THE ITALIAN VERSION OF THE AFFECTIVE GOTTSCHALK-GLESER CONTENT-ANALYSIS SCALES - A STEP TOWARD CONCURRENT VALIDATION

A first approach to the validation of the Italian version of the Gotts chalk-Gleser Content Analysis Scales of Anxiety and Hostility is prese nted. To assess the validity of the Affective Content Analysis Scores the Gottschalk-Gleser standard procedure for obtaining verbal samples was followed and concurrently self-report measurements of comparable e motional constructs were applied. A short form of the Differential Emo tions Scale (DES) was administered three times to 50 university studen ts to measure the emotional state before as well as after speech sampl ing and the affectivity associated with the narrated life event. To in vestigate whether the Gottschalk-Gleser Affect Scales measure emotiona l traits the State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory, an S-R Inventory of Anxiet y, the Shame-Guilt Scale (Battacchi, Codispoti, & Marano, 1994) and th e irritability Scale (Caprara, Borgogni, Cinanni, di Giandomenico, & P asserini, 1985) were applied. Though the correlations between the meas ures were generally low, evidence of convergent validity emerged for t he Gottschalk-Gleser Total Anxiety Scale, the anxiety subscales Guilt Anxiety and Shame Anxiety (that seem to measure an anxiety pattern con sisting of several basic emotions) and For the hostility subscale Over t Outward Hostility. The correlational data indicate that the Gottscha lk-Gleser Affect Scales assess emotional traits as well as emotional s tates.