title: Testing different versions of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales in a clinical sample.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  As a tool to investigate the experiences of six primary emotions, Davis, Panksepp, and Normansell developed the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales (ANPS). However, the psychometric properties of the ANPS have been questioned, and in particular the factor structure. This study replicates earlier psychometric studies on ANPS in a sample of (546) personality disordered patients, and also includes ANPS-S, a recent short version of ANPS by Pingault and colleagues, and a truncated version of BANPS by Barrett and colleagues.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study of the full ANPS revealed acceptable internal consistencies of the primary emotion subscales, ranging from 0.74-0.87. However, factor analyses revealed poor to mediocre fit for a six factor solution. Correlational analyses, in addition, revealed too high correlations between PLAY and SEEK, and between SADNESS and FEAR. The two short versions displayed better psychometric properties. The range of internal consistency was 0.61-0.80 for the BANPS scales and 0.65-84 for the ANPS-S. Backward Cronbach Alpha Curves indicated potentials for improvement on all three versions of the questionnaire. Items retained in the short versions did not systematically cover the full theoretical content of the long scales, in particular for CARE and SADNESS in the BANPS. The major problems seem to reside in the operationalization of the CARE and SADNESS subscales of ANPS.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Further work needs to be done in order to realize a psychometrically sound instrument for the assessment of primary emotional experiences.
authors.forename: Geir
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: Department of Personality Psychiatry, Clinic of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Pedersen
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Geir
authors.affiliation: Department of Personality Psychiatry, Clinic of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Johansen Merete
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Selsbakk
authors.affiliation: Department of Research and Development, Clinic of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Wilberg
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Theresa
authors.affiliation: Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
authors.forename: Karterud
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sigmund
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D010552:Personality Assessment; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D010556:Personality Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult