VALIDATING SCALES FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF MOOD LEVEL AND VARIABILITY BYLATENT STATE-TRAIT ANALYSES

Results concerning the validity of the mood survey, a questionnaire as sessing two enduring aspects of mood level and mood reactivity - are r eported. The analyses show that both subscales are suitable for the as sessment of relatively stable aspects of mood: situational and/or inte ractional effects only determine 3-11 % of the variances of the scale scores, whereas 77-89% are due to true individual differences (not det ermined by situational and/or interactional effects). Furthermore, in order to examine to which degree the mood level scale assesses the moo d level of a person averaged across several occasions, the correlation between the latent trait variable underlying the mood level scale and a latent trait variable defined as the expectation of repeatedly meas ured mood states was estimated. The correlation between these latent t rait variables of r = 0.78 indicates that the mood level scale is usef ul for the assessment of the average mood level. Finally, to validate the reactivity scale, subgroups differing with regard to the scores on the reactivity scale were analysed to examine the degree to which the ir actual mood is influenced by situational and/or interactional effec ts. The results show that the actual mood of people with high mood rea ctivity scores is influenced to a much higher degree by situational an d/or interactional effects that the momentary mood of people with low mood reactivity scores.