Self-Interest Scale

Running head: SELF-INTEREST SCALE 1
Self-Interest Scale
by
Jasmine Kirby
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the course
I-O Testing and Measurement
Organization Psychology
Walden University
May 16, 2014

SELF-INTEREST SCALE 2
Abstract
Maslow argued unsatisfied needs are actually motivators and such needs would dominate the
conscious life and serve as the center of organization of behavior. Self-interest has been
considered a motivator. The self-interest construct has been described as pursuing personal gain
in socially valued domains, including material goods, social status, recognition, academic or
occupational achievement, and happiness. The Self-Interest scale seeks to measure the degree of
an individual’s self-interest. The initial use of the scale is specifically for a California healthcare
organization’s project management division. The broader implications of use are the potential to
understand the impacts of self-interest on other organizational outcomes.

Self-Interest Scale
Introduction
Maslow (1943) argued gratified needs are not active motivators at all. Instead, unsatisfied
needs are actually motivators and such needs would dominate the conscious life and serve as the
center of organization of behavior (Maslow, 1943). According to Maslow (1943), self-esteem is
one of the basic human needs meaning people have a desire for prestige and reputation. For the
purposes of creating a measurement scale, Maslow’s theory of motivation provides a lens and
foundation for examining the self-interest construct. Gerbasi & Prentice (2013) argued self-
interest has been found to have a powerful influence on human behavior. By definition, the self-
interest construct has been described as pursuing personal gain in socially valued domains,
including material goods, social status, recognition, academic or occupational achievement, and
happiness (Gerbasi & Prentice, 2013, p. 496). Together, the proposed self-interest scale is
grounded in the notion that ungratified needs act as a motivator for human behavior and self-
interest would likely influence a person to pursue personal gains associated with the ungratified
needs (Maslow, 1943; Gerbasi & Prentice, 2013).
The Self-Interest Scale Specifications
Determine whether you want to measure a trait, ability, emotional state, disorder, interest,
attitude, or other construct:
 Ability, such as musical skill, writing skill, intelligence, or reading comprehension,
 Personality Trait, such as extroversion, creativity, or deviousness,
 Disorder, such as anxiety, depression, or psychotic thought disorder,
 Emotion, such as happiness or anger,
 Attitude, such as authoritarianism or prejudice,
 Interest, such as career-related interests.
 Other: ____________________________

Describe the specific construct you want to measure in a word or two: Self-interest
Describe the construct using several sentences. What behaviors are associated with the
construct? Does it include more than one quality or dimension?
Pursuing personal gain in socially valued domains, including material goods, social status,
recognition, academic or occupational achievement, and happiness (Gerbasi & Prentice, 2013, p.
496).
Describe your process for initially generating items. Will you interview experts? Review
textbooks or journal articles? Look at diagnostic criteria in the DSM?
I will conduct a literature review to determine traits, behaviors, and attitudes of those rated as
self-interested.
Also, I will review literature related to servant leadership, which is the theoretical framework for
the scale.
Now write one typical item for your test, demonstrating your item and response format:
I constantly look for opportunities to help me get ahead.
1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neutral, 4-Strongly Agree, -Strongly Agree
How many items will your initial test include? Keep in mind that you need to create about twice
as many test items initially, because you will discard about half of them during your item
analysis. 20 items
Purpose Statement
The Self-Interest scales was designed to be a measure of an individual’s self-interest to pursue
personal gain in socially valued domains.
Directions
One of a scale of 1 to 5, please rate how much you personally agree or disagreement with the
following statements. Use the following scale: 1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neutral, 4-
Agree, 5-Strongly Agree
1. Please specify your gender
1-Male, 2-Female
2. Please specify your marital status.
0-Single, 1-Married

3. I need a luxury car to drive comfortably.
1-Strongly Disagree, 2-Disagree, 3-Neutral, 4-Agree, 5-Strongly Agree
4. Receiving attention is enjoyable to me.
5. I look for opportunities to appear I am financially well-off.
6. I like people to be impressed by my accomplishments.
7. Being in charge means I can usually have my way.
8. I’ll do what it takes to make a large amount of money.
9. Taking chances with my friend’s money is okay if I can get ahead.
10. I get bored unless I am doing things that make me happy.
11. Conservative people are not as successful as risk takers.
12. Being the boss is more interesting and exciting than working for others.

Scale Construction, Analysis and Interpretation
Scale Construction
The initial step was to conduct a literature review of the self-interest construct as well as
other theories aimed at similar constructs, including theories related to pathological narcissism
(Pincus, Ansell, Pimentel, Cain, Wright, & Levy, 2009). Pathological narcissism was closely
examined due to its similarities to self-interest including, but not limited to entitlement and
grandiose fantasies (Pincus et al., 2009). The review of the literature led to the hypothesized
construct of self-interest and its operational definition (Pincus et al., 2009). In keeping with test
construction best practices several items were initially created knowing some would be
eliminated during item analysis including factor analysis and the use of Cronbach’s alpha (Green
& Salkind, 2014; Pincus et al., 2009). After items analysis 10 items remained.
Factor Analysis
Factor analysis was used for data reduction (Green & Salkind, 2014). The scree plot
graphed the eigenvalue against the factor number, which revealed the line became flatter with
each successive factor after the third factor (Green & Salkind, 2014). Based on the factor
analysis, three retained factors accounted for the total variance (Green & Salkind, 2014). The
factor analysis and other item analysis were used to reach the final 10 items for the scale (Green
& Salkind, k2014).
Reliability
Items analysis was conducted on the initial 20 items to select the items hypothesized to
assess the self-interest construct (Green & Salkind, 2014). Initially, the list of items were
correlated with the total score of the self-interest construct with several correlations being less
than a value of .30 (Green & Salkind, 2014). Therefore, ten items were removed, which
increased Cronbach’s alpha to from .638 to .769.

Validity
In the absence of a panel of subject-matter-experts, the Self-Interest content was
compared to multiple measurements related to self-interest and pathological narcissism (O’Brien
& Crandall, 2005). The review was conducted using the conceptual definitions of self-interest
posited by Gerbasi & Prentice (2013). Additionally, the items were submitted to academic
colleagues and an Industrial-Organizational Psychology professor for critique. The items with
the most relevance and clarity were retained. The criterion validity was established by
comparing the scale with other measures possessing the self-interest dimension such as the
Gerbasi & Prentice (2013) Self- and Other-Interest Inventory as well as a self-interest scale
created by O’Brien & Crandall (2005). Using the self-interest theoretical framework items which
were unclear, irrelevant, or redundant were removed from the scale (Creswell, 2013; Anastasi &
Urbina, 1997). Construct validity was primarily established through the factor analysis and found
to be acceptable (Creswell, 2013). Additionally, construct validity was assessed by relating the
Self-Interest to the general theoretical framework of self-interest theory as well as theory of
motivation (Gerbasi & Prentice, 2014; Maslow, 1943).
Conclusion
Though the proposed Self-Interest scale seeks to understand the degree of self-interest
within the project management division of an express healthcare organization, it is believed the
scale could generalize to other organizations for similar needs.

References
Anastasi, A. & Urbina, S. (1997). Psychological testing (7th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, New
Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Barbuto, J. E., & Wheeler, D. W. (2006). Scale development and construct clarification of
servant leadership. Group & Organization Management, 31(3), 300-326.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. Sage Publications, Incorporated.
Gaito, J. (1980). Measurement scales and statistics: Resurgence of an old misconception.
Gerbasi, M. E., & Prentice, D. A. (2013). The Self-and Other-Interest Inventory. Journal of
personality and social psychology, 105(3), 495.
Green, S. B., & Salkind, N. J. (2014). Using SPSS for Windows and Macintosh: Analyzing and
understanding data. Pearson.
Loevinger, J. (1954). The attenuation paradox in test theory. Psychological Bulletin, 51(5), 49
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological review, 50(4), 370.
O’Brien, L. T., & Crandall, C. S. (2005). Perceiving self-interest: Power, ideology, and
maintenance of the status quo. Social Justice Research, 18(1), 1-24.
Pincus, A. L., Ansell, E. B., Pimentel, C. A., Cain, N. M., Wright, A. G., & Levy, K. N. (2009).
Initial construction and validation of the Pathological Narcissism
Inventory. Psychological assessment, 21(3), 365.

Self-Interest Scale

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