The Stress Arousal Checklist

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EDUCATIoNAL AN D PsycHoLoc;tcAL

MI.]AS

l RL IvILN-T

I

q85.

45

THE STRESSAROUSAL

CHECKLIST:

AN INDEPENDENT

ANALYSIS

IA IN A. McCORMICK.

FRANK H.

WALKEY.

AND A. J .

W. TAYLOR

Victor iaUniversitv f

Well inston.

ew Zealand

The factor structure of

the Stress

Arousal Checkl ist

(SACL)

was

examined

using he responses

f a New

Zealand sample

of 203

irst

and second

year

University

students.

The

results

produced

an

almost exact

repl icat ion of

the two bipolar

factors claimed

by

the

authors

who

developed

he SACL.

In addit ion

the results

support

the

circumplex

model of affect

in

which mood states

are

viewed

not as unipolar

independent

var iables but

as two

dimensiclnal

bipolar var iables that can be arranged n a circular form.

Mooo adject ive checkl ists

have become

a useful

means

for

evaluat ing stress responses

in a

wide range of

situat ions,

for

example from a sale training course

(Burrows,

Cox,

and Simpson.

1977) hrough to an overland

Antarctic

traverse

(McCormick,

1983).

The

Stress

Arousal

Checkl is t

SACL)

(Mackay,

Cox,

Burrows,

and

Lazzerini, 1978) s one such

measure

which contains

45 adjectives

that are rated by subjectson a fbur point scale rom "definitely feel"

through

"feel

slightly"

and

"do

not understand

or cannot

decide"

to

"definitely

feel." This checklist

was developed

from

Thayer's

(1970)

Activation-Deactivation

checklist

by changing

adjectives

hat

were

considered to

be too

"American"

in their orientation

ftrr '

British respondents.

Mood checklists

have both theore tical

and

practical

value and

the

factor

structure of

these scales

has become

a matter of

increasing

This study was supported

in

part

by

the Mental

Heal th

Foundat ion of

New

Zealand.

Repr int requests should

be sent to

Frank H.

Walkey, Psycholclgy

Department.

V ictor ia

Universi ty

of Well ington,

Private

Bag. Well ington,

New

Zealand'

Copyright

o 1985Educational

nd Psychological

easurement

143



144 EDUCATIONALANDPSYCHOLOGICALMEASUREMENT

interest ollowing

he

publication

f

the circumplex

model

of

affect

by Russell

1980).

he early

actor analytic

studies

f affect

scales

(e.g.,

Nowlis and Nowlis,

1956) oncluded

hat here

werebetween

ten

and twelve independent

monopolar

actors comprising

affect

such

as tension,sadness,

nxiety,

and

the l ike.

Russel l

1980)

however

has

claimed

hat

affective

tates

were not

ndependent

ut

are

nterrelatedn a

highly systematic

ashion hat can

be

regarded

as wo dimensional

ipolar

variables rranged

n

circular

orm.

The

factor structure f

the SACL

hasbeen

usedas evidence

o support

the modelandas

a

consequence

he

present

uthors

ave

undertak-

en an independent

xamination

f

its factor structure.

In order o reproduce nd herefore erify he actoranalytic asis

for a

subscale

tructure

t hasbeen

argued

hat one

actorshould

be

rotated or each subscale

laimed

o be

found

in a

questionnaire

(Walkey

and Green,

l98l;

Walkey,

1982).The

init ial

analysis

thereforeextracted

wo

factorsas

this is the

numberclaimed

by

Mackay

et

al.

(1978).

The

present

study

therefore

has wo

aims, irstly

to

provide

an

independent valuation

f the

factor structure

of

the SACL

as a

measureof stress

and secondly

o relate

these findings

o the

circumplexmodelof affect.

Method

The study

nvolved203

irst and second

ear

students

72

male

and 131 emale) rom Victoria

University

of

Wellington

who

volun-

tarily

completed

he SACL

as

part

of

a class

aboratory

exercise.

The subjects anged

n age rom

18 o 54.

As Mackay

et al.

(1978)

and Russell

1980)

avedemonstrated

hat

the

factorsof the

SACL

are uncorrelated,esponses ere subjectedo a principalcompo-

nentsanalysis

with a

varimax otationof

the first

wo factors,

using

the factor analysis

procedure

rom

the SPSS/V8

ackage

f

pro-

grams

Nie,

Hul l , Jenkins,

teinbenner,

nd

Bent, 1975).

Re ults and

Dist' ssictn

The results

ndicate hat

the two

factor bipolar

nature

of the

measure

was reproduced lmost

perfectly

Table

). Only

item

l6

('dejected')

ell

outside

he

actor oading

ut off

pointof .40used n

the

original

Mackayet al.

(1978)

tudy.

All of

the other

tems

were

clustered orrectlyaccording

o

the expected

actor

structure.

he

reversed

olarity

ofthe

stress

ubscale

s an analytic

rtifact

and

had

no importance o the overall

replication

of

the factor

structure.



IA IN A. McCORMICK

ET AL.

. |ABLE

I

Fuctor Loudint son

the

SACL

I tem

N o . Adject ive

STRESS

Mackay Present

Fac to r l Fac lo r l

I t em

Loadings Loadings

No.

AROUSAt.,

Mackay

Present

Factor I Factor 2

Adject ive Loadings

Loadings

I

7

9

l 3

t 4

l 6

l 9

22

73

ztl

38

3

6

l 0

25

29

30

3 l

) a

Tense

Apprehensive

Bothered

Worried

U

neasy

Dejected

Nervous

Distressed

Fearful

Up-t ight

J t tery

Relaxed

Rest fu l

Peaceful

Cheer lu l

Contented

Pleasant

Comfortable

Ca lm

0.75

0.54

0 . 7 1

0 . 7 1

0.72

0.59

0.64

0.73

0.42

0.70

0.6.1

0.6u

-

0.5-s

-0 .68

0.64

-

0 .73

0.68

0.-56

-0 .68

0.67

- '() .5

I

-0 .70

0.-57

-

0 .70

0.35

-

0.69

-0 .64

0.53

-0.8t)

0.6t i

0 .1)

0 . 6 1

0.70

0.-52

0.69

0.62

0.61

0.73

V gorous

Acl lve

Energetic

Act ivated

Alert

I - ively

S t imu la ted

Aroused

Drowsy

'Iired

td le

Somnolent

Sluggish

Sleepy

0.69

0.-s5

0 . 7 1 0 . 7 5

0.7-5 0.73

0.66

0.63

0.63 0.6-5

0.77

0.68

0.60 0 .68

0. -56 0 .58

0 . 7 1

-

0 . 6 2

- 0 . 6 1

0 . 6 2

0.54

0.56

-

0 . -s6

-0 .11

-0 .65

0.63

-0.7_s

0.67

l l

16

21

-t a

39

42

2

5

24

35*

)7

4 l

43

44

fhis i tem loadetl higher than .40 on

These esults

provide

strongevidence

or the subscale tructure f

the SACL and support Russell'scircumplex

model of

afl 'ectby

replicatingts

two-dimensional

ipolarstructure.

REFERENCES

Burrows,

G. G., Cox,

T., andSimpson, .

G.

(1971).

hemeasure-

ment

of stress n a sales

rainingsituation. lournel

of

Occupu-

tioncrl syc'hology,0, 45-51.

Lorr,

M., McNair,D. M., and

Fisher,S.

(1982).

vidence f bipolar

mood

scales. ournal

oJ'Personalitlt ssessment,

6, 432-436.

Mackay,

C., Cox, T.,

Burrows,G., and Lazzerini ,

.

(1978).

n

inventory br the measurementf self'-reported

tress ndarous-

al. BritishJournul

qf

Social

ond

Clinical

Psyc'holog.v,

7,283-

284.

McCormick, l. A. (1983).Psychologit:'al spectsof stressantl

c'oping n the Antorc'tit' .Ph.D.

thesis n

preparation,

Victoria

Universityof Wellington,

New Zealand.

N ie ,N. H. , Hu l l ,

C .

H. ,

Jenk ins ,

. C . , S te inbrenner ,

. , andBent ,

D.

H.

(1975).

SPSS; statisticol

pac'kage

br

sot' ial scienc'es,

Second dit ion.New York: McGraw

Hil l .



146

EDUCATIONALANDPSYCHOLOGICALMEASUREMENT

Nowlis,

V. andNowlis,

H. H.

(1956).

he descript ion

ndanalysis

of mood.Annols

of the Neu,York

Academy

of Sc'ienc:e,

5.

345*

3_55.

Russell,J. A. (1980).A circumplexmodel of affect.Journal of

Personality

tnd

SocialPsychology,

9, 116l-l 178.

Thayer,

R. E.

(1970).

ctivation

states s assessed

y

verbalreport

and

four

psychophysiological

ariables.

Psychophysiology,

,

86-94.

Walkey,

F. H.

(1982).

he Multidimensional

ear of Death

Scale:

An

independent

nalysis.

ournal of

Consultingand

Clinical

Psyc

ology, 50, 466-467

Walkey,

F. H.

and Green, D.

E.

(1981).

he

structure f the

Eysenck

Personality

nventory:A

comparison etween

simple

and more

complex

analyses f a multiple

scale

questionnaire.

MultivariateBehaviouralResearch. 6.361-372.

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