New Article: How Ambitious Are You? A New Tool for Measuring Your Ambition

Psychology researchers create a new science-backed tool to measure individual ambition.

Jon D'Alessandro

Jan 20, 2023

New Article: “How Ambitious Are You? A New Tool for Measuring Your Ambition”

Two years ago, I published an article summarizing emerging research on ambition. I noted that, despite the subject's ubiquity and influence on our daily lives and careers, scholarly research on ambition was unexpectedly rare.

Fortunately, since then a number of researchers have picked up the torch, steadily advancing our understanding of ambition. Our latest article, “How Ambitious Are You?” explores a recent publication by Andreas Hirschi and Daniel Spurk, two Industrial-Organizational Psychologists in Switzerland.

Hirschi and Spurk published "Striving for success: Towards a refined understanding and measurement of ambition," where they expand upon previous research and construct a new, more refined 5-question tool for measuring ambition. (Depending upon your score, you might want to pay special attention to future articles.)

This is a critical step forward because, again, we have long struggled to sufficiently answer basic questions about our own innate striving instinct:

What is ambition?
How ambitious are you?
How can ambition be an asset? What are the benefits and advantages of ambition and how can you capitalize on them?
Under what circumstances is ambition a liability? What are the potential downsides and risks, and how can you work to mitigate them?

Check out the new article and please share any thoughts, questions, and feedback.