Measuring Personal and Social Responsibility: An Existential Positive Psychology Approach

Abstract

Responsibility was regarded as essential for wellbeing, and measuring this construct is warranted to develop strategies that promote people’s mental health and well-being. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the initial development and validation of the Responsibility Scale (RS) to measure the sense of responsibility of individuals. Participants included two independent samples, comprising of 284 adults, ranging in age between 18 and 84 years. Sample 1 was used to conducted the exploratory factor analysis and comprised of 152 adults (65% female), ranging in age from 18 to 82 years (M = 43.18, SD = 14.68). Sample 2 was used to conduct the confirmatory factor analysis. The sample consisted of 132 adults (56% female), ranging in age from 18 to 84 years (M = 29.08, SD = 12.45). Findings from exploratory factor analysis revealed the RS provided a two–factor solution comprising of 8 items that accounted for 46% of the variance, with equal items targeting characteristics of both personal and social responsibility. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two–factor latent structure, providing good data-model fit statistics. Further results also showed that the internal reliability of the scale and its subscales were strong.  Finally, the latent path model revealed that the first– and high–order measurement model had positive and significant predictive effects on life satisfaction and negative predictive effects on psychological distress, accounting for the approximately large variance in the variables. Overall, the results suggest that the RS could be used to assess personal and social responsibility among adults.