Construction and validation of the consequences of race-related motivated reasoning scale

Hoang, Tuyet-Mai Ha

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/108558 Copy

Description

Title

Construction and validation of the consequences of race-related motivated reasoning scale

Author(s)

Hoang, Tuyet-Mai Ha

Issue Date

2020-05-22

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Neville, Helen A

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Neville, Helen A

Committee Member(s)

• Cromley, Jennifer C
• Todd, Nathan R
• Stern, Chadly D

Department of Study

Educational Psychology

Discipline

Educational Psychology

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• race-related motivated reasoning
• scale construction
• vignette-based scale

Abstract

The purpose of the proposed study was to develop and provide initial psychometric support for a measure that captures the explicit consequences of race-related motivated reasoning. Race-related motivated reasoning is a set of biased cognitive and affective responses in interpreting and evaluating race-related information or stimuli. I focused on one area in which racial discrimination occurs: Police interactions. This area has been consistently described in current measures of racial mistrust, racism, and microaggressions. The Consequences of Race-Related Motivated Reasoning Scale (CRRMRS) originally consisted of vignette and corresponding items. Data from 1156 participants were collected through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) for two interrelated studies as part of the process in scale construction, initial validation and construct validity establishment. In Study 1, I used matrix sampling to reduce participants’ fatigue because of the large number of items. Each participant read vignette 1 and two subsequent randomized vignettes and corresponding questions to each vignette. The exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) resulted in 10 items with 3 factors: (1) Minimization of Racism, (2) Target Apathy, and (3) Target Blaming. In Study 2, findings from confirmatory factor analysis supported that the three-factor model was a good fit to the data for all six vignettes and the best fit compared to other competing models. Further analyses with measurement invariance tests and confirmatory factor analysis indicated the combination of vignette 1 and 4 and the combination of vignette 1 and 5 could be used for multitrait-multimethod data. Initial internal consistency estimates of the subscale scores were excellent in both studies. The CRRMRS latent factors were positively related to color-blind racial ideology and the general belief in just world in theoretically expected ways. The association between CRRMRS latent factors and feeling thermometers also provided support for the “hot cognition” assumption in race-related motivated reasoning.

Graduation Semester

2020-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108558

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2020 Tuyet-Mai Hoang

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