The construct of courage: Categorization and measurement.

The original courage scale developed by Wood-ard (2004) measured courage as the product ofthe willingness to take action and the fear ex-perienced while taking the action. Recent Þnd-ings suggest that fear may not be a necessarypart of courageous action. Items from the orig-inal courage scale were reanalyzed using onlythe Owillingness to actO scores. A four-factorstructureNwork/employment, patriotic/religion-based belief system, speciÞc social-moral, andindependent courage or family basedNwasfound. This factor solution was replicated in aslightly revised version of the scale adminis-tered to a new participant sample. Interpreta-tion of these factors suggested that courage maybe classiÞed by more complex, context-basedsituations. A revised version of the scale, theWoodard Pury Courage Scale-23, is includedfor further research and investigation.Keywords: courage, fear