1. Consider This! The Development of a Considerateness Scale
Latisha Chambers1, Zipporah Foster1, Abby Lindberg2, Kristen Souva2,
Dennis Poepsel2, & Amber DeBono1
1Winston-Salem State University, University of North Carolina; 2Daemen College
Introduction
Being considerate can be defined kindly regarding or being aware of “another’s feelings, circumstances etc.” (Dictionary.com)
Several questionnaires measure personal characteristics such as compassion, kindness, and mindfulness (e.g., Raes, Pommier, Neff & Van Gucht, 2011).
However, a review of the literature suggests that there is no current way to directly measure people’s overall considerateness.
The purpose of this study is to design a valid and reliable measure of considerateness.
Methods
Participants
Eighty-nine undergraduates (70 women, 19 men) from Winston-Salem State University and Daemen College responded to the 170-item Considerateness Scale
Procedure
Before or after completing the Considerateness Scale (depending on the randomly assigned counterbalanced condition), participants also completed several questionnaires. For example:
Big Five Inventory
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire
Grandiose Narcissism Scale
Prosocial Behavior Scale
Self-versus Other-Centered Values Scale
One to two weeks later, participants completed the Considerateness Scale again for test-retest reliability.
Sample Items
All Items were rated on a 5 point scale
(1 = Strongly Disagree, 5 = Strongly Agree)
People think I am a considerate person.
When buying a gift, I think about what the person who will receive the gift would want.
In most situations, I make sure that everyone around me is comfortable.
I hate when I hurt other people.
I do not offer help to others in need. (Reverse Scored).
If someone falls, I will most likely just laugh (Reverse Scored).
I enjoy constructive criticism.
I don’t feel emotionally connected to people in pain (Reverse Scored).
Suffering is just a part of the common human experience.
When telling jokes or saying funny things, I am usually not very concerned about how other people are taking it (Reverse Scored).
Results
Reliability
The long version of the Considerateness Scale has high internal consistency (α = .90).
Validity
There is some evidence that the Considerateness Scale is a valid measure.
The Considerateness Scale correlated positively with Agreeableness from the Big Five Inventory, r = .63, p < .001.
A factor analysis indicated the long version of this questionnaire may have one factor (22% of the variance in scores).
Discussion
Overall, we have a good start at creating a valid and reliable scale to measure considerateness.
We are continuing data analysis to assess the validity of the Considerateness Scale with other questionnaires (e.g., Compassion Scale; Raes et al., 2011)
Our next steps are to reduce the number of items of the questionnaire to approximately 40 items (or fewer).
We are continuing to recruit participants for this study and we will be adding behavioral measures of considerateness. These measures include:
(In)Appropriate gift giving (Galak, Givi, & Williams, 2016)
Opening the door for the experimenter whose hands are full
Offering a tissue to someone who is sneezing
Because we had poor turn out for the second session, we will wait for more participants to assess the test-retest reliability of the Considerateness Scale.
We plan to test the short version of the questionnaire next semester on campus and with Mturk.
References
Galak, Givi, & Williams (2016). Why certain gifts are great to give by not to get: A framework for understanding errors in gift giving. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25,
Raes, F., Pommier, E., Neff, K. D., & Van Gucht, D. (2011). Construction and factorial validation of a short form of the self‐compassion scale. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 18(3), doi: /