MEASURES REVIEWED BRIEFLY
The Anger Disorders Scale (ADS; DiGiuseppe & Tafrate, 2004 )/C0(not to be confused with the Anger Discomfort
Scale to be described later) was introduced as one of the more clinically-relevant measures for assessing anger.
The ADS consists of five domains and 18 subscales as follows: The Provocations domain includes (i) scope of
anger provocations and (ii) hurt/social rejection; the Arousal domain includes (i) physiological, (ii) duration,
and (iii) episode length; the Cognitions domain includes (i) suspicion, (ii) resentment, (iii) rumination, and
(iv) impulsivity; the Motives domain includes (i) tension reduction, (ii) coercion, and (iii) revenge; the Behaviors
domain encompasses (i) anger-in, (ii) physical aggression, (iii) verbal expression, (iv) indirect aggression, (v) pas-
sive aggression, and (vi) relational aggression. Subscale scores can be plotted as coordinates on a graph. The ADS
has been administered as a structured interview with 134 questions to be rated on a 5-point Likert-type response
scale ( Ahmed, Kingston, DiGiuseppe, Bradford, & Seto, 2012 ). Items are framed as questions with multi-choice
answers. For example, ‘My anger has been a problem for (i) ‘a week or less or not at all’, (ii) ‘a month or less’,
(iii) ‘About three months’, (iv) ‘About six months’, (v) ‘A year or more’; or ‘I get angry if someone makes me
look bad in front of others’ which is accompanied by the following options for answers: (i) ‘never’, (ii) ‘rarely’
(iii) ‘occasionally’, (iv) ‘often’, (v) ‘always’. The ADS was normed on a sample of over 1400 American adults
(aged 18 /C076 years) recruited from educational and work environments as well as the internet. Test /C0retest reli-
ability based on a college sample ( N565) was found to be .89 over a two week interval. A Short Form of the
ADS with three subscales (expression, anger-in, and vengeance) is also available.
With 18 subscales to the ADS, the number of possible profiles in which half of the subscales are elevated
approaches 50,000; this number exceeds 250,000 when all possible combinations are considered. As an alternative,
a Short Form with three subscales (expression, anger in, and vengeance) may be used.
TheAnger Parameters Scale (APS; Fernandez, 2001 ;Fernandez et al., 2010 ) was constructed in light of the frequent
distinction drawn between experience versus expression of anger and the further differentiation among subtypes of
anger experience and anger expression, Fernandez (2001) developed two separate scales: the Anger Parameters
Scale (APS) and the Anger Expressions Scale (AES). As it stands, the latter is a theoretical formulation undergoing
empirical evaluation, so the present focus is on the APS. In the APS, five anger parameters were operationalized to
delineate boundaries of anger activity: frequency, duration, intensity, latency, and threshold. The first three were
already subscales within the MAI and they have also been dependent measures in behavioral psychology.
However, as with pain and other perceptual responses, the occurrence of anger can also be measured in terms of
latency and threshold (Fernandez, 2010). Thus, we have five parameters measuring (i) how often one gets angry,
(ii) how long the anger lasts, (iii) how strong the anger is, (iv) how quick to anger, and (v) how sensitive to provoca-
tion. This is in keeping with affective chronometry for measurement of emotions ( Davidson, 1998 ) and the notion of
an emotion-generative process ( John & Gross, 2007 ). The 30 APS items, some of which are negatively-keyed are
organized into six items per parameter. Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert-type response scale reflecting the
extent to which the items are applicable to the individual test-taker. The APS has been administered to an adult
community sample ( Fernandez et al., 2010 ). Cronbach alpha coefficients were found as follows: Frequency (.85),
Duration (.90), for Intensity (.62), Latency (.88), and Threshold (.74) ( Fernandez et al., 2010 ). A principal components
analysis with oblique rotation led to the extraction of five components conforming to the five different parameters
of anger ( Fernandez et al., 2010 ). A separate PCA analysis based on the subscale inter-correlations led to a one-
component solution which the authors termed the Degree of maladaptiveness of anger. More recently the APS was
administered to a sample of incarcerated adults ( Fernandez et al., 2014 ) who showed elevations on frequency,
duration, and intensity (but not threshold or latency) as compared to adult counterparts from the community.
In summary, the APS accesses five basic parameters applicable to emotions or affective phenomena, independently
of how anger is qualitatively expressed. The parameters are internally consistent and supported by preliminary fac-
tor analytic investigation. Some examples of items include: ‘I seldom get angry’ (Frequency), ‘I stay angry only for a
short time’ (Duration), ‘It takes very little to make me angry’ (Threshold), My anger takes the form of annoyance’
(Intensity), and ‘My anger occurs immediately’ (Latency).
The Awareness and Expression of Anger Indicator (AEAI; Catchlove & Braha, 1985 ) attempts to assess Awareness
of feelings of anger as well as the Expression of anger. The AEAI uses one hypothetical vignette which is read
out to the individual who is asked two questions, one about how s/he feels, and the other about what s/he
would do. The individual is then told to imagine that the same scenario occurs on four successive mornings.
Again, s/he is asked the same two questions about feeling and expression of anger. Answers to these questions
are ranked with reference to the idealized response for each occurrence of the scenario. Based on a sample of 30
pre-surgical patients an inter-rater reliability of 0.94 was obtained. Overall, no significant correlation between92 4. ANGER/HOSTILITY MEASURES
II. EMOTIONAL DISPOSITIONS