My question is about adapting an English-language psychological test in a population whose native/official language is not English but English is widely taught in schools and colleges. That means several people know and understand good level of English. And the purpose is specifically research. For clinical or other assessment needs, adaption is a necessary condition, but what about research? Suppose the sample is students from a college population, who may be considered quite eligible for participation.
Can a psychological test which has been developed in an english-speaking country like America, Australia or Britain be used directly in such a population as mentioned above, without adaptation into the native language? Would there be major differences in findings as a result of taking data based on non-adaptive tests? What could be the possible limitations due to this, which need to be resolved? Can't we use some inclusion-exclusion criteria, to eliminate these differences? Are there any tools which can help to provide valid data in researches by removing the language-use variations? Researchers use techniques like matching the participants on certain test, assessing the IQ through some verbal learning test or some comprehension test. My emphasis is on using tools and techniques like these.
Please provide suggestions on this, as I am facing these difficulties in conducting research in my country, India. Most of the time, senior researchers ask whether the test used has been adapted or not, even though my samples include participants who can easily understand (read, write, speak) english.
It would instructive to do a pre-test of the measure and compare your results with the results of one of the validation samples. This would tell you whether you needed to make cultural adjustments as pointed out by Lisa.
Given that your subjects or respondents understand English, I think that it is not necessary to adapt the test. Adapt to what? The measure is in English, the people being measured understand English, so I see no need to adapt. Each adaptation of a measure is a potential confound. Assuming that the measure you're planning on using has been validated, then it is incumbent on you to use that measure in precisely the same way that it was validated. Any change to the measure is a potential confound. Stick with the original measure as validated as long as it is understood by the people you are planning to study.
The question of adaption is often times twofold: did you adapt to the language, and did you culturally adapt the measure? Thus, even if you do decide to translate the measure, reviewers might still question whether the survey was culturally adapted as well. This article is specifically about health, but gives examples about how one would do about addressing both of these issues: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nur.20364/abstract In my personal opinion, it is better to adapt the measure, but I recognize the barriers of that in a country as linguistically diverse as India. If you can address how the measure is still culturally and linguistically understood by your participants (even if it is not in their native language), you might address many of the concerns in adapting measures.
It would instructive to do a pre-test of the measure and compare your results with the results of one of the validation samples. This would tell you whether you needed to make cultural adjustments as pointed out by Lisa.
Hi Tarun. The adaptation of the instrument is much more than a translation. It is important that the adaptation of an instrument possesses a cultural fit, that is, its preparation for use in different cultural contexts. Perhaps this article may be useful to you http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-863X2012000300014&lng=pt&nrm=iso&tlng=en
I am agree with David Gillespie. If your participants have good command in English it is not necessary to adopt the scale in their mother tonque.
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