Validation of the Emogram Anger Scale and the State -Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2): A correlational study

While recent progress in the field of emotion theory indicates a desire to embrace a dynamic systems perspective, the field of assessment appears stuck in a seventeenth-century Newtonian model of linearity. Emotion literature identifies a need to employ assessment instruments grounded in nonlinear science when measuring unstable phenomena. An examination of assessment literature reveals a shortage of valid anger assessment instruments designed to enhance the researcher's ability to study, understand, and explain the dynamical, nonstationary behavior of nonlinear phenomena. The absence of such instruments impedes progress in assessment.;In this study the author utilized a pretest-posttest design with 100 undergraduate and graduate students from three universities in San Antonio, Texas to evaluate the concurrent validity of the anger construct within Emogram, an emotion assessment instrument grounded in nonlinear science, as derived from its correlation with the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2). A total of three experimental conditions were employed in the research design: subjects' recollections of anger provoking experiences, subjects' exposure to an anger provoking video, and subjects' experiences of natural changes occurring over time. Collected data were analyzed in two phases: analyses of all data collectively and analyses computed for each of the three experimental conditions.;Significant positive correlations (p < 0.01) were observed for the eight hypotheses used to examine the relationships between the Emogram Anger Scale and the STAXI-2 State Anger Scale and Subscales. Results of this study provide support for a more longitudinal, emergent perspective on emotions. Recommendations for future research include examining emotions as systems, expanding the population studied, and designing research to explore emotional interactions and changes.