Navigating Psychological Misconceptions: A Journey to Truth- A Validation Study of Perceived Myths about Psychology Scale (PMPS)

Abstract

The aim of this study was to design and develop a comprehensive indigenous scale to measure perceived myths about Psychology and establish its psychometric properties. The first phase involved generating an item pool of 80 items through literature review, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews. The Content Validity Index (CVI) of 0.81 was calculated based on the ratings of five experts. To determine the face validity of the preliminary scale, a pilot study was conducted on the target population (n = 16). Using a cross-sectional research design, a random sample of 300 males and females aged between 18 and 57 years was collected. The internal consistency and dimensionality of the scale were empirically measured through Exploratory Factor Analysis (N = 300), which resulted in five factors: Negative Attitude towards Psychology, Myths about Mental Health, Importance of Psychotherapy, Lack of Understanding, and Misconceptions. In the second phase, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (N = 205) was conducted to confirm the factor structure of the scale. Psychometric properties were established (α = 0.89), and the convergent and discriminant validity of the scale were determined through CR = 0.92 and the square root of Average Variance Extracted = 0.61, respectively. Finally, the Perceived Myths about Psychology Scale (PMPS) was constructed and validated with its five factors.