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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
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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.
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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 .
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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.