan, 1985).