Validation Testing of the Rational Behavior Inventory

Abstract

Two hundred twenty-two students at Michigan State University completed a questionnaire including the Rational Behavior Inventory (RBI), the Srole Anomia scale, Lane's Authoritarianism scale, a ten-item Dogmatism scale, and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale— each of the last four scales having been described by Robinson and Shaver (1969). Students in this stratified sample were randomly selected from the student telephone directory. The validity of the RBI was examined by testing hypothesized relationships between scores on the RBI and scores on each of the other four personality measures, class standing, and age. Support for the validity of the RBI was indicated by significant associations in the predicted direction between the RBI index and each of the four personality measures. Ten of the eleven factors of the RBI were correlated significantly in the predicted direction with two or more of these personality measures. The correlations between the RBI index and age and between the RBI index and class standing of the respondents were in the predicted direction, but not statistically significant.

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