A Measure of Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Attitudes

Abstract

Summary Six studies involving over 6000 students from kindergarten through college were sequenced over a period of years to develop three relatively independent self-report scales with substantial internal reliability to measure attitudes toward cooperative, competitive, and individualistic interdependence between oneself and others in educational settings. The purpose of the scale development was to provide a research tool for social scientists interested in social interdependence. In addition, evidence consistent with a multidimensional view of social interdependence was gathered, and some additional evidence indicating a change in conceptions of the three types of social interdependence in junior high school was found.