A Reexamination of the Structure of the Gross Cohesiveness Scale

Abstract

Psychologists have had a long-standing interest in the construct of group cohesion. Yet, how this construct should be defined and measured -remains a controversial question. A central issue in the debate concerns the dimensionality of group cohesion. Recently, some researchers have adopted unidimensional models of this construct, whereas others have used multidimensional models of the same construct. In this study, the structure of the Gross (1957) Cohesiveness Scale, which is perhaps the most frequently used measure of group cohesiveness, was examined. Based on a critical review of the results of three empirical reports and reanalyses of the results of two of these studies, it was concluded that Gross' measure is unidimensional.