The Revised Spontaneity Assessment Inventory (SAI-R): Relationship to goal orientation, motivation, perceived self-efficacy, and self-esteem

In a series of three studies we investigated the construct validity of the Revised Spontaneity Assessment Inventory (SAI-R [Kipper, D. A., & Shemer, H. (2006). The Revised Spontaneity Assessment Inventory (SAI-R): Spontaneity, well-being and stress. Journal of Group Psychotherapy, Psychodrama & Sociometry, 59, 127–136]). Specifically, we explored the congruence between the SAI-R and some of the theoretical characteristics of spontaneity. The participants were students from Roosevelt University, Chicago, who volunteered to take part in the investigations. The results of the first study show that spontaneity cannot be considered either a performance or a learning goal orientation. This was interpreted as adding credence to the view that spontaneity is an intrinsic motivational energy. As predicted, the results of the second study show that spontaneity correlates positively with a measure of intrinsic motivation but not with extrinsic motivation. The third study investigated the relationship among spontaneity, self-efficacy, and self-esteem, the latter being two psychological agencies that affects the adequacy aspect of spontaneity. As expected, the results show that spontaneity is positively correlated with both self-efficacy and self-esteem, but more with the former than with the latter.