7. I want to translate the test to another language, what should I do?
If you are interested in translating the scale into a new language, you are very welcome to do so! However, that may not be as easy you may think. An official translation of a psychometric scale needs to be done in the following way:
- Translation from original language (= some of the other currently available languages) to a new language by a native speaker of that language
- Reverse translation back from the new language to the original language by (preferably) a native speaker of the original language or professional translator. This person should not have seen the test before.
- Comparison between the two translations and discussion among translators to resolve discrepancies and questions in between the original and reverse translated version. The research team members from the Futures Consciousness database can also be consulted to ensure the translations respect the original meanings.
- Validating the new translation with a test audience (ca. 300 respondents) and statistical analysis of the results
New, validated translations can be added to this database. The process of technically adding a new translation to the database does not take long. It should be noted, however, that even if the test can be translated into a new language, some of the functions of the database will always be only available in English (e.g. the entry page to the test, the result page, etc.).
Together with a translation of the Futures Consiousness test into a new language, we also would like to include a translation of the info sheet describing the five dimensions that test users receive together with their results at the end of the test.