Introduction:

The objective of the study was to validate an instrument composed of the positive and negative affect scale (PANAS) developed by Watson, Clark and Tellegen (1988), and the organizational commitment scale (OCS) developed by Meyer, Allen, and Smith (1993) to measure the relationship between affective states (EA) and organizational commitment (CO) of professors attached to higher education institutions (IES) in the Southeast of Mexico.

Method:

A descriptive investigation was carried out with a quantitative approach and a nonexperimental cross-sectional design, in which a non-probabilistic sample of 140 professors assigned to IES located in the southeast of Mexico, was selected. The instrument reliability was verified through Cronbach's alpha coefficient, content validation was through face validity and construct validation was carried out through an exploratory factor analysis (AFE).

Results:

The judges who participated in the face validity verification considered that the instrument meets sufficiency, clarity, coherence and relevance criteria. Reliability obtained for the PANAS scale was 0.76 and for the OCS was 0.83. In the AFE, it was identified that EA were grouped into two factors that explained 43% of the variance, while for CO three factors were identified, which explained 49% of the variance.

Conclusion:

Internal consistency and content and construct validity were confirmed for the proposed instrument to measure the relationship between EA and CO in higher education.