Development of a self-report measure of unconditional positive self-regard

Objectives. The development of a measure of therapeutic change that is theoretically consistent with person-centred theory and client-centred therapy would provide a tool for the evaluation of therapeutic change that is meaningful to both clients and therapists, and that could also be applied to outcome research. The present paper reports the development of a measurement scale based on the person-centred construct of unconditional positive self-regard.

Design. A cross-sectional survey design was adopted to investigate the psychometric properties of the unconditional-positive self regard scale (UPSR).

Method. Data from 210 university students who completed the scale were subjected to principal components factor analysis in order to determine the factor structure of the scale. Comparison with theoretically similar and distinct measures was used to investigate validity, and internal reliability was assessed.

Results. Factor analysis revealed that the resulting 12-item UPSR scale is composed of two separate subscales, respectively measuring self-regard and conditionality of positive self-regard. Internal reliability of the main scale and subscales was adequate with alpha co-efficients all above .79. Comparison with other measures provides evidence supporting the validity of the new scale.

Conclusions. Initial evidence indicates that the UPSR scale may be a potentially useful tool for the non-medicalised evaluation of therapeutic change.