Measuring Levels of Trust

College student respondents involved in romantic relationships (N= 445) completed questionnaires containing measures of trust and related constructs. Analyses focused on two sets of issues. The first concerned the validity of the Trust Inventory, an innovative self-report measure that partitions trust into separate domains including (a) specific relationship partners, called Partner Trust; (b) family and friends, termed Network Trust; and (c) people-in-general, called Generalized Trust. The second set of issues involved several previously unanswered questions derived from the trust literature, specifically: (a) the comparability of competing measures of trust, (b) the convergence between trust in specific people vs trust in human nature, and (c) whether trust is more closely related to one's personality or emotions or to the quality of one's relationships. Results generally supported the validity of the Trust Inventory and its tripartite division of types of trust including the new concept of Network Trust. In addition, various measures of trust were moderately to strongly interrelated. However, results also supported the distinction between relational trust (trust in relationship partners) and global trust (trust in human nature). Measures of relational trust were significantly more strongly related to relationship quality and commitment, whereas measures of global trust were slightly more strongly related to indices of personality and emotion. This latter difference was not significant.

[1]  E. Erikson.  Childhood and Society , 1965 .

[2]  A. Buss,et al.  An inventory for assessing different kinds of hostility. , 1957, Journal of consulting psychology.

[3]  M. Deutsch.  Trust and suspicion , 1958 .

[4]  Lawrence S. Wrightsman,et al.  Measurement of Philosophies of Human Nature , 1964 .

[5]  J. Rotter.  A new scale for the measurement of interpersonal trust. , 1967, Journal of personality.

[6]  K. Giffin.  The contribution of studies of source credibility to a theory of interpersonal trust in the communication process. , 1967, Psychological bulletin.

[7]  Z. Rubin.  Measurement of romantic love. , 1970, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[8]  H. W. Kee,et al.  Conceptual and methodological considerations in the study of trust and suspicion , 1970 .

[9]  J. Rotter.  Generalized expectancies for interpersonal trust. , 1971 .

[10]  John B. Campbell,et al.  Notes on the Internal Structure of Wrightsman's Measure of Trustworthiness , 1975 .

[11]  Janet Taylor Spence,et al.  Contemporary topics in social psychology , 1976 .

[12]  Thomas L. Wright,et al.  Interpersonal Trust, Trustworthiness and Shoplifting in High School , 1977, Psychological reports.

[13]  J. Rotter.  Interpersonal trust, trustworthiness, and gullibility. , 1980 .

[14]  Letitia Anne Peplau,et al.  The Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale: Concurrent and Discriminant Validity Evidence , 1980 .

[15]  H. Austrin,et al.  Interpersonal Trust as a Predictor of Suggestibility , 1980 .

[16]  T. Huston,et al.  The Dyadic Trust Scale: Toward Understanding Interpersonal Trust in Close Relationships. , 1980 .

[17]  E. Mathes,et al.  Jealousy, Romantic Love, and Liking: Theoretical Considerations and Preliminary Scale Development , 1981 .

[18]  C. Johnson-George,et al.  Measurement of specific interpersonal trust: Construction and validation of a scale to assess trust in a specific other. , 1982 .

[19]  Ken J. Rotenberg,et al.  Sex differences in children's trust in peers , 1984 .

[20]  J. G. Holmes,et al.  Trust in close relationships. , 1985 .

[21]  W. H. Jones,et al.  Shyness: conceptualization and measurement. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[22]  Susan S. Hendrick,et al.  A theory and method of love. , 1986 .

[23]  Susan S. Hendrick,et al.  Liking, Loving, and Relating , 1991 .

[24]  K. Rotenberg.  Children’s Interpersonal Trust , 1991 .

[25]  W. H. Jones,et al.  Betrayal Among Children and Adults , 1991 .

[26]  J. G. Holmes.  Trust and the appraisal process in close relationships. , 1991 .

[27]  Susan S. Hendrick,et al.  Relationships between eating disorder characteristics and love and sex attitudes , 1992 .

[28]  W. H. Jones,et al.  On conceptualizing and assessing guilt. , 1992 .

[29]  W. H. Jones,et al.  Interpersonal correlates of the guilt inventory. , 1993, Journal of personality assessment.

[30]  John H. Harvey,et al.  Perspectives on Close Relationships , 1993 .

[31]  W. H. Jones,et al.  The assessment of trust orientation. , 1996, Journal of personality assessment.