The absorption scale: A factor-analytic assessment

Abstract

95 female and 53 male introductory psychology students were administered the Tellegen Absorption Scale (Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974); the Repression-Sensitization Scale (Byrne, Barry, & Nelson, 1963); the F Scale (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswick, Levison, & Sanford, 1950); the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970); the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale (Nowicki & Duke, 1974); and the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1964). A principal axis analysis of the inter-correlations indicated that 3 major factors could account for the bulk of variance among the 6 inventories. Inspection of the correlation matrix and the factor loadings showed that the Absorption Scale shared a quite modest amount of variance with the remaining scales, and that it appeared to represent a dimension entirely different than those found in the other measures. These results offer strong support to the notion that the Absorption Scale is tapping a relatively new personality dimension.