Abstract for: Interdisciplinary Measures of Hard and Soft System Thinking in American and Turkish Communities

Measuring systems thinking is difficult but also essential for conducting basic and applied research on systems thinking. This research presents and evaluates three measures of systems thinking that are appropriate for use with a general audience. Two of them can be adapted to multiple contexts. Our main purpose was to evaluate their equivalence across cultures. These measures have several features that make them valuable for a range of research situations, including flexible administration (e.g., via paper and pencil or online); easy scoring; the ability to evaluate accurate understanding of a system (“hard systems thinking”); and the ability to measure a systems thinking mindset (“soft” systems thinking). Participants in Turkey completed all three measures. Two US samples completed two of the measures each. The validity and reliability analyses demonstrate that most measures (with one exception) are effective in both Turkish and US samples. Differential analysis revealed that most items in each measure functioned in similar ways in both cultures. Data from the US and Turkey demonstrate that these measures have potential for use in non-US contexts. Two of the measurement approaches provide a template that can be adopted to different kinds of systems as needed, making them of potential interest to a wide range of researchers.