Dimensions of the Need for Cognition: Subscales and Gender Differences

J. S. Tanaka · Abigail T. Panter · Wayne C. Winborne

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Psychometric Methodologies and Testing Social and Intergroup Psychology Personality Traits and Psychology

Abstract

The Need for Cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) scale has been used, predominantly in the persuasion literature, to assess the degree to which individuals tend to engage in elaborative thought. Using both statistically appropriate methods for the factor analysis of dichotomous variables and latent variable models, we report studies which discuss the development and validation of subscales of the NFC. The findings suggest that three subscales (Cognitive Persistence, Cognitive Confidence, and Cognitive Complexity), representing three different domains of elaborative thought, can be identified. A gender difference was obtained consistently on the Cognitive Persistence Scale: Women scored higher than men. Finally, using latent variable modeling methodologies, we present some initial exploratory evidence regarding cohort differences. We find no statistically significant relation between years of education and NFC subscale scores. Implications of the subscales and potential correlates of the gender difference found for Cognitive Persistence are discussed.

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References

1975The psychology of sex differences 1980Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion.1982The need for cognition.1974Self-monitoring of expressive behavior.1984The Efficient Assessment of Need for Cognition 1986The role of factor analysis in the development and evaluation of personality scales 1978Masculinity & femininity: Their psychological dimensions, correlates, and antecedents 1984Asymptotically distribution‐free methods for the analysis of covariance structures

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2013Need for Cognition 2008Neuroticism and Interpersonal Negativity: The Independent Contributions of Perceptions and Behaviors 2005Measuring the need for cognition: Item polarity, dimensionality, and the relation with ability 2005Individual differences in decision processing and confidence judgments in comparative judgment tasks: The role of cognitive styles 1997On dimensionality, discriminant validity, and the role of psychometric analyses in personality theory and measurement: Reply to Kruglanski et al.'s (1997) defense of the Need for Closure Scale.

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