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Service to Others in Sobriety (SOS)

Giving, helping, volunteering, being of service, unselfishness, goodwill—whatever the term—human beings worldwide engage in generous, altruistic behavior toward others. Although such acts are, by definition, performed without expectation of external reward or reciprocation (Zemore & Pagano, 2009), they nonetheless provide specific benefits to the helper. A growing body of research shows evidence of the health benefits to helpers across the life span. Youths have been shown to enjoy lower levels of disciplinary problems (Calabrese & Schumer, 1986), better values, and educational...

Author of Tool: 
Maria E. Pagano, Amy R. Krentzman, Casey C. Onder, Justina L. Baryak, Jennifer L. Murphy, William H. Zywiak, Robert L. Stout

Social-Cognitive Aptitude Test (SCAT)

Social-Cognitive Aptitude Test (SCAT) facilitates the measurement of the effects of trait self-esteem and threats to the self-concept on evaluations of others. II It has been found that individuals high in self-esteem, but not those low in self-esteem, respond to threats to the self-concept by derogating outgroups relative to the ingroup when the group boundaries have evaluative implications.

Author of Tool: 
Crocker, J.

The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule

In recent research, two broad, general factors—typically labeled Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA)—have emerged reliably as the dominant dimensions of emotional experience. These factors have been identified in both intraand interindividual analyses, and they emerge consistently across diverse descriptor sets, time frames, response formats, languages, and cultures. The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule , is a 60-item, expanded version of the PANAS. In addition to the two original higher order scales, the PANAS-X measures 11 specific affects: Fear,...

Author of Tool: 
Watson, D.

Preference for Solitude Scale

Past research suggests that solitude can have either a positive or a negative impact on a person′s well-being. How time away from others affects people may depend on the person′s general preference for solitude. Most research relates wellbeing to the amount of time spent alone, but not about the link between wellbeing an a person's preference for being alone. The Preference for Solitude Scale addresses this.

Author of Tool: 
Burger, Jerry.

SECope: Coping with HIV Treatment Side Effects

Side effects from HIV treatments impact quality of life (QOL) and adherence to care, and influence decisions about health care. The SECope: Coping with HIV Treatment Side Effects Scale deals with the issue of the lack of data on how people deal with and manage the adverse effects of medication. For example, how one copes with the undesirable effects of ART may be similar to how one deals with the symptoms of a chronic disease. There are fundamental differences, however, between coping with an ongoing disease and side effects from a treatment regimen. The individual taking medications,...

Author of Tool: 
Centre for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS)

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWL)

The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) has been used heavily as a measure of the life satisfaction component of subjective well-being. Scores on the SWLS have been shown to correlate with measures of mental health, and be predictive of future behaviours such as suicide attempts. In the area of health psychology, the SWLS has been used to measure the subjective quality of life of people experiencing serious health concerns.

Author of Tool: 
Pavot, W., & Diener, E.

Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE)

The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) produces a score for positive feelings (6 items), a score for negative feelings (6 items), and the two can be combined to create a balance score. This 12-item brief scale has a number of desirable features compared to earlier measures of positive and negative emotions. In particular, the scale assesses with a few items a broad range of negative and positive experiences and feelings, not just those of a certain type, and is based on the amount of time the feelings were experienced during the past four weeks. The scale converges well with...

Author of Tool: 
Diener, Ed.

Flourishing Scale (FS)

The Flourishing Scale (FS) is a measure of psychosocial flourishing, based on recent theories of psychological and social well-being. The FS is designed to measure social-psychological prosperity, to complement existing measures of subjective well-being. A number of psychological theories of human flourishing have been developed, and the authors devised a brief measure to capture major aspects of this type of “prosperity.” Ryff (1989; Ryff & Singer, 1998) and Ryan and Deci (2000), based on earlier humanistic psychology theories, suggest that there are several universal human...

Author of Tool: 
Diener. Ed., Wirtz, D., Tov, W., Kim-Prieto, C., Choi, D., Oishi, S., & Biswas-Diener, R.

General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE)

The construct of Perceived Self-Efficacy reflects an optimistic self-belief (Schwarzer, 1992). This is the belief that one can perform a novel or difficult tasks, or cope with adversity -- in various domains of human functioning. Perceived self-efficacy facilitates goal-setting, effort investment, persistence in face of barriers and recovery from setbacks. It can be regarded as a positive resistance resource factor. Ten items from the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) are designed to tap this construct. Each item refers to successful coping and implies an internal-stable attribution of...

Author of Tool: 
Ralf Schwarzer & Matthias Jerusalem

Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS)

The Berlin Social Support Scales (BSSS, Schwarzer & Schulz, 2000) were developed based on theoretical considerations and reviews of established measurement instruments for social support.
All items were discussed by an expert panel and partly revised after a pilot study with cancer patients. Items of the received/provided support subscales referring to unfavorable support behavior of the partner were omitted from our study after patients expressed rejection of those statements.

The answering format is the same for all subscales: Patients rate their agreement with the...

Author of Tool: 
Ralf Schwarzer & Ute Schulz

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