Farzaneh Fouladgar
Centre for Clinical Psychology, university of the Punjab, Lahore.
Title: Cross-Cultural Validation of Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Form-A
Biography
Biography: Farzaneh Fouladgar
Abstract
The present research explored dysfunctional attitude in Iranian and Pakistani university students. For this purpose, a total sample of 1500 was taken including equal number from Iran and Pakistan with an age range of 20-40 years. The data were collected from Public Universities of Iran (Isfahan & Kashan) and Pakistan (University of the Punjab and Government College University).The Dysfunctional Attitude of participants was assessed through Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS, Beck & Wiessman, 1980). A series of exploratory factor analyses was run to identify the factors underlying each dimension of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale Form-A. Exploratory Factor Analysis yielded four factor solution of 40 items of DAS-A, which reflected themes of Perfectionism (Fifteen items); Approval (Twelve items); Achievement (seven items) and Autonomy (six items).The findings indicated that Pakistani students showed more dysfunctional attitude of perfectionism, approval and autonomy than Iranian students, whereas, Iranian students scored high on dysfunctional attitude of achievement. Regarding gender differences, the findings revealed that Pakistani men showed more dysfunctional attitude related to achievement than Pakistani women and Iranian women showed more dysfunctional attitude of autonomy than Iranian men. It can be concluded that dysfunctional attitude of university students vary from culture to culture.