Response styles in affect ratings: making a mountain out of a molehill

Measuring the intensity of emotions

We describe a theoretical framework for the measurement of the intensity of emotional experiences and summarize findings of a series of studies that implemented this framework. Our approach is based on a realist view of quantities and combines the modern psychometric (i.e., latent-variable) view of measurement with a deductive order of inquiry for testing measurement axioms. At the core of the method are nonmetric probabilistic difference scaling methods, a class of indirect scaling methods based on ordinal judgments of intensity differences. Originally developed to scale sensations and preferences, these scaling methods are also well-suited for measuring emotion intensity, particularly in basic research. They are easy to perform and provide scale values of emotion intensity that are much more precise than the typically used, quality-intensity emotion rating scales. Furthermore, the scale values appear to fulfill central measurement-theoretical axioms necessary for interval-level measurement. Because of these properties, difference scaling methods allow precise tests of emotion theories on the individual subject level.

Using IRTree Models to Promote Selection Validity in the Presence of Extreme Response Styles

The measurement of psychological constructs is frequently based on self-report tests, which often have Likert-type items rated from "Strongly Disagree" to "Strongly Agree". Recently, a family of item response theory (IRT) models called IRTree models have emerged that can parse out content traits (e.g., personality traits) from noise traits (e.g., response styles). In this study, we compare the selection validity and adverse impact consequences of noise traits on selection when scores are estimated using a generalized partial credit model (GPCM) or an IRTree model. First, we present a simulation which demonstrates that when noise traits do exist, the selection decisions made based on the IRTree model estimated scores have higher accuracy rates and have less instances of adverse impact based on extreme response style group membership when compared to the GPCM. Both models performed similarly when there was no influence of noise traits on the responses. Second, we present an application using data collected from the Open-Source Psychometrics Project Fisher Temperament Inventory dataset. We found that the IRTree model had a better fit, but a high agreement rate between the model decisions resulted in virtually identical impact ratios between the models. We offer considerations for applications of the IRTree model and future directions for research.

The dynamics of affect across the wake-sleep cycle: From waking mind-wandering to night-time dreaming

Affective experiences occur across the wake-sleep cycle-from active wakefulness to resting wakefulness (i.e., mind-wandering) to sleep (i.e., dreaming). Yet, we know little about the dynamics of affect across these states. We compared the affective ratings of waking, mind-wandering, and dream episodes. Results showed that mind-wandering was more positively valenced than dreaming, and that both mind-wandering and dreaming were more negatively valenced than active wakefulness. We also compared participants' self-ratings of affect with external ratings of affect (i.e., analysis of affect in verbal reports). With self-ratings all episodes were predominated by positive affect. However, the affective valence of reports changed from positively valenced waking reports to affectively balanced mind-wandering reports to negatively valenced dream reports. These findings show that (1) the positivity bias characteristic to waking experiences decreases across the wake-sleep continuum, and (2) conclusions regarding affective experiences depend on whether self-ratings or verbal reports describing these experiences are analysed.

What multi‐method data tell us about construct validity

Structural equation modelling of multi‐method data has become a popular method to examine construct validity and to control for random and systematic measurement error in personality measures. I review the essential assumptions underlying causal models of multi‐method data and their implications for estimating the validity of personality measures. The main conclusions are that causal models of multi‐method data can be used to obtain quantitative estimates of the amount of valid variance in measures of personality dispositions, but that it is more difficult to determine the validity of personality measures of act frequencies and situation‐specific dispositions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mountain or Molehill? A Simulation Study on the Impact of Response Styles

Even though there is an increasing interest in response styles, the field lacks a systematic investigation of the bias that response styles potentially cause. Therefore, a simulation was carried out to study this phenomenon with a focus on applied settings (reliability, validity, scale scores). The influence of acquiescence and extreme response style was investigated, and independent variables were, for example, the number of reverse-keyed items. Data were generated from a multidimensional item response model. The results indicated that response styles may bias findings based on self-report data and that this bias may be substantial if the attribute of interest is correlated with response style. However, in the absence of such correlations, bias was generally very small, especially for extreme response style and if acquiescence was controlled for by reverse-keyed items. An empirical example was used to illustrate and validate the simulations. In summary, it is concluded that the threat of response styles may be smaller than feared.

The Resilient Personality Prototype

Abstract. Typologies based on Big Five questionnaire data always include the resilient prototype, which is defined by low scores on neuroticism and above-average scores on extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. When measurement of the criterion domains is based on self-reports, this type evidences superior psychological adjustment and well-being in nearly all domains. In the present study, we tested whether the personality profile constituting the resilient prototype is an artifact of self-deceptive enhancement in answering questionnaires. Therefore, we contrasted self-reports of resilients with objective data that we collected during an actual stressful event. A total of 112 pupils (15–19 years) were examined via questionnaires and asked to complete a speech task in front of a video camera. Stress reactions were measured by self-reports as well as by nonverbal behavior, achievement, and physiological responding. Results showed that resilients differed from the other personality prototypes only when self-reports (coping, affectivity) were used. By contrast, no differences between personality prototypes emerged when the three objective stress indicators (speech performance, behavior, and physiological arousal) were used. These findings call into question the superior psychological adjustment attributed to the resilient prototype and stress the necessity of multimethod assessment in personality prototype research.

Individualism: A Valid and Important Dimension of Cultural Differences Between Nations

Oyserman, Coon, and Kemmelmeier's (2002) meta-analysis suggested problems in the measurement of individualism and collectivism. Studies using Hofstede's individualism scores show little convergent validity with more recent measures of individualism and collectivism. We propose that the lack of convergent validity is due to national differences in response styles. Whereas Hofstede statistically controlledfor response styles, Oyserman et al.'s meta-analysis relied on uncorrected ratings. Data from an international student survey demonstrated convergent validity between Hofstede's individualism dimension and horizontal individualism when response styles were statistically controlled, whereas uncorrected scores correlated highly with the individualism scores in Oyserman et al.'s meta-analysis. Uncorrected horizontal individualism scores and meta-analytic individualism scores did not correlate significantly with nations' development, whereas corrected horizontal individualism scores and Hofstede's individualism dimension were significantly correlated with development. This pattern of results suggests that individualism is a valid construct for cross-cultural comparisons, but that the measurement of this construct needs improvement.

Development and Validation of an Internationally Reliable Short-Form of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)

This article reports the development and validation of a 10-item international Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) Short Form (I-PANAS-SF) in English. A qualitative study ( N = 18) and then an exploratory quantitative study ( N = 407), each using informants from a range of cultural backgrounds, were used to identify systematically which 10 of the original 20 PANAS items to retain or remove. A same-sample retest study ( N = 163) was used in an initial examination of the new 10-item international PANAS's psychometric properties and to assess its correlation with the full, 20-item, original PANAS. In a series of further validation studies ( N = 1,789), the cross-sample stability, internal reliability, temporal stability, cross-cultural factorial invariance, and convergent and criterion-related validities of the I-PANAS-SF were examined and found to be psychometrically acceptable.

Applications of multidimensional scaling profile analysis in developmental research: An example using adolescent irritability patterns

Many statistical models have been used to study human development. The multidimensional scaling (MDS) method has been an under-utilised technique in psychological and educational research for studying such phenomena. In this paper, MDS profile analysis was used to examine adolescent mood change patterns over a 1-week period. This method is used to empirically determine different change profiles among adolescents, and to describe how they differ with respect to these change patterns. In addition, the associations between the change profiles and a set of background variables can be studied. Data on irritability–cheerfulness swing among adolescents were analysed to demonstrate the procedures. The results were discussed in the context of adolescent development.

Tragedy or tragicomedy: Mixed feelings induced by positive and negative emotional events

Based on the theory of appraisal, we predicted that positive and negative events happening to the same people or things in a specific chronological order (i.e., a negative event following a positive event) would induce different mixed feelings than the same events happening to different people or things. Pairs of emotional pictures with different captions were used to create two event groups. In the "tragic event" group, the positive and negative events happened to the same person or things, and in the "tragicomic event" group, the positive and negative events happened to different people or things. We designed two experiments to explore and compare the generation of mixed feelings in those two groups. In Experiment 1, the negative event was shown first, and in Experiment 2, the negative event was shown second (although the chronological order of the depicted events was the same). The participants were 381 undergraduates: 195 in Experiment 1 and 186 in Experiment 2. In both experiments, we found that tragic events introduced less intense mixed feelings than did tragicomic events due to fewer pleasurable feelings induced by the tragic events. There was no significant difference in the report of negative emotions between the groups. Appraisal theory and negative bias effects may explain these results.

Mixed emotions across the adult life span in the United States

Mixed emotions involve the co-occurrence of positive and negative affect, such that people feel happy and sad at the same time. The purpose of the present study was to investigate age-related differences in the experience of mixed emotions across the adult life span in 2 nationally representative samples of U.S. residents. Data collected by the Princeton Affect and Time Survey (PATS, n = 3,948) and by the 2010 Wellbeing Module of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS, n = 12,828) were analyzed. In both surveys, respondents (aged 15 years or older) provided a detailed time diary about the preceding day and rated their happiness and sadness for 3 of the day's episodes. From these reports, 3 different indices of mixed emotions were derived. Results indicated small, but robust, increases in mixed emotions with age. Linear age increases were consistently evident in both PATS and ATUS, and replicated across the different indices of mixed emotions. There was no significant evidence for curvilinear age trends in either study. Several sociodemographic factors that could plausibly explain age-differences in mixed emotions (e.g., retirement, disability) did not alter the age-effects. The present study adds to the growing literature documenting vital changes in the complexity of emotional experience over the life span.

Measuring Response Styles Across the Big Five: A Multiscale Extension of an Approach Using Multinomial Processing Trees

This study shows how to address the problem of trait-unrelated response styles (RS) in rating scales using multidimensional item response theory. The aim is to test and correct data for RS in order to provide fair assessments of personality. Expanding on an approach presented by Böckenholt (2012), observed rating data are decomposed into multiple response processes based on a multinomial processing tree. The data come from a questionnaire consisting of 50 items of the International Personality Item Pool measuring the Big Five dimensions administered to 2,026 U.S. students with a 5-point rating scale. It is shown that this approach can be used to test if RS exist in the data and that RS can be differentiated from trait-related responses. Although the extreme RS appear to be unidimensional after exclusion of only 1 item, a unidimensional measure for the midpoint RS is obtained only after exclusion of 10 items. Both RS measurements show high cross-scale correlations and item response theory-based (marginal) reliabilities. Cultural differences could be found in giving extreme responses. Moreover, it is shown how to score rating data to correct for RS after being proved to exist in the data.

Heritability of Acquiescence Bias and Item Keying Response Style Associated With the HEXACO Personality Scale

The current research investigates the heritability of two of the most common response styles: acquiescence bias (tendency to agree or disagree with survey items regardless of the items’ actual content) and item keying (differential responding related to the use of regular- and reverse-keyed items). We estimated response styles from a common personality measure (HEXACO) and examined the heritability of each with univariate genetics analyses. The results show item keying effect was heritable but acquiescence bias was not. Neither response style was strongly influenced by the shared environment of the twins. Unique environmental effects were found to be substantial for response styles. The current findings have important implications for future research of response behaviors that are often overlooked by behavioral geneticists.

Affect as a Psychological Primitive

In this article, we discuss the hypothesis that affect is a fundamental, psychologically irreducible property of the human mind. We begin by presenting historical perspectives on the nature of affect. Next, we proceed with a more contemporary discussion of core affect as a basic property of the mind that is realized within a broadly distributed neuronal workspace. We then present the affective circumplex, a mathematical formalization for representing core affective states, and show that this model can be used to represent individual differences in core affective feelings that are linked to meaningful variation in emotional experience. Finally, we conclude by suggesting that core affect has psychological consequences that reach beyond the boundaries of emotion, to influence learning and consciousness.

Ambivalent affect and sexual response: the impact of co-occurring positive and negative emotions on subjective and physiological sexual responses to erotic stimuli

This study aimed to clarify the role of positive, negative, and ambivalent (i.e., co-occurring positive and negative) affect in predicting subjective sexual arousal, sexual desire, and genital response. A total of 26 women and 19 men observed three erotic film excerpts and a film excerpt depicting a coercive sexual encounter. Genital responses were recorded throughout the study, and participants rated their mood and subjective sexual arousal and desire following each excerpt. Results showed that positive affect was strongly and positively related to subjective sexual response. Although negative affect was generally a poor predictor of subjective sexual arousal, for women, it was positively associated with genital response in some conditions. Ambivalent affect was consistently associated with relatively high levels of subjective sexual arousal and desire. Results point to the importance of recognizing the role of ambivalent or mixed emotional states when evaluating the relationship between affect and sexual response.

Regarding some short forms of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale

A program of Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale research is described, focusing on the distinction between positively keyed and negatively keyed items. Balanced short forms exist for the measurement of an overall social desirability construct, but evidence suggests the use as well of separate subscales. These subscales are seen to correlate differentially with the substantive personality variable neuroticism, with content-free measures of semantic style, and with self-peer agreement. A simple procedure for the concomitant measurement of possible tendency to acquiesce is also described.

Influence of dysphoria on positive and negative cognitive reactivity to daily mood fluctuations

We used an experience sampling design to investigate the influence of dysphoria on positive and negative cognitive reactivity. Participants recorded their thoughts and mood four times per day on PDA devices for one week. We hypothesized that those higher in dysphoria would demonstrate a greater increase in negative thinking in response to negative mood, and a weaker increase in positive cognitions in response to positive mood. These hypotheses were largely supported. For those participants who reported higher initial dysphoria, there was a stronger association between negative mood and thinking and a weaker link between positive mood and thinking. Regression analyses indicated that positive and negative cognitive reactivity were independently related to dysphoria, suggesting that they represent distinct processes. Our results highlight the importance of understanding levels of both negative and positive cognitive reactivity and underscore the benefits of assessing mood and cognition with repeated measurements in "real-time," in order to better understand the antecedent effects of mood on thinking.

Measurement error and the correlation between positive and negative affect: spearman (1904, 1907) revisited

There has been considerable debate in the literature on the structure of affect, especially on the correlation between positive and negative affect and the effect of measurement error on this correlation. In this brief article, it is shown that, as Spearman (1904, 1907) noted, the extent to which the correlation between imperfect measures is attenuated by measurement error depends upon the reliabilities of the measures used.

The influence of chronically and temporarily accessible information on life satisfaction judgments

The authors examined the influence of temporarily and chronically accessible information on life satisfaction judgments. Meta-analyses revealed high retest-reliability of life satisfaction judgments and weak effects of the item order of domain and global satisfaction judgments. Study 1 (N=225) failed to replicate a widely cited finding of strong item-order effects. In Studies 2 (N=100), 3 (N=200), and 4 (N=222), chronically accessible information was a strong predictor of life satisfaction judgments, whereas item order had a relatively small effect. Study 5 (N=651) demonstrated that the results generalize to single item measures and judgments of shorter time periods. The results suggest that life satisfaction judgments are more heavily based on chronically accessible than temporarily accessible information.

Personality and life satisfaction: a facet-level analysis

At the global level of the Big Five, Extraversion and Neuroticism are the strongest predictors of life satisfaction. However, Extraversion and Neuroticism are multifaceted constructs that combine more specific traits. This article examined the contribution of facets of Extraversion and Neuroticism to life satisfaction in four studies. The depression facet of Neuroticism and the positive emotions/cheerfulness facet of Extraversion were the strongest and most consistent predictors of life satisfaction. These two facets often accounted for more variance in life satisfaction than Neuroticism and Extraversion. The findings suggest that measures of depression and positive emotions/cheerfulness are necessary and sufficient to predict life satisfaction from personality traits. The results also lead to a more refined understanding of the specific personality traits that influence life satisfaction: Depression is more important than anxiety or anger and a cheerful temperament is more important than being active or sociable.

Cross-situational consistency of affective experiences across cultures

This study examined cross-situational consistency of affective experiences using an experience-sampling method in Japan, India, and the United States. Participants recorded their moods and situations when signaled at random moments for 7 days. The authors examined relative (interindividual) consistency and absolute (within-person) consistency. They found stable interindividual differences of affective experiences across various situations (mean r =.52 for positive affect.51 for negative affect) and cultural invariance of the cross-situational consistency of affective experiences. Simultaneously, the authors found a considerable degree of within-person cross-situational variation in affective experiences, and cultural differences in within-person cross-situational consistency. Thus, global affective traits exist among non-Western samples, but the degree to which situations exert an influence on the absolute level of affective experience varies across cultures.

The Measurement of Curiosity As a Feeling of Deprivation

Curiosity as a feeling of deprivation (CFD) reflects feelings of uncertainty and tension that motivate information-seeking and problem-solving behavior. Twenty-seven CFD items were administered to 321 participants (248 women, 73 men) along with other measures of curiosity and other personality traits such as anxiety, anger, and depression. Factor analyses of the CFD items identified 3 factors from which 5-item subscales were developed: (a) a need to feel competent, (b) intolerance experienced when information is inaccessible or inadequate, and (c) a sense of urgency to solve problems. Moderately high correlations of the CFD scales with other measures of curiosity provided evidence of convergent validity, whereas divergent validity was demonstrated by minimal correlations of the CFD scales with the other personality traits.

The Relative Importance of Three Domains of Positive and Negative Social Exchanges: A Longitudinal Model With Comparable Measures

Researchers have expressed considerable interest in the question of whether positive or negative social exchanges more strongly affect psychological health, but previous studies have been limited by using nonparallel measures of positive and negative social exchanges, by measuring negative affect only, and by relying largely on cross-sectional designs. The independent effects of positive and negative exchanges on both positive and negative affect were examined in a short-term longitudinal study of 277 older adults, using social exchange measures with parallel content and equivalent reliability and validity. In cross-sectional analyses, positive exchanges predicted positive affect, and negative exchanges predicted negative affect. In longitudinal analyses, however, negative exchanges predicted both positive and negative affect, whereas positive exchanges were unrelated to either outcome. The more potent and longer-lasting effects of negative exchanges have important implications for theory and interventions.

Individual difference variables, affective differentiation, and the structures of affect

Methodological arguments are usually invoked to explain variations in the structure of affect. Using self-rated affect from Italian samples (N=600), we show that individual difference variables related to affective differentiation can moderate the observed structure. Indices of circumplexity and congruence coefficients to the hypothesized target were used to quantify the observed structures. Results did not support the circumplex model as a universal structure. A circular structure with axes of activation and valence was approximated only among more affectively differentiated groups: students and respondents with high scores on Openness to Feelings and measures of negative emotionality. A different structure, with unipolar Positive Affect and Negative Affect factors, was observed among adults and respondents with low Openness to Feelings and negative emotionality. The observed structure of affect will depend in part on the nature of the sample studied.

Experiencing activation: energetic arousal and tense arousal are not mixtures of valence and activation

R. E. Thayer (1989) proposed 2 types of activation: energetic arousal (awake-tired) and tense arousal (tense-calm). This view has been challenged by claims that energetic arousal and tense arousal are mixtures of valence and a single activation dimension. The authors present a direct test of this hypothesis by computing the correlation between the residuals of energetic arousal and tense arousal after removing the shared variance with valence. Whereas the valence activation hypothesis predicts a strong positive correlation between the 2 residuals, the authors found that it was not significantly different from 0. This finding reaffirms the view of energetic arousal and tense arousal as 2 distinct types of activation.