The development of the Motivational Style Profile

The development of a 70-item measure of a comprehensive set of personality features derived from Reversal Theory (M. J. Apter, The Experience of Motivation: The Theory of Psychological Reversals, Academic Press, 1982) is reported. The Motivational Style Profile (MSP) measures the dominance of all five pairs of metamotivational states identified in the theory, together with tendencies towards arousability, effortfulness and optimism/pessimism. The MSP also measures the overall salience of each pair of states within the individualʹs conscious experience over time. The paper describes the development of the MSP subscales through several cycles of item analysis, involving both American and British samples. Data on test-retest reliability for the resulting instrument is also reported together with some concurrent validation data and the results of a factor analysis of the MSP items which suggests a five factor structure.