Conscience Measure
Assesses an individual's beliefs about their conscience, including how often they follow it, and how important and reliable they perceive it to be.
Scale Development & Technical Details
Scale Overview
The Conscience Measure was developed by William A. Schutt, Julie J. Exline (2023). It is designed to measure Conscience Beliefs. The scale is intended for use with Adults.
Scale Structure
This instrument consists of 16 items organized into 3 factors/subscales: Following One’s Conscience, Importance of One’s Conscience, Reliability of One’s Conscience.
| Factor / Subscale | Items | N |
|---|---|---|
| Following One's Conscience | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 | 8 |
| Importance of One's Conscience | 9,10,11,12 | 4 |
| Reliability of One's Conscience | 13,14,15,16 | 4 |
Response Format
Respondents rate each item using a custom response format.
Response anchors: 1 = Never / Not at all, 2 = Rarely / A little bit, 3 = Sometimes / Moderately, 4 = Often / Quite a bit, 5 = Always / Extremely.
The scale includes 3 reverse-scored items to reduce acquiescence bias.
Scoring
Items are scored by subscale, with each subscale sum representing a distinct dimension.
Total scores range from 16 to 80. Interpretation guidelines:
- Low endorsement of conscience beliefs: 16 – 37
- Moderate endorsement of conscience beliefs: 38 – 58
- High endorsement of conscience beliefs: 59 – 80
Psychometric Properties
Internal Consistency: The scale has demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency with reported Cronbach’s alpha values of Cronbach's alphas ranging from .86 to .94 across subscales.
Administration
The scale is self-administered and typically takes approximately 5 minutes to complete. It can be administered individually or in group settings. No special training is required for administration.