The Ascription of Responsibility Questionnaire: Development and Empirical Extensions

Abstract

This article describes the development of the Ascription of Responsibility Questionnaire (ARQ). In Study 1, item analytic and factor analytic procedures were used, with a data set based on 251 subjects, to reduce an initial pool of 92 Likert Scale items to 41 items that were structured by four clear, independent ascription tendencies, or ways in which people ascribe responsibility. In Study 2, this factorial structure was confirmed on a sample of 403 subjects. From the responses in both studies, reliabilities of the four ascription of responsibility scales were assessed. On the basis of a pooled sample, norms were developed. Construct validity assessment was begun by correlating scores, in both studies, on the ascription of responsibility scales with a number of conceptually related standardized and semistandardized scales, as well as with a number of demographic and personological variables that might be related to attributional and attitudinal tendencies. These and further construct validation results obtained by comparative analytic methods are presented and discussed.