The Authenticity Scale: Psychometric properties of a French translation and exploration of its relationships with personality and well-being.

Abstract

In this article, we examined the psychometric properties of a French translation of the Authenticity Scale created by A. M. Wood, P. A. Linley, J. Maltby, M. Baliousis, and S. Joseph (2008, The authentic personality: A theoretical and empirical conceptualization and the development of the authenticity scale, Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55, 385–399). In the first study (N 188), we assessed the reliability of this translation as well as its construct validity and discriminant validity from the Big Five personality traits. In the second study (N 437), we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the factorial structure found in Study 1 and the factorial structure obtained by Wood et al. (2008). The results show that the psychometric properties of the French Authenticity Scale are comparable to those of the original English version. The scale has both good scale score reliability ( .77 to .82) and temporal stability over an 8-week period (r .54 to .69). It is based on a three-factor solution explaining 60% of the variance. The scale shows discriminant validity from the Big Five personality traits and is related to both subjective and psychological well-being. This article provides a valid and reliable instrument in French that measures dispositional authenticity and will be useful to clinicians, counselors, and researchers.