Emos-15: a self-report measure of core affect
The article presents the development of the new self-report questionnaire EmoS-15 measuring core affect. Core affect is defined as the key component of any emotional phenomenon, elementary consciously accessible affective feeling not directed at anything. The EmoS-15 is based on the structure model of core affect derived from the Russian data. The model distinguishes three dimensions of core affect, namely positive affect with high activation, negative affect with low activation, and tension. The EmoS-15 consists of three respectively named scales. The questionnaire comprises 15 items each of them being an emotion name. The participant must assess to which extent each item matches her emotional state using Likert format of responses. The EmoS-15 was administered to 303 participants. All scales have satisfactory reliability (Cronbach’s alphas higher than .85); the questionnaire factor structure fits the three-dimensional model. To assess validity, EmoS-15 scales were correlated with personality questionnaires that measure similar psychological constructs (N = 83). The first scale yielded the highest correlation (r = 0.50) with the aggregated score consisting of Diener’s Satisfaction With Life Scale and Lyubomirsky’s Subjective Happiness Scale. The second scale yielded the highest correlation with the Beck Depression Inventory (r = 0.63) and the third scale with the state scale of Spielberger’s State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (r = 0.57). This pattern of correlations confirms satisfactory validity of the EmoS-15. The new questionnaire can be applied to a wide array of research and practical tasks including measurement of the actual core affect and emotional state, assessment of the affective background typical for longer time periods, experience sampling, and control of participants’ emotional states during the laboratory experiments.