Key references:
Snell, W. E., Jr., Gum, S., Shuck, R. L., Mosley, J. A., & Hite, T. L.. (1995). The Clinical Anger Scale: Preliminary reliability and validity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 215-226
Primary use / Purpose:
Background:
The Clinical Anger Scale (CAS) is an objective, valid self-report measures the psychological symptoms resumed to have relevance in the understanding and treatment of clinical anger. Twenty-one sets of statements were prepared for this purpose. In writing these groups of items, the format from one of Beck's early instruments was used to design the Clinical Anger Scale (Beck et al., 1961; Beck, 1963, 1967). The following symptoms of anger were measured by the CAS items: anger now, anger about the future, anger about failure, anger about things, angry-hostile feelings, annoying others, angry about self, angry misery, wanting to hurt others, shouting at people, irritated now, social interference, decision interference, alienating others, work interference, sleep interference, fatigue, appetite interference, health interference, thinking interference, and sexual interference.
Psychometrics:
Several specific analyses were conducted to examine the psychometric properties of the Clinical Anger Scale (CAS). Factor analysis was conducted to examine the factorial validity of the instrument, and reliability coefficients were computed to examine the internal consistency and stability of the CAS. Also, in addition to providing evidence for the convergent and divergent validity of the CAS, an ancillary purpose of the present study was to provide preliminary evidence for its validity by examining some personality, psychopathological symptomology, behavioral, and family environmental correlates of clinical anger. Factor analysis of the Clinical Anger Scale confirmed essentially a unidimensional item structure; reliability analyses also demonstrated adequate alphas (i.e., internal consistency) and test-retest coefficients (i.e., stability) for the CAS; and other results indicated that the CAS was unrelated to social desirability influences. Additional findings indicated that clinical anger was positively associated with several anger-related concepts (e.g., trait anger, state anger, anger-in, anger-out, anger-control). Other results showed that the Clinical Anger Scale was related in predictable ways to men's and women's psychological symptoms, personality traits, and early family environments.
