A three-item unipolar scale measuring the subjective experience of psychological discomfort — a state of unease, discomfort, and feeling bothered — arising from inconsistency between beliefs, attitudes, or between attitudes and behaviour. Originally developed to operationalise cognitive dissonance as a felt psychological state, the scale has been applied in consumer research to examine dissonance following attitude-inconsistent product choices and exposure to counterstereotypic brand personalities.
Unipolar (does not apply at all / applies very much)
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Alpha ranged from .85 to .94 across four studies using the scale — Spangenberg et al. (2003, Studies 3A, 3B, 4, and a separate psychometric study). A further application by Park & Roedder John (2010, Journal of Consumer Research 37(4), 655–669) reported α = .86. VALIDITY: Spangenberg et al. (2003) conducted CFA across multiple studies confirming unidimensionality, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. NOTE: Items are single-word descriptors; response anchors are 'does not apply at all' and 'applies very much'. Although only three items are listed, some applications may include additional items — researchers should confirm the exact item set from primary sources.
Elliot, Andrew J. and Patricia G. Devine (1994). On the motivational nature of cognitive dissonance: Dissonance as psychological discomfort. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 382–394.
Free access to 2455+ psychometric scales at PsychScales