Exploring the Psychometrics of a Committed Action

Measure with an Undergraduate

Sample Chelsea VanderWoude, Katherine Cooper, Chad E. Drake, Ph.D.,

Southern Illinois University

“It's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” ― Roy Disney

What are values?

What makes a good life?

Several unique factors to this question Ideographic

Constantly changing

Never obtained

Why are values important?

Impact behavior

Roadmap for a meaningful life

Important in a therapy context

A key construct in ACT

Current values based assessments

Personal Values Questionnaire

The Survey of Guiding Principles questionnaire and card sort

VLQ - Valued Living Questionnaire

Values Bull's Eye

Values Compass pictures

VLQ Domains1. Family

2. Intimate relationships

3. Parenting

4. Friends/social life

5. Work

6. Education/training

7. Recreation/fun

8. Spirituality/meaning & purpose in life

9. Citizenship/Community life

10.Physical self-care

VLQ Example

Part 1

1) Family (other than marriage or parenting)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Part 2

1) Family (other than marriage or parenting)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Committed action

Values do not indicate action

We need a tool to measure both values and committed action

What does acting consistently with one’s values mean?

Valued Time and Difficulty Questionnaire (VTDQ)

Tool to assess client’s committed action in relation to their values

Developed for use in clinical contexts

Originally created for veterans

Ten domains derived from the VLQ

Comparing the VTDQ and VLQ

VTDQ 10 domains

Three subscales

Values

Time

Difficulty

0-10 Likert Scale

VLQ 10 domains

Two parts

Values

Living consistently

1-10 Likert Scale

VTDQ Example

1. a. How important is it to you to do things for or with family (parents, siblings, relatives)?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. b. In the last week, how much time have you spent doing things for or with family?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1. c. In the last week, how difficult was it to do things for or with family because of unpleasant thoughts, feelings, memories, or bodily sensations

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Current Study

177 Undergraduates at Southern Illinois University

43.5% Female, 55.9% Male, .6% Other

Average age 19.55

61% endorsed earning less than 50,000 annually

Current Study Continued

Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ)

General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)

Valued Time and Difficulty Questionnaire (VTDQ)

Social Dominance Orientation Scale (SDO)

Descriptives

  Mean Std. Deviation Skewness Kurtosis

Statistic Statistic Statistic Std. Error Statistic Std. Error

VTDQimportanceTotal 70.7119 12.92863 -.241 .183 -.076 .363

VTDQtimeTotal 49.6384 12.99319 .415 .183 .151 .363

VTDQdifficultyTotal 17.3955 17.23901 1.134 .183 .709 .363

AAQ: high scores are bad 16.0395 7.49194 .688 .183 -.571 .363

GHQ: high scores are good 36.8192 5.46279 -1.046 .183 1.272 .363

SDO: high scores are bad 34.3021 12.43435 .174 .246 -.990 .488

Valid N (listwise)            

Internal Consistency Cronbach’s Alpha

Subscale A (Values): .691

Subscale B (Time): .615

Subscale C (Difficulty): .876

Significant correlations

VTDQ Importance and time subscales .609

GHQ and VTDQ time subscale .240

AAQ and VTDQ difficultly subscale .540

GHQ and VTDQ difficulty subscale -.429

Non-significant correlations

SDO and VTDQ difficulty subscale .113

VTDQ importance and difficulty subscales -.034

VTDQ difficulty and time subscales .089

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 100

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VTDQ Subscales

Values

Time

Difficulty

Domains

Lik

ert

Sca

le

Most and Least Common Areas Most endorsed importance domains: education, physical health,

friendship

Least endorsed importance domains: community, religion, intimate relationships

Most endorsed time domains: education, friendship, daily tasks or work

Least endorsed time domains: community, children, religion

Most difficult domains: Intimate relationships, education, daily tasks or work

Least difficult domains: children, community, religion

Future Directions Future values based assessments should also include measures of

committed action

Need to clearly define what it means to live consistently with one’s values

Provide more of an open ended portion for values

Hope values based measures will help clinicians in the future track progress in their clients