The (mis)measurement of restraint: an analysis of conceptual and psychometric issues.

In this article we examine alleged conceptual and psychometric deficiencies of the Restraint Scale, an instrument intended to identify chronic dieters. These deficiencies include the confounding of restraint with disinhibition, the inapplicability of the scale to obese samples, problems with the factor structure of the scale, and difficulties in completing the scale. We argue that these alleged deficiencies are in most cases chimerical and that the Restraint Scale remains the most useful tool for examining behavioral and other dieter/nondieter differences. Proposed alternatives to the Restraint Scale are examined and found to be inadequate as replacements, although they may be useful for certain purposes. Closer attention to the intended purpose of such instruments may serve to dispel controversy and confusion. Research on the dynamics of eating has gradually expanded from the examination of behavioral differences as a function of body weight (e.g., Schachter & Rodin's, 1974, survey of obese/ normal differences) to include the investigation of parallel differences as a function of attempted weight suppression (relative to initial weight or relative to presumptive biologically defended levels). The Restraint Scale was initially proposed (Herman & Mack, 1975) as a simple and relatively straightforward self-report device for identifying chronic dieters. At the time it was assumed that because chronic dieters were likely to be maintaining a body weight below "set point," identification of such dieters would therefore permit tests—in normal-weight people as well as the obese—of hypotheses derived from Nisbett's (1972) seminal article on the effects of long-term hunger. Almost since its inception, the Restraint Scale has been subjected to criticism, both psychometric and conceptual. In this article, we review and discuss some of these criticisms of the Restraint Scale, and then consider the alternative scales that have been proposed recently as improvements. The major problems that have been identified are (a) the Restraint Scale's confounding of dietary restriction with disinhibited eating, (b) its apparent inadequacy when applied to the overweight, and (c) its factor structure. These major issues are not entirely separable from one another, but we shall attempt to distill them into their essentials and address them sequentially, along with a number of lesser problems.