Psychology Commons^™

An Item Response Theory And Factor Analytic Examination Of Two Prominent Maximizing Tendency Scales, Justin M. Weinhardt, Brendan J. Morse, Janna Chimeli, Jamie Fisher

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study examines the construct validity of the Maximization Scale (MS; Schwartz et al., 2002) and the Maximization Tendency Scale (MTS; Diab et al., 2008) as well as the nomological net of the maximizing construct. We find that both scales of maximizing suffer psychometrically, especially in their proposed dimensionality. Using confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory (IRT) we identify and remove three problematic items from the MTS and six problematic items from the MS. Additionally, we find that the MS appears to be measuring difficulty and restlessness with the search for the best alternative, whereas the MTS is …