Abstract
Authenticity has received much empirical research attention in recent years. It is currently often measured using one of two psychometric tools - The Authenticity Scale (AS) and The Authenticity Inventory (AI). Although the development of both was influenced by similar theoretical ideas, their operational definitions are different. The AS consists of three subscales of authentic living, self-alienation, and accepting external influence, whereas the AI consists of four subscales of awareness, unbiased processing, behavior, and relational orientation. In order to understand the overall construct of authenticity, including all its varied aspects, two studies were conducted. In study 1 (N=1049), the three AS and four AI subscales were subjected to Exploratory Factor Analysis. Results showed that the subscales from these two instruments all loaded highly on a two-component model, which we represented as a distinction between outer and inner expressions of authenticity. In study 2 (N=527) Confirmatory Factor Analysis found the two factor model to be a good fit. In addition, in study 2 we also investigated the association of these two factors with social desirability, showing that greater authenticity was associated with lower social desirability. Overall, our findings provide new insights into the conceptualization of authenticity and suggest that both authenticity tools measure aspects of this two-factor model. These results provide a new framework to synthesize previous data on authenticity more effectively, and to develop new tools for the understanding and assessment of authenticity.
Highlights
The early pioneers of humanistic psychology (e.g., Maslow, 1968; Rogers, 1959) asserted that acting in accord with one’s true self has profound value in terms of healthy psychological functioning
Interest in the phenomenon of authenticity has expanded into the domain of positive psychology in recent years, leading to new empirical research literature concerning authenticity and its relation to well-being, with a number of studies showing that greater authenticity is associated with greater well-being (e.g., Rivera et al, 2019)
The results indicated non-significant and weak correlation exists between social desirability and Authentic Living (IM r = .05; SED r = .06); Accepting External Influence (IM r = -.09; SED r = -.08); Self Alienation (IM r = -.08; SED r = -.08; Wood et al, 2008)
Summary
The early pioneers of humanistic psychology (e.g., Maslow, 1968; Rogers, 1959) asserted that acting in accord with one’s true self has profound value in terms of healthy psychological functioning. Research by Kernis and Goldman (2006) did not investigate the correlation between social desirability and the Authenticity Inventory. Wood et al (2008) examined the correlation between social desirability and authenticity by using the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR; Paulhus, 1984). BIDR examines two facets of social desirability; impression management (IM) which measures one’s conscious effort to create favorable impression on others and self-deception (SED) which assess characteristic positivity bias for protecting one’s self-esteem (Paulhus, 1984). The results indicated non-significant and weak correlation exists between social desirability and Authentic Living (IM r = .05; SED r = .06); Accepting External Influence (IM r = -.09; SED r = -.08); Self Alienation (IM r = -.08; SED r = -.08; Wood et al, 2008). There is a need to examine this topic further to understand these contradictory results
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