Validation of Dimensionality of Affect Intensity using the Hindi Version of the Emotional Intensity Scale

Abstract

The dimensionality of the construct of affect intensity is still a debated issue and most of the studies dealing with this debate have used the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM; Larsen & Diener, 1987) although this measure has been criticized on various psychometric grounds. We speculate that the inconsistency regarding the dimensionality of affect intensity may be either because of lack of clarity in its conceptualization or inappropriateness of its psychometric measures. In view of this, the present study attempts to explore the dimensionality of affect intensity using the Hindi version of the Emotional Intensity Scale (EIS; Bachorowski & Braaten, 1994) that claims to overcome the psychometric limitations of the AIM. The EIS-H was administered to 284 Hindi speaking Indian adults (119 males and 165 females). Exploratory factor (principal component) analysis identified two factors that were labelled as positive and negative emotional intensity. However, observation of some overlap and/or cross loading undermines the factorial purity of the EIS-H. Thus, a maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to test two models - one assuming the two factors to be uncorrelated and the other as correlated. Findings revealed that the correlated two factors model provided a better fit to the data as compared to that which assumed the two factors to be uncorrelated. Findings imply that affect intensity is a multidimensional construct that encompasses two independent yet related dimensions of positive and negative affect intensity and the EIS-H may be used to reliably measure it.