Measuring Personal and Social Responsibility: An Existential Positive Psychology Approach

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.

Validation and utility of the Meaning in Life Measure for Turkish university students

The Meaning in Life Measure (MILM) is a new measure for assessing meaning in life by addressing problems associated with existing measures of meaning in life (absence of items related to reflectivity, felt sense, and mattering). For the first time, this study aimed to test the psychometric properties of the MILM for university students in Turkey. We used a sample of 376 university students (Mage=24.03±4.65 years) who participated in an online survey including the MILM, the Adult Dispositional Hope Scale, and the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale – 21. To study the factor structure of the MILM, we firstly employed a dual approach including exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, which provided support for the goodness of a two-factor model (experience and reflectivity). We secondly tested the convergent and predictive validity of the measure by respectively applying correlation and regression analyses. Our findings supported the convergent validity of the MILM, showing correlations with hope, anxiety, and depression. The predictive validity was also confirmed; the experience subscale of MILM uniquely predicted hope, anxiety, and depression after controlling for covariates (age and gender). Thirdly, our findings showed that the MILM and its subscales had high internal consistency reliability. The Turkish version of the MILM is provided to be a reliable and valid instrument for assessing meaning in life for university students in Turkey.