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The Iowa Managing Emotions Inventory
Albert B. Hood and Lorraine M. Jackson
A second of Chickering's vectors is that of managing emotions--which includes becoming aware of the emotion and then being able to accurately label it. During the college years students learn to deal with strong sexual and aggressive impulses and feelings which in the beginning are controlled by rigidly held rules but move toward acceptance of the emotions and a more flexible internal control. Chickering believes that the increased awareness of emotions and the increased ability to manage them effectively are developmental skills central to students social concerns as well as to their full and rich individual development.
In developing this scale several issues were encountered such as how to operationalize the managing of emotions and which particular emotions should be included in an instrument for college students. Two general areas which were included were (l) the awareness of emotions and (2) the integration of emotions. These areas included the recognition of emotions, the exploration of these emotions, and insights into them. Scales were then constructed to contain these aspects of (1) recognition, (2) exploration, and (3) insight focusing on five types of emotions yielding five scales dealing with (1) happiness, (2) attraction, (3) anger, (4) depression, and (5) frustration.
In each of these five areas, a large number of items were written and after a critical examination of them 20 were selected for each scale. Ten were written to be scored in a "positive" direction and l0 in a "negative" direction. Equal numbers of items scored in both directions were included to control for acquiescence response sets. Items were responded to on a five point scale as follows:
l = Never characteristic of me
2 = Seldom characteristic of me
3 = Sometimes characteristic of me
4 = Often characteristic of me
5 = Always characteristic of me
In order to determine the extent to which individual items and sub-scales were influenced by the social desirability--the tendency to endorse items which yield a favorable impression--20 items from Jackson's (l967) social desirability scale were included in the item pool. The resulting l20-item inventory was then administered to l03 students at The University of Iowa and l78 students at Pennsylvania State University. Students of both sexes and both undergraduates and graduates were represented in these samples.
In the Penn State sample approximately 60% of the students were females and 40% males; in the University of Iowa sample 80% were females and 20% males. Approximately one-half of the students in the Penn State sample were freshmen and the remaining half was fairly evenly divided among the other four classes-- sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students. The Iowa sample also included students from all five classes with somewhat larger numbers coming from the sophomore and the graduate student groups.
The correlation matrix of the various sub-scales on the initial pool of managing emotions items is shown in Table B-l along with the reliability coefficients for the different sub- scales. The reliability coefficients show a substantial reliability among the various sub-scales. The total scores on each of the sub-scales also show very high correlations with each other and with the total managing emotions score. Correlations with the social desirability index also indicated that scores on each of the sub-scales were substantially related to responses on that index. Because of the high relationship among the sub- scales on the managing emotions inventory, it was decided to obtain only a total managing emotions score on the final inventory and not attempt to develop individual scales.
Item correlations were computed for each item with (1) its own sub-scale, (2) the total managing emotions scale, (3) with the score on the 20-item social desirability scale, along with (4) age and (5) class in college. The differential reliability index (DRI) was also computed for each item as described in the previous chapter. The final managing emotions inventory was constructed by choosing l2 items dealing with each of the different emotions--depression, anger, frustration, happiness, and attraction--yielding a 60-item inventory. Items which were selected had high correlations with the total managing emotions score, high correlations with the sub-scale score emotion represented by the particular item, and with lower correlations with the social desirability scale (high DRI index). Items were also selected in which older students and upper class students tended to score in the more favorable direction than did underclassmen and younger students.
The final Managing Emotions Inventory contains 60 items and is made up of five subscales of l2 items each. Each of these subscales deals with a particular type of emotion as follows: (l) depression, (2) anger, (3) frustration, (4) happiness, and (5) attraction. The mean on the total inventory for the Iowa sample was 2l2.64 with a standard deviation of 28.00 (Table B-3). The five subscales had means which ranged between 40 and 45 with standard deviations ranging from 6.l8 to 6.93. The reliability for the total inventory of 60 items was .95 (Table B-2). Each of the subscales had correlations with the total inventory in the vicinity of .90 except for the attraction subscale with .78. The correlations of the various subscales with each other fell in the general range of .75 (.60 with attraction). These data suggest that the subscales on the Managing Emotions Inventory are measuring pretty much the same thing and that by separating out the individual subscales little is gained. Total scores on the inventory had a correlation of .28 with age and .l9 with class indicating that students tend to obtain slightly higher scores as seniors and graduate students than they do as freshmen and sophomores (Table B-4). Correlations of the various subscales with age and class tended to run slightly higher than the total score except for the attraction subscale which showed no relationship to either age or class.
Examples of the items placed in the final inventory that deal with each of the five emotions are listed below. The reliability of the 15 items for each emotion is listed along with two sample items:
Depression: Reliability equals .85
"When I am sad, I know how to make myself more cheerful"
"If I acted grouchy when I really felt depressed, I would not
explore the reasons for it" (neg.)
Anger: Reliability equals .79
"When someone is mean to me, I don't pay attention to how I feel"
(neg.)
"Looking back at what makes me angry helps me to do something
constructive about it"
Frustration: Reliability equals .8l
"I do not think about what things make me feel frustrated"
(neg.)
"I think it is important to explore my feelings of frustration in
order to understand myself"
Happiness: Reliability equals .80
"I like sorting out, in my mind, the things that make me happy"
"If I'm feeling happy, I tend to spend all my money and regret it
later" (neg.)
Attraction: Reliability equals .76
"I can distinguish between just sexual desire and really caring
for another person"
"When I feel attracted to someone, I tend to stay away from them"
(neg.)
The final inventory has been placed in a format to yield a
pattern of answers for ease of scoring. The first two items are
scored in the positive direction, the next two in a negative
direction, the next two in a positive direction, and the
following two in a negative direction. This pattern of scoring
continues for the first 50 of the 60 items but the pattern is not
followed for the last l0 items. Although the use of individual
subscales is not recommended, they too are placed in a particular
pattern with the first item dealing with anger, the second with
attraction, the third with happiness, the fourth with depression,
and the fifth with frustration. This pattern of subscales
dealing with the different emotions continues throughout the
entire inventory.
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Table B-1
Correlation Matrix and Reliabilities of
Pilot Managing Emotions Scale Scores
Depression Anger Frust. Happiness Attract. Social Des.
1 2 3 4 5 6
Total .88 .87 .89 .88 .83 .74
1 .73 .77 .71 .60 .70
2 .73 .69 .65 .55
3 .73 .66 .60
4 .71 .79
5 .56
Rel. .80 .76 .77 .85 .79 .83
N = 103
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Table B-2
Correlation Matrix and Reliabilities of Final
Managing Emotions Inventory Scale Scores
Total
Score Depression Anger Frustration Happiness Attraction
1 2 3 4 5
Total .88 .9l .90 .88 .78
1 .76 .77 .70 .55
2 .78 .77 .61
3 .72 .61
4 .64
Rel.
.95 .85 .80 .81 .80 .76
N = 101
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Table B-3
Means and Standard Deviations of Final
Managing Emotions Inventory Scale Scores
Mean Standard Deviation Range
N
Total Score 212.64 28.00 156-281
98
Depression 42.37 6.93 21-57
103
Anger 41.00 6.39 21-58
101
Frustration 40.53 6.18 25-57
103
Happiness 43.86 6.37 30-59
100
Attraction 44.91 6.09 34-60
103
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Table B-4
Correlations of Final Managing Emotions
Scale Scores with Demographics
Sex Age Class Social
Desirability
Total Score -.05 .28 .19 .64
Depression -.09 .32 .30 .54
Anger -.14 .29 .20 .50
Frustration -.10 .29 .25 .59
Happiness .29 .24 .09 .68
Attraction .10 .12 .03 .47
N = 85
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