Strengthening School Connectedness to Increase Student Success
Category: Student Well-Being
Instrument Overview
Social psychologist Arthur Aron and colleagues (1992) developed the single-item Inclusion of Other in the Self (IOS) scale to measure how close the respondent feels with another person or group. The IOS has been given to respondents as young as five years old (Cameron, 2006), as well as to teens and adults. It has also been used with respondents living on a low income and previously incarcerated respondents (Folk et al., 2016; Mashek, Cannaday, & Tangney, 2007). Respondents see seven pairs of circles that range from just touching to almost completely overlapping. One circle in each pair is labeled "self, " and the second circle is labeled "other." Respondents choose one of the seven pairs to answer the question, "Which picture best describes your relationship with [this person/group]?" Researchers indicate what person or group the "other‚" circle stands for (e.g., "your romantic partner, " "your parents," "your community," etc.). 1 = no overlap; 2 = little overlap; 3 = some overlap; 4 = equal overlap; 5 = strong overlap; 6 = very strong overlap; 7 = most overlap. Subscore(s): Closeness
Note: The overview provided for this instrument includes content that may have been sourced from the instrument publisher's or author’s website (or other site providing information about the instrument). This information is presented for educational and informational purposes only. If you have any questions about the content or its permitted uses, please contact annenberg@brown.edu.
Organization
Topic
Student Well-Being Category
American Institutes for Research® partnered with the Annenberg Institute at Brown University to collect instruments related to student well-being.
Content
Grades
Kindergarten,
1st Grade,
2nd Grade,
3rd Grade,
4th Grade,
5th Grade,
6th Grade,
7th Grade,
8th Grade,
9th Grade,
10th Grade,
11th Grade,
12th Grade
Keywords
Student Well-Being ; Social-Emotional Competence ; Relationship Skills
Respondent
Student
Administration Information
Length
3 minutes
Administration
Paper
Access and Use
Contact
Arthur Aron
arthur.aron@stonybrook.edu
Phone: (631) 632-7707
Open Access
Yes
Setting
Anywhere
Psychometrics (additional guidance)
Psychometric References
Aron, A., Aron, E. N., & Smollan, D. (1992). Inclusion of Other in the Self Scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(4), 596 - 612. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.4.596
Gächter, S., Starmer, C., & Tufano, F. (2015). Measuring the closeness of relationships: a comprehensive evaluation of the Inclusion of the Other in the Self scale. PloS One, 10(6), e0129478. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0129478
Digital Continuous Version:
Le, B., Moss, W. B., & Mashek, D. (2007). Assessing relationship closeness online: Moving from an interval-scaled to continuous measure of including others in the self. Social Science Computer Review, 25(3), 405-409. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0894439307297693
