Escala de Crenças Irracionais aplicadas a atletas: Proposta de in- terpretação através do Modelo de Créditos Parciais The Irrational Belief Scale applied to Brazilian athletes: Interpretation pro- posal through the Partial Credit Model

Validity and reliability evidences, as well as interpretation standards for ECI in Brazilian athletes were assessed in this study. The study sample consisted of 205 athletes. They were all between 18 and 48 years (mean ± SD = 22.44 ± 5.25; 50.7% men). The volunteers were practitioners of the following sports modalities: Indoor Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, Rugby, Swimming and Athletics. Further they were of two sport levels: adult (73.7%) and juniors (26.3%). Subject’s answers to ECI were subjected to the following statistical analyses: Principal Components Analysis, Parallel Analysis, Internal Consistency. Items properties, indices of difficulty and adjustment (Infit and Outfit) and analysis of the person-item map were assessed through Rasch-Model Masters Partial Credit Model. It was observed that the ECI evaluates the construct Irrational Belief through two dimensions: passivity when facing situations or characteristics that cannot be modified and ability to solve current and future situations. Internal consistency indices for these dimensions were consistent with those indicated by the literature 0.76 (n = 10) and 0.66 (n = 18) respectively, 0.80 for the total scale (n = 18). All items settings were suitable (> 0.76 0.71 <1.3 outfit, except for one item). Analysis of the maps increased the understanding of the scores obtained by the participants in each item of the scale thus pointing to ECI as a promising instrument to be used by sport psychologists. Key-words: Psychological testing, Item response theory, Sport psychology, Beliefs, Irrationality.