Measurement of Agency, Communion, and Emotional Vulnerability With the Personal Attributes Questionnaire

Factor analytic studies of the 24-item Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Spence & Helmreich, 1978) have reported inconsistent results, and a previous confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated inadequate fit for factors corresponding to Masculinity, Femininity, and Masculinity-Femininity scal...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality assessment 2006-04, Vol.86 (2), p.206-216
Main Authors: Ward, L. Charles, Thorn, Beverly E., Clements, Kristi L., Dixon, Kim E., Sanford, Stacy D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Confirmatory factor analysis
Emotions
Extraversion (Psychology)
Female
Five factor model
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gender
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Neurotic Disorders
Personal characteristics
Personality
Personality. Affectivity
Psychological aspects
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics
Questionnaires
Sex Factors
Social Identification
Surveys and Questionnaires
Three factor model
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Summary:Factor analytic studies of the 24-item Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Spence & Helmreich, 1978) have reported inconsistent results, and a previous confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated inadequate fit for factors corresponding to Masculinity, Femininity, and Masculinity-Femininity scales. In this research, we used CFA in a college sample (N = 382) to evaluate the 3-factor model, and we revised scales by eliminating 6 misspecified items. The revised model fit well in another college sample (N = 230). We renamed the revised scales Agency, Communion, and Emotional Vulnerability. In relation to Five-factor theory, Emotional Vulnerability and Communion correlated well with Neuroticism and Agreeableness, respectively, and Agency had moderate correlations with Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Conscientiousness. Psychometric results in the context of current theory suggest that Agency (Masculinity) may not be a fully adequate measure of the agency construct.
ISSN:0022-3891
1532-7752
DOI:10.1207/s15327752jpa8602_10