Attitudinal Scale of Vengeance: Translation and Psychometric Evaluation in Pakistan

The present study aimed at psychometric evaluation of Vengeance Scale, originally developed by Stuckless and Goranson ( Journal of Social Behavior and Personality , 7 , 25–42, Stuckless and Goranson, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 7:25–42, 1992), for the population of Pakistan in Urdu language. This was accomplished in three studies. In the first study, the items were translated in target language through forward and back-translation procedure followed by a pilot study to evaluate the comprehensibility and cultural equivalence of the items in Pakistani context. In the second study, the psychometric properties of the Urdu-translated Vengeance Scale were assessed on a sample of 316 bilingual university students. The results of factorial analysis suggested that the Urdu-translated Vengeance Scale is a two-dimensional measure of vengeance with an adequate internal consistency. The last phase of the study established the convergent validity of the scale by correlating it with recalled memories of adverse childhood experiences, emotional awareness, global self-esteem, and hurt feelings on a sample of 189 bilingual university students. Multiple regression analysis indicated global self-esteem and emotional awareness and regulation as strongest predictors of vengeance. Overall, the study demonstrated that the Urdu-translated Vengeance Scale is a psychometrically reliable and valid measure of vengeance in Pakistani population.