The Validity of the Telic Dominance Scale

Murgatroyd, Stephen John (1984). The Validity of the Telic Dominance Scale. MPhil thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00010101

Abstract

The Telic Dominance Scale (TDS) is a 42 item pencil and paper psychometric instrument intended to measure the extent to which a person is seriousminded, planning orientated, arousal avoiding and telic or paratelic dominant.

Using test related reliability methods, this study demonstrates that the TDS is a reliable instrument over a variety of time intervals up to one year.

Reviewing a variety of studies, including a number in which the author was the sole or a collaborative researcher, it is suggested that the TDS is a valid instrument in the sense in which 'validity ' is used in the psychometric tradition. Some doubts concerning the phenomenological grounding of the TDS are examined in the context of a multi-method validation study.

Using a principal components analysis with varimax rotation, a factor analysis of TDS responses suggests that the factor structure of responses does not match the structure implied in the sub-scale structure in the TDS. The implications of this finding are fully discussed.