THE MEASUREMENT OF PERFORMANCE VALENCE - AN EXAMINATION OF CONSTRUCT-RELATED EVIDENCE

Garland's (1985) summated valence measure is an indirect measure of go als, not an improved operationalization of the valence construct, as d emonstrated in this paper. In Study 1, a meta-analysis showed that Gar land's measure of valence correlated negatively with both personal goa ls and performance while all other measures of valence correlated posi tively with personal goals and performance. In Study 2, a protocol ana lysis showed that the majority of subjects estimated valence based upo n a comparison between personal goals and possible future performance levels. In addition, subjects' use of second level outcomes in making ratings sharply decreased across items, indicating the performance val ence measure wasn't eliciting the information necessary to calculate v alence according to Vroom's (1964) definition. Evidence from both the meta-analysis and the protocol analysis support the assertion that Gar land's measure of performance valence is best conceptualized as an ind irect measure of goals. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.