A Review Study of Psychometric Functioning of a Picture Scale to Assess Joy in Childhood

Laura Beatriz Oros,María Cristina Richaud de Minzi

doi:10.4236/psych.2015.63022

Laura Beatriz Oros, María Cristina Richaud de Minzi

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2015.63022

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Abstract

The early emergence of emotional understanding by means of facial expressions allows the assessment of basic emotions from young ages through pictures or photographs of human faces. This evaluation strategy allows children, with limited language to reveal feelings that neither investigators nor clinicians would be able to obtain verbally. The present work presents a non-verbal activity aimed at testing children’s joy. It is based on a visual analogue scale integrated by seven pictures of infant facial expressions. This scale has the advantage of presenting an animated design, more friendly and appealing than simplified face scales. Its psychometric functioning, revised from different studies, demonstrates that it is a reliable and valid alternative to analyze the experience of joy in small children.

Highlights

The emotions are complex functional states that derive from the psychological interpretation of certain stimuli and produce changes in the different systems of the organism (Bloch, 2008; Frijda, Manstead, & Bem, 2000; Lazarus, 2000)
The visual analog scale of joy (VAS-joy) was used with distinct purposes in different scientific studies
A positive and significant correlation, though lower than the previous one, was found between the VAS-joy and the PANAS-C-Arg subscale for positive affect developed by Schulz Begle, Lemos and Richaud of Minzi (2009) (r = .30, p = .01)

Summary

Introduction

The emotions are complex functional states that derive from the psychological interpretation of certain stimuli and produce changes in the different systems of the organism (Bloch, 2008; Frijda, Manstead, & Bem, 2000; Lazarus, 2000). A preliminary version of this scale was first used to ease the following problems that produced the use of verbal tests to assess positive emotions in young children with low cognitive stimulation (Oros, 2008): 1) limitations to elaborate their answers; 2) acquiescence; 3) automatic answers; 4) difficulty to keep attention making the diagnostic task a slow and expensive process Due to these issues, the decision was to use the visual analog scale of joy that was able to awaken children’s interest and provoke a larger quantity of valid responses in less time. Some information as regards its psychometric functioning is provided

Evidence of Its Psychometric Functioning

Findings

Discussion and Conclusion