THE EMPERORS CLOTHES - ASSESSING THE VALIDITY OF SCORES ON THE TENNESSEE SELF-CONCEPT SCALE

In 1985, Tzeog, Maxey, Fortier, and Landis conducted an extensive psyc hometric study of the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS) and reported a systematic failure to validate the factor structure of either the e ight clinical scales or the two global internal/external scales. Despi te these findings, the TSCS has continued to be used in both clinical and research settings to investigate facets of the self-concept. One p ossible limitation of the Tzeng et al. study was the inherent heteroge neity in the three samples used, which could havemasked factor structu res. To investigate whether this was the case, the present study repli cated the psychometric analyses in a homogeneous sample of female nurs ing and medical educators from a health science center and university in the Southwest. Results strongly mirrored the findings of Tzeng et a l., challenging the proposed theoretical structure while supporting th e reliable measurement of some, as yet unclear, dimension by the prese nt instrument implications for the use of the TSCS as it now stands ar e discussed.