Chapter 23 Measuring Rebelliousness: The Development of The Negativism Dominance Scale

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on measuring rebelliousness. It describes the development of the negativism dominance scale. Negativism and conformity are central concepts in reversal theory, which form one of a number of pairs of bistable metamotivational states, among which there are said to be switches or “reversals.” Reversal theory posits that for a given pair of states, such as the negativistic and the conformist states, there is an internal bias, such that more time is likely to be spent in one state than in the other; and within the theory the degree of this bias is known as “dominance.” The negativistic dominant individual can be described synonymously as “rebellious” or “oppositional” and the negativistic state can be described as the “rebellious” or “oppositional” state. The concept of dominance is said to differ from that of “trait” because the former does not assume that behavior is consistent across situations. The development of a psychometrically sound measure of rebelliousness is based on the assumption that the construct merits investigation. The construct can be seen to be particularly relevant to the psychology of adolescence, for it is during this developmental period that rebelliousness is purported to be most prevalent.