Abstract
Sense of Agency (SoA) is the subject of growing attention. It corresponds to the capacity to claim authorship over an action, associate specific consequences with a specific action, and it has been claimed to be a key point in the development of consciousness. It can be measured using the Sense of Agency Scale (SoAS), originally proposed by Tapal et al. (2017), who distinguished it into two-factor: Sense of Positive Agency (SoPA) and Sense of Negative Agency (SoNA). This study reports on the first adaptation of the SoAS into another language, French. For this French version of the Sense of Agency Scale (F-SoAS), we analyzed responses from a sample of 517 native French-speakers. Our results indicate that the scale has good psychometric properties. Factor analysis confirms the same two-factor model as Tapal et al. (2017). However, some items were removed due to insufficient loadings with factors, leading to a short version of the scale (7-item). Furthermore, we observed gender differences that are consistent with findings in the literature. Specifically, women report higher SoNA scores and lower SoPA scores than men. We conclude by discussing possible uses and future directions for the scale.
Highlights
Definition and TheorySense of Agency (SoA) refers to the subjective perception of being an agent, i.e., “I” am the one who is causing some event in the world to occur (Haggard and Chambon, 2012)
As Mardia test was statistically significant for skewness and kurtosis (Mardia skewness = 25.72, χ2(455, N = 259) = 1110.19, p < 0.001; Mardia kurtosis = 224.63, Z = 12.07, p < 0.001), we used the Principal Axis Factor method to perform the Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA)
The parallel analysis of the EFA suggested a two-factor solution based on the eigenvalue of the actual data that are greater than their corresponding random eigenvalue
Summary
Sense of Agency (SoA) refers to the subjective perception of being an agent, i.e., “I” am the one who is causing some event in the world to occur (Haggard and Chambon, 2012). The elements leading to this feeling are becoming better-known, for example, changes in our environment are likely to elicit a SoA if they occur close in time and space to our action (Moore et al, 2012; Moore and Obhi, 2012). SoA was hypothesized to be solely based on motor processes, notably the comparator process (Blakemore et al, 2000; Tsakiris et al, 2005). Empirical evidence shows that non-motor processes, such as causal attribution, can generate SoA (Wegner, 2004). It has been theorized to be based on the integration of both motor and non-motor
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