Validation of psychological entitlement measurement in South Korea

Abstract

Individuals inherently develop an awareness of the relationships surrounding them and form expectations based on that awareness. However, if those expectations are misguided, a cumulative distortion of their understanding of those relationships can result and foster a sense of entitlement, causing individuals to demand more than what is reasonable from their relationships. Despite potential issues with entitlement, there is a dearth of adequate measures that consider intercultural contexts. Because standard psychological entitlement measures are widely used across diverse populations, validating them in various contexts is essential. In Study 1, we translated the original Psychological Entitlement Scale (PES; Journal of Personality Assessment, 2004, 83, 29) into Korean and validated the translated scale with a Korean sample by conducting exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and applying the Rasch model. In Study 2, we examined a revised eight-item Korean version of the PES measurement by applying the Rasch model, conducting a confirmatory factor analysis, and verifying reliability. We found that psychological entitlement has a positive relationship with narcissism and a nonsignificant relationship with unethical pro-organizational behaviour. We also found that the modified measurement displayed greater convergent and discriminant validity than the original measure.