| dc.description.abstract | The interest in psychological health in general, and self-actualization in particular, has been increasing rapidly in the recent past, creating the need for objective measures of this process. Although there are several measures currently available to meet this need, the measures that exist are rather long and/or poorly validated. This research was directed at developing a valid, short measure of self-actualization. Moreover, it was considered exploratory to determine if such a complex construct could be measured by a relatively few indicators. A short measure of self-actualization would be extremely useful when time or other circumstances do not permit the possibility of using a long measure, or when the subaspects of self-actualization are not of interest. The measure developed was based on items from the two most widely accepted and thoroughly validated measures of self-actualization, the Personal Orientation Inventory and the Personal Orientation Dimensions. The resulting measure consists of 15 items, and it was shown to be valid and reliable. With regard to the psychometric characteristics of the short measure, the following were explored: (A) internal consistency, (B) test-retest reliability, and (C) the possibility of response sets and dissimulation. The test was shown to have acceptable homogeneity and reliability. There were no problems with response sets or "faking-good". In terms of validity, the test was correlated with measures of self-actualization, self-esteem, rational behavior, neuroticism, extraversion, tolerance of ambiguity and attitudes toward leisure. The short measure correlated significantly with the Personal Orientation Inventory (r = .67), the most widely used measure of self-actualization. The results of the other correlations were also very encouraging; the short measure performed as expected. The person who scores as self-actualizing on the short measure can be described as having high self-esteem, being rational in his/her beliefs and actions, being somewhat outgoing, lacking in neurotic symptoms and having a positive attitude toward leisure. The short measure also discriminated between a group of individuals nominated as self-actualizing and a group nominated as non-self-actualizing. Furthermore, the short measure sucessfully detected changes in "psychological growth" produced by assertion training. Potential applications of the short measure are explored as well as future directions for research. Weaknesses of the scale are discussed, as well as means to overcome those weaknesses. | |
