Confirmatory factor analysis of the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire

The Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ) was developed by Torrubia et al. (1995) as a self-report measure of the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) and the Behavioral Approach System (BAS), two motivational systems proposed by Gray’s model (1975, 1982, 1987a, 1987b). Past research used exploratory factor analysis to examine the factor structure of the SPSRQ. Some support was found for 2 orthogonal factors––Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward, which correspond to the BIS and BAS, respectively. The purpose of the present study was to further assess the underlying factor structure of the SPSRQ using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Results did not support two-, three-, four-, or five-factor models. Based on factor loadings the two-factor CFA, items were removed systematically and a final model, with a reduced pool of items, was tested with the original data sample (N=603) and two additional independent samples (N=104; N=163). Results based on the reduced pool of items suggested support for a two-factor model, but some problems were identified, thus further improvements in this self-report measure should be considered in future research.