Scholarly record

PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL IN PORTUGUESE WORKERS: CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE PSYCAP QUESTIONNAIRE

Lisete dos Santos Mendes Monico, Leonor Pais, Nuno Rebelo dos Santos, Diana Santos

Abstract

Luthans et al. [10] suggested organizational behavior would focus on Positive Organizational Behavior (POB). Adopting the positive emotions as the object of study, hope, resilience, self-efficacy and optimism were presented as POB states that could represent a superior order of configuration called Psychological Capital (PsyCap) Avey et al. [1]. Luthans et al. [10] proposed the PsyCap Questionnaire for the American population, in order to measure a new concept in the area of organizational psychology. Despite Machado [12] having applied the questionnaire to centers for technological research and development in Portugal, its application to another Portuguese organizational context requires examination of its psychometric properties. This paper intends to contribute to the study of those psychometric properties of the PsyCap Questionnaire for the Portuguese population. We carry out confirmatory factor analysis of a sample of 1117 workers (39.5% male and 60.1% female), aged between 18 and 69 years (M=39.74; SD=11.21), who have a bond of at least one year with the organization. The tetra-factorial model of PsyCap with 22 items (two were excluded from the original version, due to low regression weights) revealed a good quality of adjustment, X2/201=3.62, p<.001, CFI=.949, NFI=.93, TLI=.941, and RMSEA=.048, supporting the original four dimensions: F1 - Self-Efficacy (?=.84), F2 - Hope (?=.82), F3 - Resilience (?=.81), and F4 - Optimism (?=.70). The global scale has ?=.91. Considering the validity and reliability scores, we conclude that the original dimensionality of the PsyCap Questionnaire found support in this sample of workers. Our results contribute to reliable use of the PsyCap dimensions/Questionnaire in an organizational context.

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