A bidimensional scale of scholastic value: Social desirability and social utility, two dimensions of personological judgment
Une échelle bidimensionnelle de la valeur scolaire : désirabilité sociale et utilité sociale, deux dimensions du jugement personnologique
Résumé
Three studies were conducted to construct and validate a bidimensional scale of social value adapted to the personological description of young pupils (social desirability and social utility). In a first study, 142 teachers-in-training were invited to describe pupils they knew, assigning each pupil three personality traits from a list of 150 traits. The results led us to retain 24 traits, composing the bidimensional scholastic desirability/scholastic utility scale. In a second study, this scale was tested on 113 teachers-in-training who were asked to describe a pupil they knew based on these two dimensions of social value. The results revealed that the scale was structured by two factors (scholastic desirability and scholastic utility) and that it could be reduced to eight specific traits. Finally, in a third study, the reduced version of the scale was tested on 33 Grade 3 teachers who were asked to describe each of their pupils using this scale (n = 499). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a bidimensional model fit better with the data than a unidimensional one or than another model which structured the traits on the basis of their positivity/negativity. On the whole, the results support the reliability and the internal validity of the bidimensional scale of scholastic value.