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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...

Author of Tool: 
Reifman, A.

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.

Appearance-based Rejection Sensitivity (Appearance-RS) Scale (Long and Short Form)

Appearance-based Rejection Sensitivity (Appearance-RS) reflects a personality processing system characterized by anxious concerns and expectations about being rejected based on one’s physical attractiveness (Park, 2007). People differ in their sensitivity to rejection based on appearance with unique consequences for mental and physical health, affect, and feelings of belonging. Specifically, Appearance-RS predicts increased symptoms of eating disorders and the tendency to make appearance-based comparisons with others. People high in Appearance-RS who are reminded of a negative aspect of...

Author of Tool: 
Park, L. E.

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.

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

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).

Author of Tool: 
Richmond, V. P., Smith, R. S., Heisel, A. M., & McCroskey, J. C.

Richmond Humour Assessment Instrument (RHAI)

The Richmond Humor Assessment Instrument (RHAI) is a 16-item self-report measure that uses a 5-point Likert format. The instrument was developed by Richmond (1999) to measure an individual's predisposition to reenact humour messages during an interaction. Researchers believe that teaching people to be humerous can help with stress and family problems, make them more popular, and they will have improved self-concepts.

Author of Tool: 
Richmond, V. P.

Willingness To Communicate (WTC)

The study of various general orientations toward communication has held an important place in communication research for over a half-century. This research has been conducted under a wide variety of conceptualizations. These have included stage fright, speech anxiety, communication apprehension, shyness, reticence, unwillingness to communicate, willingness to communicate, talkativeness, verbal activity, vocal activity, and a number of others. Although these are all related constructs, there are important distinctions among them. One group of constructs relates to anxiety or apprehension...

Author of Tool: 
McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P.

Tolerance for Disagreement Scale (TFD)

The Tolerance For Disagreement (TFD) Scale is designed to measure the degree to which an individual can tolerate other people disagreeing with what the individual believes to be true. This conceptualization is similar to that of argumentativeness. People with high argumentativeness are likely to be able to deal with more disagreement than those people who are low in argumentativeness. It is believed that conflict in interpersonal communication is in large part (in conjunction with the level of liking between the people) a function of the tolerance of disagreement of the interactants.

Author of Tool: 
Teven, J. J., Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C.

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