Development of the Avoidance of Resentment Scale:

Investigation of relationships with rejection anxiety, harmony, and trust

Abstract

We propose that avoiding the resentment of others plays an important role in the maintenance of cooperation and harmony for Japanese people. In the present research, we developed a scale to measure the tendency of individuals to avoid the resentment of others (the Avoidance of Resentment Scale: ARS) and investigated the reliability and validity of the scale through two studies. In study 1, we constructed the scale and looked into the correlations between the ARS and a scale to measure rejection anxiety. The factor analysis revealed three factors. In addition, the scores from the ARS were moderately correlated with the scores from the rejection anxiety scale, which implied that the ARS was validated. In study 2, the ARS was compared to two scales measuring harmony and trust: the Multifaceted Cooperativeness Scale and the Trust Scale. The responses for the ARS and these two scales showed significant correlations, supporting the validity of the ARS.