The Four Faces of Competition: The Development of the Multidimensional Competitive Orientation Inventory

To date, no short scale exists with established factor structure that can assess individual differences in competition. The aim of the present study was to uncover and operationalize the facets of competitive orientations with theoretical underpinning and strong psychometric properties. A total of 2676 respondents were recruited for four studies. The items were constructed based on qualitative research in different cultural contexts. A combined method of exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed. ESEM resulted in a four-factor structure of the competitive orientations and this structure was supported by a series of CFAs on different comprehensive samples. The Multidimensional Competitive Orientation Inventory (MCOI) included 12 items and four factors: hypercompetitive orientation, self-developmental competitive orientation, anxiety-driven competition avoidance, and lack of interest toward competition. Strong gender invariance was established. The four facets of competition have differentiated relationship patterns with adaptive and maladaptive personality and motivational constructs. The MCOI can assess the adaptive and maladaptive facets of competitive orientations with a short, reliable, valid and theoretically underlined multidimensional measure.