title: The Level of Expressed Emotion Scale: a new measure of expressed emotion.
abstract: The Level of Expressed Emotion (LEE) scale was developed to provide an index of the perceived emotional climate in a person's influential relationships. Unlike existing measures, the scale was constructed on the basis of a conceptual framework described by expressed emotion theorists. In addition to providing an overall score, the 60-item scale assesses the following four characteristic attitudes or response styles of significant others: Intrusiveness, emotional response, attitude toward illness, and tolerance/expectations. The scale underwent extensive psychometric development procedures: (1) theoretically based item generation; (2) pilot testing with normal and psychiatric populations to select the final items; and (3) construct validation within a schizophrenic population. The results were quite favorable and indicate that the LEE scale has sound psychometric properties of internal consistency; reliability; independence from sex, age, and amount of contacts; and construct validity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, York University, Downsview, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Cole
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kazarian
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology; D012931:Social Environment