An Approach to the Further Development and Application of the PSC Tool by Applying Cognitive Interviewing in Germany

Abstract

In this chapter, we present results from the qualitative phase of an ongoing research project at the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) in Germany which aims at developing the PSC tool further by applying cognitive interviews in a first step. The main research questions we have investigated are: Do respondents in Germany-in another political and cultural context than in Australia where the PSC tool was developed-understand the items as intended? Are there items which cause comprehension problems for respondents and therefore need rewording? The original English PSC items were translated into German and revised considering differences in legislation (e.g. industrial relations, occupational safety and health infrastructure), in the meaning and in the practical use of terms (e.g. “psychological health”) to increase comprehensibility of items. Cognitive interview techniques (think-aloud and probing) were applied on this enhanced version of the PSC instrument in two consecutive steps with 4 + 25 employees of different occupations, tenure and age. Drawing on the results of these cognitive interviews, a preliminarily revised version of the PSC tool was compiled that is currently being used in the quantitative study phase to empirically test its reliability and validity. Our findings demonstrate the benefits of pretesting the PSC questions using cognitive interview techniques in instrument development and adaptation, thereby promoting the discussion on the cross-cultural use of the innovative PSC concept.