Abstract
BackgroundAs a tool to investigate the experiences of six primary emotions, Davis, Panksepp, and Normansell [1] developed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS). However, the psychometric properties of the ANPS have been questioned, and in particular the factor structure. This study replicates earlier psychometric studies on ANPS in a sample of (546) personality disordered patients, and also includes ANPS-S, a recent short version of ANPS by Pingault and colleagues [2], and a truncated version of BANPS by Barrett and colleagues [3].Methodology/Principal FindingsThe study of the full ANPS revealed acceptable internal consistencies of the primary emotion subscales, ranging from 0.74–0.87. However, factor analyses revealed poor to mediocre fit for a six factor solution. Correlational analyses, in addition, revealed too high correlations between PLAY and SEEK, and between SADNESS and FEAR. The two short versions displayed better psychometric properties. The range of internal consistency was 0.61–0.80 for the BANPS scales and 0.65–84 for the ANPS-S. Backward Cronbach Alpha Curves indicated potentials for improvement on all three versions of the questionnaire. Items retained in the short versions did not systematically cover the full theoretical content of the long scales, in particular for CARE and SADNESS in the BANPS. The major problems seem to reside in the operationalization of the CARE and SADNESS subscales of ANPS.Conclusions/SignificanceFurther work needs to be done in order to realize a psychometrically sound instrument for the assessment of primary emotional experiences.
Highlights
Since the writings of Hippocrates (460-370 BC), temperament has been regarded as an important source of variation accounting for differences in personality between people
Gender differences were observed on the Cronbach’s alpha values ranged from .61 (CARE), FEAR, and SADNESS subscales, in which men scored significantly lower than women
According to the corrected item-total correlations, some items appeared less suitable as indicators of their respective construct. This means that their correlation with the scale, without the item itself, is in the low range of 0.0–0.3, indicating that the question is not discriminating well. This was true for item 9 from the SEEK scale, items 11, 19 and 43 from the CARE scale, item 58 from the FEAR scale, item 12 from the ANGER scale, and items 14, 46, and 110 from the SADNESS scale
Summary
Since the writings of Hippocrates (460-370 BC), temperament has been regarded as an important source of variation accounting for differences in personality between people. Temperament has always been regarded as highly ‘‘constitutional’’. This view has been supported by modern heredity studies, which have found heritability to be in the range of .40–.50 for personality traits [4] and .20–.50 for personality disorders (PDs) [5]. As a tool to investigate the experiences of six primary emotions, Davis, Panksepp, and Normansell [1] developed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS). This study replicates earlier psychometric studies on ANPS in a sample of (546) personality disordered patients, and includes ANPS-S, a recent short version of ANPS by Pingault and colleagues [2], and a truncated version of BANPS by Barrett and colleagues [3]
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