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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...
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.
The IDEA: Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood
Arnett (2000) has proposed that the time of life roughly between ages 18-25 be considered a "distinct period" called emerging adulthood (EA). Essentially, this is a time when individuals tend to consider themselves too old to be adolescents, but not yet full-fledged adults. The Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood (IDEA) can be used to explore individual differences in self-identification with the processes of EA. Education of parents on the concept of EA could give parents added understanding of their children's life choices and delays in accomplishment of traditional adult...
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,...
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.
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...
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...
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...
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...
Fear of Physician (FOP)
Many people are fearful and/or anxious about communicating with their physician. It is believed that this fear/anxiety is in some part a function of the way the physician communicates with the patient. This Fear of Physician (FOP) instrument was developed to measure that feeling. The FOP is an extension of the 5-item state anxiety measure developed by Spielberger (1966).
