Analysis

The Regulatory Focus Scale measures the regulatory focus strategies that an individual uses to achieve their goals and deal with challenges. Regulatory Focus Theory suggests that individuals direct their goals either toward avoiding failures (prevention focus) or toward achieving successes (promotion focus).

Purpose

The main purpose of the Regulatory Focus Scale is to assess the regulatory focus strategy that an individual employs.

Scoring

The scale usually includes statements that participants rate on a Likert scale, typically from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 or 7 (strongly agree). The overall score is derived from the sum or the average of the ratings for the individual statements.

References

Higgins, E. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52(12), 1280–1300.
Higgins, E. T., & Kruglanski, A. W. (2000). Regulatory focus theory: Implications for the study of emotion. In L. F. Barrett & P. Salovey (Eds.), The wisdom in feeling: Psychological processes in emotional intelligence (pp. 246–270). Guilford Press.
Crowe, E., & Higgins, E. T. (1997). Regulatory focus and strategic inclinations: Promotion and prevention in decision-making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 71(1), 62–79.
Liberman, N., Idson, L. C., Camacho, C. J., & Higgins, E. T. (1999). Promotion and prevention focus and the attributional inference process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(5), 1175–1189.
Sassenberg, K., & Dapretto, M. (2006). The role of regulatory focus in the experience and regulation of emotions. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 1(2), 155–160.