Cooperative and Competitive Personality Scale – Chinese Version

Description

In 1970, Kelley and Stahelski proposed the existence of two stable individual types, referred to as cooperators and competitors. More specifically, they indicated stable individual differences on a dimension ranging from cooperation to competition. Individuals of these two types possess different worldviews and perspectives regarding others’ tendencies toward cooperation and competition. Competitors perceive others as homogeneous and competitive like themselves, while cooperators view others as heterogeneous, with some inclined to cooperate and others to compete. This is known as Kelley’s famous “triangular” hypothesis. Subsequent research has termed this stable individual difference as “value orientation” or “social value orientation,” extending Kelley’s triangle hypothesis in experimental studies to clearly distinguish four types of individuals: competition, individualism, cooperation, and altruism. Researchers propose a motivational continuum from altruism to competition. Value orientation reflects a person’s judgments about the usefulness, importance, and value of specific activities or matters, serving as a tendency in individual behavior. Broadly speaking, it can also be understood as a personality trait because general personality refers to the totality of qualities, characteristics, and behavioral differences possessed by an individual.

The “Cooperative and Competitive Personality Scale” (CCPS), compiled by Xie Xiaofei, Yu Yuanyuan, and others, includes two subscales for cooperation and competition. Cooperation is defined as the tendency to collaborate with others in pursuit of common goals, where individuals can consider the interests of others and experience joy from interpersonal coordination. Competition, on the other hand, reflects the tendency for individuals to strive to outperform others while realizing their own potential, pursue self-growth, or achieve specific goals.

The cooperative subscale consists of three dimensions: 互惠性 (reciprocity), 包容性 (inclusiveness), and 合群意愿 (willingness to collaborate), comprising a total of 13 items. The competitive subscale includes three dimensions: 自我成长 (self-growth), 超越他人 (outperforming others), and 过度竞争 (over-competitiveness), totaling 10 items. This scale consists of 23 items overall, with the total scores of both the cooperation and competition subscales calculated, where higher scores indicate stronger tendencies toward each dimension. The reliability of the cooperation and competition subscales is 0.85 and 0.71 respectively, and confirmatory factor analysis results indicate that the scale has good construct validity (Xie Xiaofei, 2006).

The scale considers cooperation and competition as two vertical dimensions, and the intersection of these dimensions results in four quadrants, categorizing respondents into four personality types based on the upper and lower 27% scores of their competition and cooperation tendencies: high competition (low cooperation), high cooperation (low competition), high cooperation and competition (double high), and low cooperation and competition (double low).

Authors and Contact Email

Xie Xiaofei, Yu Yuanyuan, Chen Xi, Chen Xiaoping. Email: information not available.

Purpose

To measure the tendencies towards cooperation and competition among individuals.

Test Year

2006

Administration Method and Scoring

A sample of undergraduate students from a university was used, with 101 males and 147 females; the maximum age was 23 and the minimum age was 18 (m=21.23, sd=1.35). A total of 250 questionnaires were distributed, with 248 returned, yielding a recovery rate of 99%.

Reliability and Validity

The reliability of the cooperation subscale is 0.85, and the reliability of the competition subscale is 0.71. Validity assessment is supported by confirmatory factor analysis, indicating good construct validity.

Factors and Subscales

The scale has two primary subscales:
– 合作 (Cooperation)
– 竞争 (Competition)

Keywords

Value orientation, Cooperation, Competition, Personality traits, Measurement scale

Items in Chinese

竞争分量表:
1. 当我的竞争者由于他们的成绩获得奖励时时，我会嫉妒。
2. 我不能容忍自己在争论中输掉。
3. 当我在运动竞赛中失利，我会非常伤心。
4. 如果别人表现得比我好，会让我烦恼。
5. 我喜欢竞争，因为它给我一个发现自身潜能的机会。
6. 我喜欢与他人竞争所带来的挑战。
7. 我喜欢竞争，因为它能够让我发挥最佳状态，而非获得胜过别人的感觉。
8. 只有比其他同事（同学）表现得更好，才能够证明我的价值。
9. 有时我将考试视为一次证明我比其他人更聪明的机会。
10. 即使在一个团队中为了共同的目标一起工作，我也希望能超过团队中的其他人。

合作分量表:
1. 在与同事（同学）一起学习的时候，我愿意多听取他人的意见，即使这些意见我并不赞同。
2. 在与他人共同完成任务时，我能够整合他人的意见。
3. 工作中,我通常会考虑双方利益。
4. 在处理事情时，我一般都能够考虑多方的意见。
5. 在生活中，我通常能够站在他人的立场上考虑他人的利益。
6. 我相信好的伙伴能使你战胜一切对手。
7. 一个人要想取得好成绩，必然依靠他人的帮助。
8. 任何工作的开展与完成都离不开他人的帮助与合作。
9. 为了成功，一个人必须与他人合作。
10. 与大家一起工作让我很愉快。
11. 在工作中，我喜欢与他人协同工作。
12. 我喜欢与他人一起共事获得共同的成功。
13. 我相信在工作（学习）中合作比竞争更有助于提高成绩。

Items in English

Competitive Subscale:
1. I feel jealous when my competitors are rewarded for their achievements.
2. I cannot tolerate losing an argument.
3. I feel very sad if I lose in a sports competition.
4. If others perform better than me, it bothers me.
5. I enjoy competition because it gives me a chance to discover my potential.
6. I enjoy the challenges that come from competing with others.
7. I enjoy competition because it allows me to perform at my best, rather than just feeling like I have surpassed others.
8. I can only prove my worth by outperforming other colleagues (classmates).
9. Sometimes I view exams as an opportunity to prove I am smarter than others.
10. Even when working in a team for a common goal, I still want to surpass others in the team.

Cooperation Subscale:
1. When studying with colleagues (classmates), I am willing to listen to others’ opinions, even if I do not agree with them.
2. When completing tasks with others, I can integrate their opinions.
3. In my work, I usually consider the interests of both parties.
4. When handling matters, I generally consider multiple opinions.
5. In life, I can usually take the perspective of others and consider their interests.
6. I believe that good partners can help you overcome any opponent.
7. To achieve good results, one must rely on the help of others.
8. The execution and completion of any work relies on the help and cooperation of others.
9. For success, one must cooperate with others.
10. I enjoy working with everyone.
11. In my work, I like to cooperate with others.
12. I enjoy working with others to achieve mutual success.
13. I believe that cooperation is more beneficial than competition for improving results in work (study).

References

谢晓非,余媛媛,陈曦,陈晓萍.合作与竞争人格倾向测量[J].心理学报,2006(01):116-125.
吴玉. “合作—竞赛法”在高中跨栏跑教学中的应用研究[D].武汉体育学院,2019.DOI:10.27384/d.cnki.gwhtc.2019.000235.
魏换霞,宋耀武.个体价值取向在合作与竞争行为中的差异[J].河北师范大学学报(教育科学版),2013,15(03):88-91.DOI:10.13763/j.cnki.jhebnu.ese.2013.03.003.