The Factorial and Concurrent Validity of a Revised Form of the Study Attitudes and Methods Survey (SAMS)

Abstract

For a total sample of 558 tenth-grade students evenly divided by sex and enrolled in a high school in a suburban middle-class community, two exploratory factor analyses of the intercorrelations of one set of 30 subtests and of another set of 18 subtests derived from a revised form of the Study Attitudes and Methods Survey (SAMS) were completed to obtain evidence concerning whether the six hypothesized constructs underlying the six factor scales could be reproduced. In addition, concurrent validity coefficients were obtained for each of the six factor scales from the SAMS with 8 subtests of the California Achievement Tests (CAT). In the first exploratory factor analysis five identifiable factors emerged; in the second analysis, only four. There was a tendency for factors of a positive or facilitative nature in the studying process to combine, whereas those factors hypothesized to represent negative or inhibitory affective activities could be differentiated from one another. Concurrent validity coefficients of the factor scales with achievement test measures were low as evidenced by only one coefficient in excess of .30.