Psychological reactance: Factor structure and internal consistency of the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psychological Reactance

Psychological reactance, the theory that people resist attempts to constrai n either their thoughts or their behaviors (J. W. Brehm, 1966), has been an influential concept in social psychology. In an attempt to measure reactan ce, J. Merz (1983) developed the Questionnaire for the Measurement of Psych ological Reactance (QMPR). Subsequent researchers (S.-M. Hong & R. Ostini, 1989; R. K. Tucker & P. Y. Byers, 1987) have debated both the exact factor structure and the psychometric stability of the QMPR. In the present study, 898 undergraduates completed the QMPR. Factor analysis suggested that psyc hological reactance is multidimensional. The authors found 3 factors underl ying the QMPR, but the QMPR provided unreliable estimates for each of those factors. According to the results, the QMPR as currently written is psycho metrically unsatisfactory.