Elaboration on Potential Outcomes (Generation/Evaluation)

What it measures

A six-item likert scale designed to measure the degree to which a person consciously considers potential consequences before making decisions including their likelihood and significance.

Response format

7-point Likert (1=strongly disagree, 7=strongly agree)

Scale items

• Before I act I consider what I will gain or lose in the future as a result of my actions.
• I try to anticipate as many consequences of my actions as I can.
• Before I make a decision I consider all possible outcomes.
• I always try to assess how important the potential consequences of my decisions might be.
• I try hard to predict how likely different consequences are.
• Usually I carefully estimate the risk of various outcomes occurring.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Factor analytic procedures were used to support the scale's structural validity.

Citation

Carver, Charles S. and Michael F. Scheier (1998), On the Self-Regulation of Behavior, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Keywords