Developing of career psychological needs scale: Measurement invariance of intergenerational comparison

This study aimed to develop a scale to determine the basic psychological needs at career based on Glasser’s Choice Theory and examine its psychometric properties. The sample composed of 1260 people from X,Y, and Z generations living in the provinces Ankara, Gaziantep and Antalya. In the development phase of the scale, expressions reflecting the basic psychological needs at work based on Choice theory ​​were returning into the scale item. Pool of 57 items was formed. Six items were removed from the form and submitted to five academicians for expert opinion and validity-reliability studies were conducted on 51 items. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were used to examine the construct validity of the scale. Also, parallel analysis was used. The Psychological Need Scale was used to examine the criterion related validity. As a result of the construct validity analysis of the scale, a five-factor structure, namely survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun, consisting of 25 items in total (five items each), was obtained as explained in Glasser's Choice Theory. The fit indices of the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the structure exploring in exploratory factor analysis. Cronbach's α coefficient for all five subscales was found as .85, love and belonging were .78, freedom .76, fun .66, power .74 and survival .65. Results of the measurement invariance for X, Y, and Z generations show that the scale has configural, metric and scalar invariance. Overall results show that Choice Theory-based Career Basic Psychological Needs Scale can be used as a valid and reliable scale.