Development and validation of romantic inclination scale

Pages:301-305
D. Barani Ganth (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry)
S. Kadhiravan (Department of Psychology, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu)

Developing a romantic relationship is considered to be blissful experience by many youth. From the review of literature it is understood that there is a research gap in Indian context in the understanding of romantic relationship with interpersonal relationship perspective and exploring the factors influencing such relationships. This study is an attempt to develop a personality measure of romantic relationship in terms of romantic inclination which can be defined as the degree to which an individual is inclined to initiate or accept a romantic relationship with a member of opposite sex. 169 unmarried youth in the age range of 17-26 participated in the study. Reliability analysis of the data revealed that the Cronbach alpha was 0.856 and test- retest reliability with a gap of 4 weeks was found to be 0.820. Also, the split half reliability was found to be 0.840. Content validity was established through a panel of judges. Exploratory factor analysis identified 7 components contributing to romantic inclination. Further the scale was capable of discriminating the individuals who have experienced love and do not. The complete process of development and validation is presented in this article.