NCJ Number
195600
Journal
Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Volume: 34 Issue: 1 Dated: 2001 Pages: 1-8
Date Published
2001
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on the development of an eight-item Fear-of-Change (FOC) scale to replace the eight items that were deleted from the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) following a revision of the two validity scales (Walters, 2001a).
Abstract
A total of 100 male inmates from a medium-security Federal prison and 100 female inmates from a Federal prison camp were the subjects for this project. Statements designed to reflect a fear of change were solicited from 10 inmates who had participated in the Lifestyle Change Program for a year or longer, after these individuals had attended a brief lecture on fear of change and how such fear can impede the change process. These individuals generated between one and four statements each. From these statements, the author constructed 24 candidate items for a FOC scale. The 24 FOC candidate items were administered to 100 male and 100 female inmates in groups of 5 to 15 inmates each. The scale displayed a moderate degree of internal consistency and moderately high test-retest stability after 2 and 12 weeks, and it correlated significantly with a previously administered measure of existential fear. The eight scale items selected are as follows: Change can be scary; it's unsettling not knowing what the future holds; new challenges and situations make me nervous; I have often not tried something out of fear that I might fail; I find it difficult to commit myself to something that I am not sure of because of fear; there is nothing more frightening than change; fear of change has made it difficult for me to be successful in life; there have been times when I tried to change but was prevented from doing so because of fear. The study concludes that the FOC is a reasonably internally consistent and stable estimate of a person's apprehension about personal change and the threat that change poses. Exploring whether the FOC is actually measuring fear of change rather than some other construct will require additional study. 1 table and 17 references