The development and validation of the Ummatic personality scale (UPS) in Southern Thailand’s universities

Abstract

Previous measures of Ummatic personality have been developed based on a religious and psycho-spiritual framework, which may not comprehensively capture all facets of human personality. To fully assess personality and align its measurement with the primary Islamic educational goal of achieving balanced human potential growth, it is essential to develop the measurement by incorporating a contemporary life skills framework. This study aimed to develop and validate an Ummatic personality measure for universities in
southern Thailand, drawing from holistic, all-encompassing frameworks. 355 university students from Thailand’s southernmost provinces completed a questionnaire about their views on Ummatic personalities. The data were analyzed using a principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation, identifying ten factors (44 items): (1) integrated logical thinking, (2) technology skills, (3) environment preservation, (4) physical health, (5) interaction skills, (6) enjoining good and prohibiting evil, (7) religious beliefs, (8) adherence to Wasatiyyah principles, (9) religious practices, and (10) Islamic morality. The factor matrix results showed that the common factor solution accounted for 59.406 percent of the total variance explained, meeting acceptable standards. Acceptable internal consistency and reliability were also revealed for the overall scale and subscales, with Cronbach’s alpha ranging from .607 to .888 across the ten factors. This study produced a novel, inclusive Ummatic Personality Scale (UPS), developed based on religious, psycho-spiritual, and contemporary life skills frameworks, with sound psychometric properties.