Emotion Scales & Assessments: Scoring Guidelines

8B-2—The Need for Affect Scale—attempts to assess individual differences in the need for affect (emotion.)

Approach—3-7, 13, 15, 17-20, 24, and 26

Avoidance—1, 2, 8-12, 14, 16, 21-23, and 25

Each sub-score can range from -39 to +39, higher scores reflect greater emotional approach/avoidance respectively

Mean=15.85 (approach)

Mean= -9.24 (avoidance)

8B-4—Gross’ Emotion Regulation Questionnaire—assess two different strategies for regulating emotion

Reappraisal (antecedent focused strategy—something we do before emotion has impacted behavior)

Add 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, and 10, then calculate the mean (m=4.6)

Suppression (response-focused strategy...happens later in the process of emotion)

Add 2, 4, 6, and 9, then calculate the mean (m for males = 3.64, m for females = 3.11

Overall, reappraisers tend to experience more positive emotion and less negative emotion. Suppressers tend to experience the opposite. Reappraisal also tends to be linked to better interpersonal functioning and positive well-being, while using suppression is related to worse interpersonal functioning.

8B-8—Affective Communications Test

Howard Friedman and his colleagues note that much of the research on the nonverbal expression of emotion focuses on issues of recognition. Much less research has been done on the complementary process of nonverbal expressiveness. To measure individual differences in expressiveness, Friedman designed the Affective Communication Test (ACT.)

The ACT is scored by adding five points to each item (to eliminate negative numbers) and reversing the scores for the six items worded in the opposite direction (items 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 11). For these items, 1 changes to 9, 2 to 8, 3 to 7, 4 to 6, 6 to 4 , 7 to 3 , 8 to 2, and 9 to 1.

A total score is obtained by adding all the scores. The mean score obtained for college students was 71.25.

(cont. on back)

ACT scores correlated positively with the independent ratings of people’s emotional expressiveness provided by friends. The authors found that people who are more emotionally expressive, as assessed by the ACT, had more interest and experience in stage acting, were more likely to have employment that involved working with and influencing people, and were more likely to have been elected to a leadership position in an organization.

Sex differences in ACT scores were also found, with the mean scores for males and females being 69.8 and 72.6, respectively. Thus, females are not only more accurate in reading nonverbal expressions (as the text indicates), they also tend to be slightly more expressive. Those with higher ACT scores have higher exhibition scores and tend to be affiliative, dominant, and some- what achieving. They also tend to be internal and higher in self-esteem. No relationship was found, however, between ACT scores and Machiavellianism (to deceive or manipulate others for personal gain.) Friedman and his colleagues concluded that, in general, expressive people tend to express their feelings comfortably, effectively, and without regard for social conventions.

8B-11—AIM—Affect Intensity Measure—assess differences in how individuals experience their emotions.

Students should first reverse the numbers before items 12, 16, 19, 24, 26, 28, 29, 31, 33, 37, and 40; that is, they should change 1 to 6, 2 to 5, 3 to 4, 4 to 3, 5 to 2, and 6 to 1. Then they should add the scores on all items and divide by 40 to obtain a mean item score. Higher scores reflect greater affect intensity. In a survey of 109 undergraduates, those in the lower quartile had a mean AIM score of 3.22, and those in the upper quartile a mean AIM score of 4.80.

8B-12—The PANAS Scales—contains David Watson, Lee Clark, and Auke Tellegen’s brief measures of positive and negative affect. Ten of the list- ed items (interested, excited, strong, enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, determined, attentive, and active) form the positive affect scale, and the other 10 (distressed, upset, guilty, scared, hostile, irritable, ashamed, nervous, jittery, and afraid) form the negative affect scale. Scores for each scale are obtained by adding the numbers in front of each relevant item. A large sample of under- graduates had means of 35.0 and 18.1 on the positive and negative scales, respectively.

Positive affect (PA) reflects the degree to which a person feels enthusiastic, active, and alert. High PA constitutes a state of high energy, full concentration, and pleasurable engagement, whereas low PA is marked by sadness and lethargy. Negative affect (NA) is a gen- eral dimension of subjective distress that subsumes a variety of aversive states, including anger, contempt, disgust, guilt, fear, and nervousness. Low NA is a state of calmness and serenity.

8B-16—Dispositional Envy Scale—add up the numbers placed in front of the eight items. Total scores can range from 8 to 40, with higher scores reflecting a greater tendency to experience envy.

8B-19—Anger Discomfort Scale—

Reverse 5, 10, and 11, then total all 15 items. Scores range from 15 to 60. Higher scores represent greater discomfort with one’s own anger. Mean score = 30.6.

8B-21—Orientations to Happiness and Life Satisfaction

Happiness through a life of pleasure: 3, 8, 13, 15, 16, and 18

Happiness through a life of engagement: 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10

Happiness through a life of meaning: 2, 5, 11, 12, 14, and 17

For each subset the range is 6 to 30. Higher scores reflect a stronger orientation to that particular way of being happy.

Stress Scales

8B-25—designed to measure susceptibility to stress and the factors that contribute to it.

1)add all items

2)subtract 21

3)any number of 32 indicates a susceptibility to stress, a score between 52 and 77 indicates serious susceptibility, over 77 is extremely susceptible.

8B-26—stress symptoms

1)0-35 = low level of physical stress symptoms

2)36-57 = average

3)76-140 = excessive physical stress symptoms

8B-28—Type D Disposition—Type D is marked by anger, pessimism, and depression...overall negative affectivity and social inhibition.

1)Add numbers in response to 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 12, and 13. This is the negative affectivity score.

2)Add numbers in response to 1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, and 14. This is the social inhibition score.

3)Scores of 10 or higher in each category suggests a Type D personality.