DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL PSYCHOMETRIC VALIDATION OF THE "INTERNAL COMPLIANCE SCALE" (ICS-25) QUESTIONNAIRE IN SITUATIONS INVOLVING COMPLEX LIFE DECISIONS

Abstract

Relevance of the problem. The contemporary social context—shaped by prolonged military aggression, forced displacement, economic instability, and uncertainty about the future-compels individuals to make extremely difficult, unpopular, or personally painful decisions. In such existentially critical situations (war, severe illness, forced adaptation), people increasingly encounter scenarios where no desired or "ideal" course of action exists: evacuating and leaving one’s home; consenting to grueling treatment or surgery; accepting palliative care, which signifies the irreversibility of a condition; discontinuing therapy that is no longer effective; changing professions; or making critical decisions regarding mobilization. Under these circumstances, the core psychological challenge lies not so much in choosing between equivalent alternatives as in achieving internal acceptance of a decision that the individual would prefer not to make but deems objectively necessary.

The purpose of the article is to develop and initial psychometric validation of the "Internal Compliance Scale" (ICS-25) questionnaire in situations involving complex life decisions.

Results. All 25 items of the instrument demonstrated high discriminative power. The instrument exhibited a high level of internal consistency for both the overall scale and the individual subscales. The alignment of the developed instrument's factor structure with its theoretical model was empirically confirmed. Convergent validity of the ShVK-25 instrument was demonstrated. Statistically significant, moderate positive correlations were established between the overall internal compliance score and the presence of meaning in life, psychological well-being, and general resilience.

Conclusions. It has been demonstrated that achieving internal compliance is accompanied by a significant reduction in the level of internal conflict and cognitive anxiety. The moderate nature of these interrelationships confirms the relative specificity and independent diagnostic value of the new construct.