Academic Entitlement Scale: Development and Preliminary Validation

Abstract

Validity evidence was gathered for a new measure of academic entitlement. Two factors emerged during the creation of the scale-academic narcissism and academic outcome. Academic narcissism appears to reflect an expectation of high academic success unrelated to the effort or ability of the students. As expected, this factor was negatively correlated with students' self-reported GPA (grade point average). Males had higher academic narcissism scores than women. Academic outcome appears to reflect students' mindset that credit should be given for any effort, including attending class. As expected, this factor was not correlated with GPA and did not show sex differences. Implications and practical use of the scale are discussed.