Food Attitude Scale (FAS)

Abstract

The Food Attitude Scale (FAS) is a psychological instrument developed in 1963 by Donn Byrne, Carole Golightly, and E. J. Capaldi while they were affiliated with the University of Texas. The scale was created to provide a structured measurement of general attitudes toward food, functioning as an assessment of a specific personality dimension. The initial development process involved generating 221 items, which were subsequently grouped into three conceptual categories: Past Attitudes and Habits, Food Preferences, and Present Attitudes and Habits. Following rigorous internal consistency analysis and item refinement, the final scale was reduced to 62 items for use with male respondents and 65 items for use with female respondents. Responses are collected using a true/false format. The FAS was validated using a sample of university students and demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties, including a split-half reliability of .73 (males) and .74 (females), and high test-retest reliability coefficients (.86 for males, .82 for females) over a six-week period.

Keywords

Eating Attitudes, Food Attitudes, Test Construction, Test Development, Internal Consistency, Split-Half Reliability, Test-Retest Reliability, Rating Scales, Personality Dimension, Eating Habits.

Authors

Byrne, Donn, Golightly, Carole, Capaldi, E. J.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Food Attitude Scale (FAS) is to quantitatively assess a specific personality dimension centered on an individual’s general attitudes toward food. It was designed to capture underlying psychological dispositions that influence eating behaviors, preferences, and habits.

The scale offers a comprehensive assessment by capturing a broad spectrum of food-related experiences, from historical familial influences to current dietary choices, providing a foundational measure for research in eating behavior and personality psychology.

Construct

The FAS measures the construct of Food Attitudes. This construct is defined broadly and operationalized through three distinct, yet related, domains that informed the structure of the item pool:

• Past Attitudes and Habits: Items focusing on historical context, particularly childhood experiences and the perceived influence of family members on eating behaviors.
• Food Preferences: Items assessing specific affective responses, likes, and dislikes regarding different types of food and beverages.
• Present Attitudes and Habits: Items reflecting current eating routines, established behaviors, and the respondent’s general disposition toward meals and consumption patterns.

Validity

The initial source documentation for the Food Attitude Scale (FAS) does not explicitly report studies concerning advanced forms of validity, such as construct validity or predictive validity. While the scale’s development relied on rigorous initial item selection based on internal consistency, the original publication does not provide empirical evidence correlating FAS scores with other established measures of eating pathology or related personality traits.

Reliability

The reliability of the FAS was established during its construction phase, demonstrating strong temporal stability and acceptable internal consistency among the original sample of university students.

• Internal Consistency (Split-Half Reliability): Reliability was assessed using the split-half reliability method, yielding coefficients of .73 for the male version of the scale and .74 for the female version. These scores suggest that the items within each version possess an adequate degree of homogeneity.
• Test-Retest Reliability: Temporal stability was evaluated over a six-week interval. The resulting coefficients indicated high consistency, scoring .86 for male respondents and .82 for female respondents, suggesting the measure provides highly stable results over short periods.

Factor Analysis

The original authors of the Food Attitude Scale (FAS) did not report the use of factor analytic techniques in the foundational literature. Therefore, the empirical confirmation of the instrument’s underlying factor structure—specifically the distinctness of the three conceptual categories (Past Attitudes, Preferences, and Present Habits)—remains unverified through methods such as Exploratory or Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

Instrument

Test Type: Rating Scale

Format: Responses to the items are provided in a dichotomous true/false format.

Language Available: English (Original)

Population Group: Human (Male and Female)

Age Group: Adulthood (18 years and older)

Population Details: The scale was initially validated on a specific sample of University Students located in the United States.

Test Methodology: Test Reliability, Internal Consistency, Split-Half Reliability, Test-Retest Reliability.

Keywords

Adulthood, Eating Habits, Personality Assessment, Psychometrics, Test-Retest Reliability, True/False format, University Students, United States.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not available in source documentation.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not available in source documentation.

Correspondence Address: Authors were affiliated with the University of Texas at the time of the scale’s construction and publication.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Food Attitude Scale (FAS) was published in 1963. The complete set of 62/65 items is not publicly available. Researchers interested in utilizing the instrument must contact the original publisher or rights holders for permissions and access to the full scale items.

Reference’s

Byrne, D., Golightly, C., & Capaldi, E. J. (1963). Construction and validation of the food attitude scale. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 27(3), 215–222. The digital object identifier (DOI) for this reference is: https://doi.org/10.1037/h0042348

Items of the Food Attitude Scale (FAS)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

The full set of 62 (males) and 65 (females) items are proprietary and must be obtained from the publisher. The original items were presented in a booklet format titled Survey of Eating Habits. Examples of item content provided in the foundational literature, covering the three main categories, include:

• “My father enjoyed eating” (Example of Past Attitudes and Habits)
• “I like apricots” (Example of Food Preferences)
• “I do not care much for desserts” (Example of Present Attitudes and Habits)