Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List: Current Overview and Structural Analysis

Abstract

The Activation-Deactivation Adjective Check List (AD ACL) is a multidimensional self-rating test constructed and extensively validated for rapid assessments of momentary activation or arousal states. The two core dimensions, energetic arousal (including tiredness) and tense arousal (including calmness) have been replicated repeatedly. They bear a complex relationship to each other involving positive and negative correlations at different levels of intensity. The dimensions are associated with a variety of arousal-related characteristics, including physiological changes, sleep-wake cycles, exercise effects, cognitive and information processing functions, various mood states, and a number of concomitants of stress. Finally, in a reported empirical study designed to investigate the somewhat uncommon self-rating format of this check list, alternative rating scales were employed with the same adjective descriptors. Factor analyses of respondents' ratings indicated that the factor structure of activation descriptors remained essentially the same with each scale. In this context, the importance of the underlying arousal model in relation to the activation descriptors is discussed.