Exploring the structure of Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale, Form V in a Spanish sample.
The psychometric properties of the original version of the Sensation Seeking Scale (Form V) were analyzed in a sample of 1,006 Spanish university students. The total sample was randomly split into two halves. Exploratory factor analyses were conducted on the calibration sample (n=504), whereas confirmatory factor analysis procedures were performed on the validation sample (n=502). As previous studies have suggested, exploratory factor structure indicated that several items load on a different factor or have loadings lower than .30. Those problems were surpassed when the best five items per factor were factor analyzed again. The confirmatory factor analyses showed that a 4-factor simple structure model gave a clearly imperfect fit. A model of 20 items (5 items per factor) gave a better fit, although with similar problems regarding the low reliabilities of the Experience Seeking and Boredom Susceptibility subscales. The need for improvement of the four-factor structure is discussed.
Department of Pedagogy and Psychology, Faculty of Education Science, University of Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. aluja@pip.udl.es
Anton
A
Aluja
Oscar
O
García
Luis F
LF
García
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D001887:Boredom; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012309:Risk-Taking; D013030:Spain; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology