Development of a Motivation Scale in Rural Madagascar: The Challenges of Psychometrics in Impoverished Populations of Developing Countries

Abstract

This series of studies initially aimed to develop a scale to measure the motivation, based on the self-determination theory, of rural farmers in Madagascar toward an agricultural training program. Considering the low rate of literacy, the Likert scales were designed to be administered orally. However, there were several unforeseen challenges in psychological measurement that hindered the development of the scales. Despite several revisions, responses to the questions lacked sufficient variance for the first four studies. The scale produced in the fifth study attained marginally satisfactory variance and internal consistency. The final version of the scale asked questions in the second person and measured the respondents’ frequency of thoughts, instead of their degree of agreement with a first-person statement as is common in many scales. The possible reasons behind the lack of variance when answering in degrees are discussed. The challenges involved in the quantitative psychological measurement of impoverished populations, as well as considerations for future research in poverty contexts are also discussed.