An Assessment of Chronic Regulatory Focus Measures

Prior consumer research has demonstrated the ability of promotion and prevention regulatory orientations to moderate a variety of consumer and marketing phenomena but also has used several different methods to measure chronic regulatory focus. This article assesses five chronic regulatory focus measures using the criteria of theoretical coverage, internal consistency, homogeneity, stability, and predictive ability. The results reveal a lack of convergence among the measures and variation in their performance along these criteria. The authors provide specific guidance for choosing a particular measure in regulatory focus research and suggest a composite measure.