The construction and validation of a new scale for measuring emotion control

Abstract In an earlier study, Roger and Nesshoever (Person. individ. Diff. 8, 527–534, 1987) reported the construction and validation of a scale for measuring emotion control entitled the Emotion Control Questionnaire (ECQ). Factor analysis revealed a 4-factor structure comprising Rehearsal, Emotional Inhibition, Aggression Control and Benign Control, which was replicated on an independent sample of subjects. The earlier study also presented the relationships between the ECQ factors and a variety of other personality scales. Subsequent work has shown that one of the ECQ factors in particular (Rehearsal) is significantly related to both heart-rate recovery and urinary cortisol elevations following stress. However, one of the disadvantages of the ECQ was the brevity of the factors, two of which (Emotional Inhibition and Benign Control) comprised just nine items each, and the present study was aimed at extending the range of behaviour sampled by the scale. Factor analyses of an expanded item pool confirmed the structure of the earlier scale and resulted in a new scale comprising 56 items, fourteen in each of the four factors. Other findings for the new scale (ECQ2) indicate that it is psychometrically equivalent to the original, and further data on the concurrent validation of the emotion control construct are presented.

[1]  D. Roger,et al.  Individual differences in delayed heart-rate recovery following stress: The role of extraversion, neuroticism and emotional control , 1988 .

[2]  S. Kobasa,et al.  Stressful life events, personality, and health: an inquiry into hardiness. , 1979, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  D. Byrne,et al.  Relation of the Revised Repression-Sensitization Scale to Measures of Self-Description , 1963 .

[4]  Delroy L. Paulhus,et al.  Sphere-Specific Measures of Perceived Control , 1983 .

[5]  C. Spielberger,et al.  Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory , 1970 .

[6]  M. B. Frisch,et al.  The role of neuroticism in relation to life stress and illness. , 1981, Journal of psychosomatic research.

[7]  H. Eysenck,et al.  Psychoticism as a dimension of personality , 1976 .

[8]  S. Rosenzweig,et al.  Revised scoring manual for the Rosenzweig picture-frustration study. , 1947, The Journal of psychology.

[9]  W. Revelle,et al.  The measurement of extroversion: A comparison of the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire , 1981 .

[10]  A. Buss,et al.  An inventory for assessing different kinds of hostility. , 1957, Journal of consulting psychology.

[11]  Richard Christie,et al.  Spheres of control: An interactionist approach to assessment of perceived control , 1981 .

[12]  M. Humphreys,et al.  The interactive effect of personality, time of day, and caffeine: a test of the arousal model. , 1980, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[13]  D. Roger,et al.  The construction and preliminary validation of a scale for measuring emotional control. , 1987 .

[14]  Hans J. Eysenck,et al.  Manual of the Eysenck personality questionnaire , 1975 .

[15]  Mary Frances Asterita,et al.  The physiology of stress , 1984 .

[16]  H. Eysenck,et al.  Impulsiveness and Venturesomeness: Their Position in a Dimensional System of Personality Description , 1978, Psychological reports.