California Older Persons Pleasant Events Scale: a Tool to Help Older Adults Increase Positive Experiences

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe California Older Person’s Pleasant Events Schedule (COPPES) is a clinical tool comprising 66 items asking clients about their potential pleasure in, and actual experience of, specific pleasant events. To further the clinical usefulness of this instrument, we attempted to develop psychometrically sound scales that would measure broad and distinct categories of pleasant activities. Based on a starting sample of 641 older adults, we constructed five scales for the California Older Person’s Pleasant Events Scale (COPPES): Socializing, Relaxing, Contemplating, Being Effective, and Being Active (Doing). Adequate to excellent internal consistency indexes were found for both the frequency and pleasantness of the COPPES’ global scales and their subscales. To test the validity of these scales, we were able to identify nine coherent profiles of levels of pleasant event activity and enjoyment. Profiles with greater activity scores tended to have lower levels of depression, but the relationship between depression and enjoyment scores was more complex. Our work lends additional support for the use of both behavioral and cognitive interventions with depressed older individuals and for the use of the COPPES in guiding those interventions.