Further validation of the ACIPS as a measure of social hedonic response

Abstract

The Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS) is a measure designed to assess hedonic capacity for social and interpersonal pleasure. One goal of this study was to examine whether the earlier findings of internal consistency and associations with well-validated measures of pleasure and anhedonia would replicate in a larger, independent sample. We also sought to explore whether there were gender differences in terms of the reporting of the experience of social and interpersonal pleasure. We tested the internal consistency, convergent and discriminant validity and factor structure of the ACIPS by administering the scale to an independent group of 1708 undergraduates. Results from this replication study confirmed that the ACIPS is a highly reliable measure in terms of internal consistency. Findings suggest that although the ACIPS shows some overlap with direct (i.e., Chapman revised Social Anhedonia Scale) and indirect measures of anhedonia (Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale), the new scale also taps some nonoverlapping aspects of social/interpersonal pleasure. Overall, the current research indicates that the ACIPS is a reliable and valid questionnaire to assess hedonic capacity for social and interpersonal pleasure in nonclinical samples.