The subscale specificity of the Affective Control Scale: Ecological validity and predictive validity of feared emotions

Abstract

The Affective Control Scale (ACS) is a widely used measure of fear of emotion. Although the scale as a whole has good utility and predictive validity, there is little work on the specificity of the subscales of the ACS, which measure fear of anxiety, anger, depressed mood and positive mood. In the present study, we investigated the unique relations between fear of specific emotions and the everyday experience of those emotions. We sampled 120 undergraduate students and tracked their emotional experiences over the course of a week using ecological momentary assessments. We found evidence for specificity in the predictive validity of the subscales. After controlling for common variance across the subscales, fear of anger, anxiety, and depressed mood uniquely predicted greater daily experience of the corresponding emotion. These data also support the notion that those who fear specific emotions tend to experience more of those emotions in everyday life.

Moderating effects of dysregulation and fear of positive emotions on the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and positive memory count

“…Higher scores indicate greater fear of positive emotions. The ACS‐PA has demonstrated good psychometric properties (Hughes, Gunthert, Wenze, & German, 2015; Melka, Lancaster, Bryant, Rodriguez, & Weston, 2011; Williams et al, 1997); in the current study, Cronbach's α = .89.…”

Compliance With Mobile Ecological Momentary Assessment of Self-Reported Health-Related Behaviors and Psychological Constructs in Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…Cohort compliance reported before data exclusions ranged from 38% to 98% (median 82%) and after data exclusions from 50% to 97% (median 81%; Table 1). [19,24,25,[91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106]28,32] or other [34,35,37,38,[107][108][109][110], or where cohort compliance was reported, a variable required for the meta-analysis was not [111][112][113][114].…”

Why do depressed people prefer sad music?

“…Research findings also indicate that depressed people tend to hold negative attitudes toward negative emotional states (Beblo et al, 2012; Brockmeyer et al, 2012; Slee, Garnefski, Spinhoven, & Arensman, 2008). For instance, depressed individuals report greater attempts to avoid negative-emotion-evoking thoughts or avoid unpleasant situations (Ottenbreit & Dobson, 2004) relative to control subjects, and also report feeling nervous or have a greater fear of losing control when experiencing both negative and intense positive emotions (Hughes, Gunthert, Wenze, & German, 2015; Stapinski, Abbott, & Rapee, 2010; Werner-Seidler, Banks, Dunn, & Moulds, 2013). Although preference for emotion and preference for emotional stimuli are not identical, they should ordinarily be linked (i.e., usually people would avoid engaging with the negative emotional stimuli that induce the states they most want to avoid).…”