Development and Validation of an Autonomy Scale Based on Transactional Analysis Theory

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale that can measure autonomy, which is the goal of transactional analysis counseling theory, and to verify its validity and reliability. To this end, 114 basic preparatory questions were extracted through a literature review on autonomy, analysis on existing scales, and discussions with a panel of psychological counselling experts. The content of these questions were then reviewed and validated twice by experts. Through this procedure, a preliminary survey was conducted on 262 participants each being surveyed 90 questions (37 related to self-awareness, 30 voluntarism, and 23 intimacy). Descriptive statistics, unidimensional analysis, and primary and secondary exploratory factor analysis were conducted and 55 final questions were selected (21 self-awareness, 20 voluntarism, and 14 intimacy). To verify the construct validity of the autonomy scale, a survey was conducted on 1,230 people. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted on 894 people and confirmatory factor analysis on 336 people. The autonomy scale was developed as a hierarchical second-order factor structure consisting of five self-awareness, five voluntarism, and three intimacy factors, and were made up of 20 questions of self-awareness, 17 voluntarism, and 13 intimacy for a total of 50 questions. The overall reliability(Cronbach’) of the autonomy scale was .915, self-awareness was .824, spontaneity was .811, and intimacy was .827. For concurrent validity analysis, correlation analysis with the psychological well-being and independence scales were conducted. The significance of this study lies in presenting a process to recover the autonomy of clients and developing a scale to measure such autonomy.