A Psychometric Evaluation of the Harvey Imposter Phenomenon Scale

Abstract

In this article, we present psychometric properties on the 14-item Harvey Imposter Phenomenon (IP) Scale (Harvey, 1981) among a sample of U.S. adolescents (N = 136). Item analyses, internal consistency reliability, and principal components analysis (PCA) were computed to assess the reliability and factor structure of the IP scores. Although the internal consistency reliability (e.g., Cronbach's α) was reasonably acceptable (α = .70), the item analyses and subsequent PCA suggest concern for the content homogeneity and factor structure of composite scores obtained from the 14-item measure. The results of this study suggest that the indiscriminate use of the Harvey IP Scale is cautioned relative to the insufficient psychometric properties.