Money Ethic Scale

Abstract

The Money Ethic Scale (MES) is a widely utilized psychological scale designed to measure individuals’ beliefs, attitudes, and emotional relationships concerning money. Initially developed by Tang, T. L. P. (1990), the original version of the MES comprised 50 items. However, multiple versions exist, including those with six, 12, 15, and 30 items. The version most commonly referenced in initial research and described here is the 30-item iteration. This scale moves beyond simple economic utility to explore the deeper psycho-social meaning of money, capturing complex attitudes toward money across six distinct factors.

Keywords

Money attitudes, Financial psychology, Economic behavior, Psychological measurement, Work ethic, Belief systems, Tang.

Authors

Tang, T. L. P.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the Money Ethic Scale (MES) is to quantify the multidimensional meaning that individuals ascribe to money. Instead of focusing solely on financial behavior or income, the MES aims to assess the underlying ethical, emotional, and psychological significance of money in a person’s life.

It is used extensively in organizational psychology and consumer behavior research to understand how different philosophical views on money—such as whether money is inherently good or evil, or represents freedom or power—influence work motivation, job satisfaction, and ethical decision-making among employees.

Construct

The MES measures the ethical and psychological construct known as the money ethic, which consists of six primary dimensions identified through factor analysis. These dimensions capture how individuals perceive and value money in relation to their personal goals and societal roles. The six constructs are:

• Good: The perception of money as a positive, valuable, or important factor in life.
• Evil: The belief that money is the root of problems, corruption, or moral decay.
• Achievement: The view that money symbolizes personal success, competence, and ability.
• Respect/Self-Esteem: The idea that money confers status, respect, and self-worth within the community.
• Budget: The tendency toward careful financial planning, saving, and managing expenditures responsibly.
• Freedom/Power: The belief that money grants autonomy, independence, and the ability to influence others.

Validity

Initial investigations into the Money Ethic Scale focused on establishing its psychometric properties. While descriptive statistics and correlations within a nomological network were reported—including relationships with demographic variables, personality traits, and scales measuring the Protestant Ethic and the Leisure Ethic Scale—the original author noted that additional empirical investigation was required to firmly establish the scale’s construct validity.

Subsequent research by Tang and colleagues, particularly in the mid-1990s, utilized the scale to examine relationships between money attitudes and variables such as intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction, workplace stress, and various work-related attitudes, providing further evidence for its utility in organizational settings.

Reliability

The reliability of the 30-item version of the MES was evaluated using two primary methods: internal consistency and temporal stability.

Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach alpha coefficients for the six factors, demonstrating acceptable to good reliability:

• Good: 0.81
• Budget: 0.72
• Evil: 0.69
• Achievement: 0.70
• Respect/Self-Esteem: 0.68
• Freedom/Power: 0.71

Test-retest reliability was calculated over a four-week interval using a sample of 50 employees, indicating moderate stability for most subscales, with values ranging from 0.56 to 0.83:

• Freedom/Power: 0.83
• Good: 0.67
• Budget: 0.65
• Respect/Self-Esteem: 0.63
• Achievement: 0.61
• Evil: 0.56

Factor Analysis

The underlying structure of the 30-item Money Ethic Scale was determined through a principal components factor analysis. This analysis successfully identified six distinct factors, which collectively accounted for 42.8 percent of the total variance observed in the scale items. The structure of the six factors and the number of items loading onto each are detailed below:

• Good: Nine items
• Evil: Six items
• Achievement: Four items
• Respect/Self-Esteem: Four items
• Budget: Three items
• Freedom/Power: Four items

Instrument

Test Type: Attitude/Belief Scale (Self-Report Inventory)

Format: The version described consists of 30 items. Responses are scored using a seven-point Likert type scale. Anchors are defined as: disagree strongly = 1; neutral = 4; and agree strongly = 7.

Language Available: English (Original research setting was the USA). Later versions were adapted for other languages, such as Spanish (Tang & Luna-Arocas, 1997).

Population Group: Working adults, specifically employees and university affiliates.

Age Group: Adult population (implied by employment status).

Population Details: The original sample consisted of 249 employees, including both students and faculty, affiliated with a state university in Tennessee. These participants worked in diverse organizational settings, including schools, banks, and churches.

Test Methodology: Descriptive statistics (Means, standard deviations) and correlational analyses were used to analyze the MES scores in relation to various demographic and personality variables.

Keywords

Attitude measurement, Financial beliefs, Psychological economics, Reliability, Validity, Self-report, Likert scale.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not specified in source content.

Affiliation Email addresses: Not specified in source content.

Correspondence Address: Not specified in source content.

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The initial conceptualization and presentation of the Money Ethic Scale occurred in 1990.

Test Year: 1990 (Initial presentation)

Permissions and Fees: Information regarding current usage permissions, copyright holders, and associated fees is not provided in the source material. Researchers should contact the author, T. L. P. Tang, for usage guidelines.

Reference’s

Campion, M. A. (1991). Meaning and measurement of turnover: Comparison of alternative measures and recommendations for research. Journal of Applied Psychology 76:199–212.

Freshwater, E. K. (2011). Individual predictors of service organizational citizenship behaviors. PhD dissertation, Walden University.

Furnham, A. (1996). Attitudinal correlates and demographic predictors of monetary beliefs and behaviors. Journal of Organizational Behavior 17:375–88.

Tang, T. L. P. (1990). The meaning of money revisited: Workers’ view. Paper presented at the Southwestern Psychological Association. This document is cataloged as ERIC ED 318 984.

Tang, T. L. P. (1995). The development of a short Money Ethic Scale: Attitudes toward money and pay satisfaction revisited. Personality and Individual Differences 19:809–17.

Tang, T. L. P., and Gilbert, P. R. (1995). Attitudes toward money as related to intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction, stress and work-related attitudes. Personality and Individual Differences 19:327–32.

Tang, T. L. P., and Luna-Arocas, R. (1997). Money as a motivator and the endorsement of the money ethic among university faculty in the USA and Spain: The development of a new Money Ethic Scale. Paper presented at the International Association for Research in Economic Psychology.

Items of the Money Ethic Scale

1. Money is an important factor in the lives of all of us.
2. Money is good.
3. Money can buy everything.
4. Money is evil.
5. Money represents one’s achievement.
6. Money in the bank is a sign of security.
7. Money is a symbol of success.
8. Money is the most important thing (goal) in my life.
9. Money gives you autonomy and freedom.
10. Money can bring you many friends.
11. Money is attractive.
12. Money is the root of all evil.
13. Money is important.
14. Money is useless.
15. Money makes people respect you in the community.
16. Money spent is money lost (wasted).
17. Money is valuable.
18. Money will help you express your competence and abilities.
19. Money can buy you luxuries.
20. Money can give you the opportunity to be what you want to be.
21. Money means power.
22. Money is honorable.
23. Money is shameful.
24. Money does not grow on trees.
25. A penny saved is a penny earned.
26. I pay my bills immediately in order to avoid interest or penalties.
27. I think that it is very important to save some money.
28. I value money very highly.
29. I use my money very carefully.
30. I budget my money very well.