Developing, validating, and testing improved measures within the Psychology of Working Theory

Publication date: Available online 28 February 2019Source: Journal of Vocational BehaviorAuthor(s): Ryan D. Duffy, Nicholas Gensmer, Blake A. Allan, Richard P. Douglass, Jessica W. England, Kelsey L. Autin, David L. BlusteinAbstractSeveral recent studies have examined the predictor portion of the Psychology of Working Theory (PWT; Duffy, Blustein, Diemer, & Autin, 2016), finding support for numerous propositions while also identifying limitations in the assessment of key variables: economic constraints, marginalization, and career adaptability. In the current manuscript we seek to address these limitations. First, in Study 1, we develop two face valid, short measures of lifetime experiences of marginalization and economic constraints. Drawing from a sample of 196 racial/ethnic minority (REM) working adults, exploratory factor analysis was used to finalize items and scale scores were compared to similar measures (e.g. subjective social status, everyday discrimination experiences) and decent work. Findings suggest strong reliability among scale scores from both new instruments, and hierarchical regression analyses revealed that each new instrument was a better predictor of decent work then similar measures used in previous PWT studies. In Study 2, with a new sample of REM working adults (N = 175), we demonstrated further validity evidence of both scales, demonstrating that the measures represent unique constructs and each correlate with similar measures as well as well-bein...

Source: Journal of Vocational Behavior - February 28, 2019 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research