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Psychological Measurement

Expectancies for Success as a Multidimensional Construct among Employed Adults

Edward A. Ward
Educational and Psychological Measurement 2001 61: 818
DOI: 10.1177/00131640121971536
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EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT

WARD

EXPECTANCIES FOR SUCCESS

AS A MULTIDIMENSIONAL
CONSTRUCT AMONG EMPLOYED ADULTS
EDWARD A. WARD
St. Cloud State University

The Generalized Expectancy for SuccessRevised (GESS-R) scale was administered in

the United States to 547 full-time employees. An exploratory factor analysis yielded four
distinct factors. Scores on the four subscales were minimally related to demographics of
the subjects and had adequate internal consistency. These results indicated that GESS-R
scores measured a multidimensional construct when administered to the present sample
of employed adults.

Employee expectancies such as job satisfaction, employee motivation,

and career transitions have been of interest to organizational researchers
(Riggs, Warka, Babasa, Betancourt, & Hooker, 1994; Stephens, Szajna, &
Broome, 1998) due to the ability of the expectations of organizational members to influence choice of actions (Scheier & Carver, 1992). In addition, expectancies appear to be relatively stable across situations and thus represent a
consistent influence on organizational behaviors (Scheier & Carver, 1992).
A type of expectancy relevant to the current study is the expectancy for
success. As indicated by Fibel and Hale (1978), increased expectancy for
success may prompt improved behavior potential over that of persons with
low expectancy for success. For example, in a study of goal setting using
undergraduates in an introductory psychology course, Racicot, Day, and
Lord (1991) concluded that Type A personalities who were allowed to select
their own goal-setting strategy had higher expectancy of success. In a study
that also used students from an introductory undergraduate psychology
course, Abel (1996) concluded that stress affected Generalized Expectancy
for Success Scale (GESS) scores with self-esteem serving as a moderator.
Furthermore, in a study of schoolchildren, expectancy for success directly
influenced performance outcome (Midkiff, Burke, Hunt, & Ellison, 1986).

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Likewise, Van Vianen (1999) analyzed results of surveys of full-time

employees and concluded that outcome expectancies had a direct effect on
the desire to become a manager. These studies indicate that across different
types of subjects and outcome criteria, outcome expectancies, such as expectancy for success, are significant influences on performance.
However, Pajaress (1996) review of research dealing with expectancy
constructs found that operational measures are often omnibus and thus serve
to obfuscate relationships among variables. Although Pajaress emphasis
was on self-efficacy, expectancy for success was also noted as an expectancy
construct. One purpose of the present study was to discern if an often-used
measure of expectancy for success evaluated more than one factor. If more
than one factor was being evaluated, the construct of expectancy for success
should be analyzed as a multidimensional construct. The possibility of this
finding was alluded to by Scheier and Carver (1992), who argued that adding
domain-specific expectancies of success to generate a generalized expectancy of success may mask important domain-specific expectancies. To test
this proposition, the present study used correlational analyses to discern any
differing relationships among demographic variables, organizational experiences, and factors of expectancy for success.
As an indicator of the importance of expectancies, numerous scales have
been developed to measure different expectancies. A relevant scale was the
Life Orientation Test (LOT), which was developed via analysis of responses
given by university undergraduates to items developed to evaluate the personality construct of dispositional optimism (Scheier & Carver, 1985).
This construct has been described as the generalized expectancy that one
will experience positive outcomes in life (Magaletta & Oliver, 1999, p. 543).
The LOT has yielded scores having promising internal consistency that did
not result in gender differences when administered to college students
(Hjelle, Belongia, & Nesser, 1996). However, the LOT was not used in the
present study due to empirical results that found that LOT scores lacked
discriminant validity (Marshall, Wortman, Kusulas, Gervig, & Vickers,
1992), specifically, that LOT scores were strongly related to measures of
neuroticism (Smith, Pope, Rhodewalt, & Poulton, 1989). Also, the LOT
attempts to measure an overall attitude of optimism and pessimism as
opposed to domain-specific expectancies (Schutte, Valerio, & Carrillo,
1996) and has often been incorrectly analyzed as a unidimensional measure
despite two factors arising from factor analyses (Chang & McBride-Chang,
1996; Schutte et al., 1996). Although the validity of LOT scores has been supported by Scheier, Carver, and Bridges (1994), overall confidence in the LOT
as a measure of expectancy remains mixed.
Another example of interest in measuring expectancies for success was
found in the process of developing a 21-item scale to measure career success
expectations. Stephens et al. (1998) collected surveys from 161 managers

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and 103 MBA students. An exploratory factor analysis determined that a

three-factor solution comprising 13 of the items was appropriate, with the
factors named Career Development, Career Achievement, and Career Balance. A confirmatory factor analysis further supported the viability of the
three-factor structure.
Yet another scale was the GESS (Fibel & Hale, 1978). The GESS was
developed using samples of 204 undergraduate students to measure situational optimism (Hale, Fiedler, & Cochran, 1992). Interestingly, this 30-item
measure has also been used as a measure of self-acceptance (Mearns, 1989)
or as an outcome measure (Abel, 1996; Layne, Lefton, Walters, & Merry,
1983). Fibel and Hale (1978) conducted an exploratory factor analysis that
yielded four factors described as evaluating general efficacy, career expectancies, personal problem solving, and a final factor that was not readily
interpretable.
In subsequent research using the GESS, Hale et al. (1992) surveyed 199
undergraduates in an introductory psychology course and via analysis of
item-total correlations concluded that only 25 of the original 30 items were
needed to adequately measure the construct. These 25 items, named the
GESS-R, have been used as a measure of optimism in a cross-cultural
research study, which found that religiosity was predictive of optimism
(Schutte & Hosch, 1996). Additional cross-cultural research has concluded
that optimism, as measured by the GESS-R, is correlated with socioeconomic status (Schutte et al., 1996).
The only published factor analysis of the GESS-R found was that of
Schutte et al. (1996), who analyzed ratings made by 254 undergraduates
enrolled in introductory psychology classes. Conducting an exploratory factor analysis with varimax rotation, a six-factor solution accounting for 56.5%
of the variance was generated. However, the reliabilities of scores on the factors were not reported, nor was there any attempt at interpreting an oblique
rotation. A final concern of the reported results was that for five of the items, a
second factor having a structure coefficient within .10 of the coefficient with
the factor with which the item was identified was observed.
In summary, exploratory factor analyses of scales measuring expectancy
constructs have often discovered multiple factors (e.g., Bosscher & Smit,
1998). However, the subjects in studies of expectancies are often university
undergraduates (e.g., Chang & McBride-Chang, 1996; Fibel & Hale, 1978;
Racicot et al., 1991; Stephens et al., 1998). Given that the results of psychological surveys administered to undergraduates and employed adults can be
appreciably different (Solomon & Fernald, 1990; Ward, 1993), the initial
purpose of the present study was to analyze the factor structure of the GESSR when employed adults constitute the sample. If the factor structure of
GESS-R was found to be multidimensional, the demographic correlates of
the post hoc factors would then be analyzed for their influence on the factors.

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Method
Participants
The sample was generated by offering extra credit to university students if
they would have an acquaintance or family member who worked full-time
(35 hours a week or more) complete a survey. The resultant sample of 547
subjects from the United States consisted of 248 females and 299 males, each
of which reported working a minimum of 35 hours a week. Overall, the subjects had a mean age of 34.28 and had worked an average of 4.67 years with
their current supervisor.
Measures
Expectancies for success were measured by the GESS-R developed by
Hale et al. (1992). As used by previous researchers, each item was preceded
by In the future I expect that I will . . . , with the seven-point anchors ranging
from strongly disagree to strongly agree.
The survey was completed via self-report. This method was chosen for the
convenience of the subjects and because self-reported evaluations of personality have typically been found to be consistent with observers ratings
(Funder & Colvin, 1988; Heinisch & Jex, 1998; Mount, Barrick, & Strauss,
1994).
Due to the lack of a theoretically based a priori structure, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. This statistical method was selected for three reasons. First, it allowed a determination of how observed variables share common variance-covariance characteristics and so relate to factors (Schumacker &
Lomax, 1996). Second, this approach was deemed useful for discerning the
multivariate structure of data collected on an instrument (Floyd & Widaman,
1995). Finally, exploratory factor analysis was deemed useful for gaining
preliminary information about latent structures prior to employing the
hypothesis-testing approach of confirmatory factor analysis (Maruyama,
1998). The rationale for conducting this analysis was indicated in early
research by Fibel and Hale (1978): expectancies for success may vary along
a continuum from relatively specific to general (p. 924). The outcomes of
the factor analysis would serve to determine if specific interpretable factors
were identified. In addition, it was determined that demographic measures
would be correlated with any post hoc factors that emerged.

Results
The mean score on the expectancies for success scale was 142.08 with a
standard deviation of 15.36. The coefficient alpha for scores on the overall
scale was .91.

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The procedures for factor analyzing followed the decision rules outlined
by Ward (1994, 1997). In regard to the concern with adequate sample size for
a factor analysis, the sample size of the present study resulted in a subject-toitem ratio of more than 20 to 1. Whereas this exceeds the subject-to-item
ratios discussed by Floyd and Widaman (1995), additional support for the
adequacy of the sample size comes from Guadagnoli and Velicer (1988).
Based on Guadagnoli and Velicers research, the variable saturation with the
factors, as indicated by high factor coefficients, supports the adequacy of
sample size. In addition, the values for the measure of sampling adequacy for
each item were all above .82, indicating that the ratio of interitem correlation
to partial correlation coefficients was acceptable (Heatherton & Polivy,
1991). The scree test and the eigenvalues greater than 1.0 test agreed as to the
number of factors to analyze, supporting confidence in the results (Buley,
1995). Finally, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (.93)
and the Bartlett test of sphericity value (5609.13, p < .001) were both within
satisfactory ranges.
A principal components analysis was conducted. In contrast to the six factors reported by Schutte et al. (1996), four factors that explained 57.3% of the
variance were extracted. The results of both orthogonal (varimax) and
oblique (oblimin) rotations were reviewed, as suggested by Floyd and
Widaman (1995). A perusal of the pattern and structure matrices indicated no
differences in the items saliency with the factors (see Table 1). The first factor (General Expectancies) consisted of 12 items; however, 2 of these items
were also salient with the fourth factor. The second factor (Failure Expectations) was made up of 5 items. The third factor (Career Expectations) was
defined by 4 items, and the fourth factor (Personal Life Expectations) was
also defined by 4 items. In comparison to the results of Schutte et al., the current factor of Career Expectations included the Career Optimism items, and
Personal Life Expectations included the Interpersonal Relationships items.
The correlations of the demographic variables and GESS-R scores (based
on summation of items across each subscale as determined by the factor analytic results) were in the expected directions but extremely low, with no correlation exceeding |.20|.
As an ancillary statistical analysis, a MANOVA was conducted across the
four post hoc factors with gender as the explanatory variable. The result was
statistically nonsignificant, multivariate F(1, 545) = .41; p = .52. Following
procedures advocated by Huberty and Morris (1989), follow-up ANOVAs
were employed to determine whether there were gender differences on any of
the subscales taken singly. Only one of the ANOVAs (power = .80) resulted in
a statistically significant differencethe third factor (Career Expectations)
yielded an F(1, 545) of 7.85, p = .005, with males having a higher mean than
females. However, the effect was so negligible (2 = .01) that the finding,
despite being statistically significant, was regarded as consistent with the
results of the other ANOVA tests.

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Table 1
Pattern (structure) Matrix for the Generalized Expectancy for Success ScaleRevised (GESSR) (oblimin rotation)
Item

Factor 1

Factor 1: General
Expectancies
( = .89)
6
.72
11
.67
15
.67
3
.65
1
.59
22
.59
10
.59
14
.52
7
.50
2
.50
12
.33
19
.32
Factor 2: Failure
Expectations
( = .70)
9
.06
13
.01
23
.12
17
.25
20
.16
Factor 3: Career
Expectations
( = .80)
4
.00
24
.13
8
.26
16
.18
Factor 4: Personal
Life Expectations
( = .75)
25
.06
5
.09
21
.19
18
.11

Factor 2

Factor 3

Factor 4

(.75)
(.67)
(.71)
(.63)
(.69)
(.69)
(.65)
(.64)
(.59)
(.62)
(.55)
(.61)

.02
.08
.04
.11
.04
.11
.11
.12
.06
.00
.10
.25

(.23)
(.28)
(.20)
(.29)
(.28)
(.34)
(.14)
(.34)
(.17)
(.23)
(.33)
(.48)

.01
.15
.00
.08
.34
.08
.00
.21
.06
.36
.16
.21

(.28)
(.13)
(.29)
(.29)
(.55)
(.36)
(.27)
(.44)
(.31)
(.54)
(.40)
(.48)

.09
.06
.12
.20
.10
.07
.23
.01
.19
.02
.29
.29

(.39)
(.32)
(.39)
(.13)
(.27)
(.38)
(.44)
(.31)
(.41)
(.30)
(.52)
(.57)

.57
.47
.52
.44
.59
.51
.47
.47
.39
.50
.47
.59

(.13)
(.33)
(.42)
(.35)
(.15)

.80
.64
.62
.60
.37

(.74)
(.73)
(.72)
(.63)
(.44)

.00
.24
.12
.28
.22

(.11)
(.42)
(.34)
(.04)
(.33)

.12
.12
.09
.01
.27

(.07)
(.38)
(.37)
(.20)
(.38)

.57
.43
.58
.49
.32

(.34)
(.41)
(.54)
(.47)

.06
.03
.00
.07

(.25)
(.23)
(.25)
(.29)

.77
.70
.64
.43

(.81)
(.76)
(.77)
(.59)

.06
.00
.09
.24

(.33)
(.29)
(.41)
(.48)

.66
.60
.68
.48

(.30)
(.41)
(.47)
(.36)

.07
.06
.09
.23

(.17)
(.19)
(.32)
(.39)

.11
.10
.09
.10

(.34)
(.35)
(.21)
(.15)

.81
.71
.65
.49

(.81)
(.77)
(.73)
(.57)

.67
.61
.59
.40

Discussion
The results of the factor analysis indicate that expectancy for success is
appropriately regarded as multidimensional. Further support for multidimensionality may be seen in the adequate internal consistency of scores on each
factor, as well as the lack of items salient with more than one factor. In addi-

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EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT

tion, only the third factor indicated a statistically significant gender difference, and this difference was negligible.
The differences between the results generated by Schutte et al. (1996) and
the present study may be due to the use of full-time employees rather than students in an introductory psychology course. Ward (1993) had noted that studies involving undergraduates may not generalize to studies using employed
adults. A second reason may be the sample size of the present study (547),
which is more than twice the sample size (254) of the Schutte et al. study. The
larger sample size may be a determinant in the Schutte et al. study in which 12
of the items were correlated at .30 or higher with a second factor, whereas in
the present study only 1 item was salient with a second factor.
Pajares (1996) noted a need to determine the generality of expectancy
beliefs across differing outcomes. The results of the present study indicate
that the GESS-R may be useful for analyzing results with eclectic outcomes
if factor scores are analyzed rather than the overall score.
The minimal relationships between demographic variables and subscale
scores suggest the scale can be used across demographic subgroups without
bias. The correlational analyses indicate that for this large group of full-time
employees, career expectations increase with education yet decrease with
age, years working full-time, and years working for the current supervisor,
even though these correlations were relatively small. These influences will be
fruitful areas for future research.

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