Convergent validation of the Social Axioms Survey

Impact of Protestant Spirituality and Religious Community on the Well-Being of People in Hong Kong

“…Religion has a generally positive influence in mitigating fatalism, particularly for evangelical churches. This accords with existing findings that suggest fate control is negatively correlated with traditional Christian beliefs (Singelis, et al, 2003) and that religion can address negative and pessimistic views often associated with fatalism, particularly related to cancer research (Morgan, Tyler, & Fogel, 2008). Fate control measures the belief in life being predetermined by something that beyond individual control and is positively correlated with an external locus of control (Leung & Bond, 2004, p. 12).…”

“…Regarding the cultural dimension, 25 items of the social axiom survey (SAS, Leung & Bond, 2004) was used to tap general social beliefs, in five dimensions, including social cynicism (an example included: "Powerful people tend to exploit others"); reward for application (an example included: "Every problem has a solution"); social flexibility (an example included: "Human behaviour changes with the social context"); control by fate (an example included: "Fate determines one's success and failure"); and religiosity (an example included: 'Religious faith contributes to good mental health"). The scale can be conducted at the individual level and had been widely applied (Leung & Bond, 2004;Singelis, Hubbard, Her, & An, 2003). The reliability and validity of SAS was satisfactory (The average alphas of the 25 items version for the Hong Kong sample was 0.76, Chen, Bond, & Cheung, 2006).…”

Exploring the Relationship between U.S. Jamaican Immigrants’ Cultural Beliefs and Conflict Management Styles as These Correlations are Related to Their Perceived Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

“…Sample statements from the short version of the SAS include: "One will succeed if he/she really tries," "There are ways for people to find out about their faith," "A persons' behavior is influenced by many factors" and "Hard working people are well rewarded." On the basis of other studies in the field including the convergent validity of SAS carried out by Singelis, Hubbard, Her, and An (2003) the construct validity of the instrument is supported. The Cronbach's alphas for previous studies have been reported for each of the five dimensions with the -Control by Fate α = .54, Reward for Application α = .53, Social Flexibility α = .51, Social Cynicism α = .76 and Spirituality α = .69 (Singelis et al, 2003).…”

“…On the basis of other studies in the field including the convergent validity of SAS carried out by Singelis, Hubbard, Her, and An (2003) the construct validity of the instrument is supported. The Cronbach's alphas for previous studies have been reported for each of the five dimensions with the -Control by Fate α = .54, Reward for Application α = .53, Social Flexibility α = .51, Social Cynicism α = .76 and Spirituality α = .69 (Singelis et al, 2003). These are all above the minimum alpha recommend by Tabachnick and Fidell (1989) for research measures.…”

“…Cultural belief was measured using the 40-item short version of the Social Axioms Survey (SAS) that measures an individual's social beliefs along five dimensions (Leung et al, 2002b The 40-item survey was developed based on testing the survey with several diverse countries (Brazil, China, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Norway, Russia, South Africa, United States) and the current version used is believed by its authors to be 'culturally comprehensive' (Leung et al 2012, p. 5). Prior research has identified Cronbach's alphas for the subscales ranging from .54 -.76 (Singelis, Hubbard, Her, and An, 2003). In particular, the control by fate, reward for application, and social flexibility alphas are arguably weak by conventional standards (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1989), but were employed for this research study to better afford comparisons with previous research.…”