Adapting The Motivation Scale for PhD Studies to Turkish

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to adapt the MPhD scale (scale of motivation for PhD studies) developed by Litalien et al. (2015) to measure the levels of motivation of doctoral students in the culture of Canada to Turkish. Additionally, using the Life Satisfaction Scale developed by Diener et al. (1985) and adapted to Turkish by Da & gbreve;l & imath; and Baysal (2016), the relationship between scores obtained from the motivation scale for PhD studies and life satisfaction is investigated within the context of criterion-based validity. To achieve this goal, first, the items of the MPhD scale were adapted to Turkish using expert opinions and language validity was tested with 30 doctoral students studying in universities in Turkey. After the formation of the final Turkish form of the scale, a total of 335 doctoral students were administered the scale and psychometric evidence for its validity and reliability was determined. Confirmatory factor analysis and explanatory structural equation modeling were used to analyze the results, and it was found that the scale had satisfactory psychometric evidence. The Life Satisfaction Scale produced valid and reliable information on the study group included in the research. The scores obtained from the adapted scale were compared with the scores of the Life Satisfaction Scale and the relationship between the participants' motivation for doctoral studies and life satisfaction was determined.