Development of an Instrument to Measure Faculty Adherence to the Norms Of Science

Abstract

The norms of science of Communalism, Universalism, Disinterestedness, and Organized Skepticism provide a framework for understanding and examining faculty activity related to the triple helix of university, industry, and government relations. Despite the increase in scholarship regarding faculty and the norms of science, there is a lack of research focused on measuring faculty adherence to the norms that is psychometrically valid and reliable. The goal of this dissertation was to contribute to the literature by developing and testing such an instrument. This instrument differentiates among the norms of Organized Skepticism, Universalism, Commercialism, and Scientific Puritanism, the latter two being refined labels that captured the questions involved with those scales. The instrument‘s psychometric properties demonstrated both construct validity and internal reliability via field testing with 290 faculty at United States Midwestern research universities.