Validation of a social self-efficacy scale (SSE-1)

Abstract

A new self report scale was developed to measure individuals' social self-efficacy, which we named the SSE-1. Social self-efficacy could be thought of one's sense of personal mastery pertaining to the act of socializing. A proposed 20-item scale pool was created by semantically adjusting a general self-efficacy scale and was validated using statistical methods of principle components analysis and Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency reliability analysis. The scale was trimmed down to a 8-item scale fulfilling a desired criteria of sufficiently low noise, unidimensional measurement, high internal consistency, and conciseness. A convergent and discriminate validity regression analysis confirmed expected positive relationships between the SSE-1 and with the need to belong, behavioral activation, and general self-efficacy, as well as negative relationships with social anxiety and behavioral inhibition. Further dimensionality reduction was performed on the aforementioned scales to explore if there were underlying social constructs unifying these measures. Two dimensions we named "arousal" and "social appetitiveness" were found.