Does the courage measure really measure courage? A theoretical and empirical evaluation

Abstract

Courage has seen an explosion of research in all branches of psychology, and the most popular measure is Norton and Weiss’s the courage measure (CM). Despite widespread use, limited investigations into its psychometric properties and validity have been performed. To ensure the strength of findings drawn from the scale, the current study performs a theoretical, psychometric, and empirical analysis of the CM. The results demonstrate that the CM has theoretical concerns stemming from the operational definition of courage used during its creation, and may not actually measure courage. Also, the CM was shown to consist of two dimensions separated by regular and reverse coding. Next, the scale demonstrated slight concerns with method effects, and its construct validity was analyzed. Together, the results demonstrate that the CM would benefit from the removal of reverse coded items, and may actually gage persistence despite fear rather than courage.

Keywords:

• courage
• persistence despite fear
• personality
• scale development
• psychometrics