A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Professional Opinion Scale: A Values Assessment Instrument

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to reaffirm, using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the four value subscales (respect for basic rights, sense of social responsibility, commitment to individual freedom, and support of self-determination) identified in the initial exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the Professional Opinion Scale (POS). Method: The CFA reported here suggests that four items included in the original POS be repositioned, and eight items be removed, resulting in a 32-item updated version of the POS. Results: A final model, incorporating correlations of disturbances or errors between four pairs of similarly worded items, resulted in the best fit model. Conclusion: Although the final CFA does not support the entirety of the four factors identified by EFA, the resulting version of the POS, supported by goodness of fit indices, does support the four value subscales with minor modifications.