Interpersonal Emotion Management Questionnaire – Chinese Version

Description

Emotional manipulation refers to the ability to influence the behaviors and feelings of others to achieve one’s self-goals (Austin, Farrelly, Black, & Moore, 2007). Initially perceived as an effective means to gain parental attention, attract partners, and acquire social resources, the phenomenon has evolved with the rise of Pick Up Artists (PUA), who exploit emotional manipulation for profit. For instance, one party in a romantic relationship may use emotional control to manipulate, deceive, and abuse the other for sexual contact or personal gain. An increasing number of researchers have shifted their focus to the darker side of emotional manipulation.

Authors and Contact Email

Austin and O’Donnell (2013)

Purpose

Austin and O’Donnell developed the Managing the Emotions of Others Scale (MEOS) to assess prosocial and antisocial emotional manipulation.

Test Year

2013

Administration Method and Scoring

The MEOS initially contained 58 items, which were categorized as emotional enhancement (情绪提升), emotional worsening (情绪恶化), emotional concealment (情绪隐藏), inauthentic emotional expression (不真实情绪表达), poor skills (技巧差), and emotional diversion (情绪转移). Since the “poor skills” dimension showed low correlation with other dimensions, it was removed during subsequent revisions, simplifying the scale to 30 items (Austin, Saklofske, & Smith, 2018).

Reliability and Validity

Qianglong Wang and colleagues developed the Chinese version, which includes three dimensions with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.65, 0.82, and 0.85.

Factors and Subscales

The MEOS-SF consists of five dimensions:
1. 情绪提升 (ENHANCE)
2. 情绪转移 (DIVERT)
3. 情绪恶化 (WORSEN)
4. 不真实情绪表达 (INAUTHENTIC)
5. 情绪隐藏 (CONCEAL)

Keywords

Emotional manipulation, MEOS, prosocial, antisocial, emotional control, romantic relationships

Items in Chinese

ENHANCE
1. 如果有人感到焦虑，我会试着通过与他们交谈来安抚他们。
2. 当某人因某个问题感到焦虑时，我会试着帮助他们找出解决方案。
3. 如果某人感到焦虑，我会努力安慰他们。
4. 当某人面临压力时，我会努力增强他们应对的信心。
5. 如果某人感到不快乐，我会表明我理解他们的感受。
6. 如果某人有问题，我会提供帮助（如果他们需要）。

DIVERT
1. 如果某人生气，我会试着通过愉快的方式转移他们的情绪。
2. 当某人情绪低落时，我会表现得快乐和愉快以让他们感觉好一点。
3. 当某人心情不好时，我会通过讲笑话或有趣的故事来转移他们的注意力。
4. 如果某人不快乐，我会通过谈论一些积极的事情来让他们振作。
5. 我有时会用幽默来试图提升另一个人的情绪。
6. 如果某人处于尴尬的情况，我会努力通过表现快乐和愉快来缓解局势。

WORSEN
1. 我利用愤怒让他人做我想让他们做的事情。
2. 我有时会在公共场合贬低某人，让他们感觉糟糕。
3. 我知道如何让某人因他们所做的事情感到羞愧，以避免他们再次这样做。
4. 我可以让某人感到焦虑，以便他们以特定方式行事。
5. 我使用批评让他人感到应该更努力。
6. 如果我不喜欢某人的行为，我会发表消极评论让他们感觉不佳。

INAUTHENTIC
1. 我有时会闹情绪让某人感到内疚。
2. 我有时会闹情绪让某人改变他们的行为。
3. 如果某人的行为让我感到痛苦，我会试图让他们感到内疚。
4. 我有时会用奉承来获得或维持某人的好印象。
5. 如果我想让某人为我做某事，我会试图引起他们的同情。
6. 如果我想让某人为我做某事，我在请求之前会特别对他们好。

CONCEAL
1. 我常常向他人隐瞒愤怒和痛苦。
2. 我隐藏我的感受，以免让别人担心我。
3. 当某人让我感到不快或愤怒时，我经常隐瞒我的感受。
4. 当某人让我感到不快或愤怒时，我倾向于淡化我的感受。
5. 我不相信告诉他人我的问题——我将其保留给自己。
6. 如果某人试图在我情绪低落时让我感觉更好，我会假装自己更快乐以取悦他们。

Items in English

ENHANCE
1. If someone is feeling anxious, I try to calm them down by talking with them.
2. When someone is anxious about a problem, I try to help them work out a solution.
3. If someone is anxious, I try to reassure them.
4. When someone is under stress, I try to boost their confidence in their ability to cope.
5. When someone is unhappy, I show that I understand how they are feeling.
6. If someone has a problem, I offer to help if they need it.

DIVERT
1. If someone is angry, I try to divert their mood by being cheerful.
2. When someone is in a low mood, I behave in a happy and cheerful way to make them feel better.
3. When someone is in a bad mood, I try to divert them by telling jokes or funny stories.
4. When someone is unhappy, I try to cheer them by talking about something positive.
5. I sometimes use humor to try to lift another person’s mood.
6. If someone is being awkward, I try to defuse the situation by being cheerful and pleasant.

WORSEN
1. I use anger to get others to do things that I want them to do.
2. I sometimes put someone down in public to make them feel bad.
3. I know how to make someone feel ashamed about something that they have done in order to stop them from doing it again.
4. I can make someone feel anxious so that they will act in a particular way.
5. I use criticism to make others feel that they should work harder.
6. If I don’t like someone’s behavior, I make negative comments in order to make them feel bad.

INAUTHENTIC
1. I sometimes sulk to make someone feel guilty.
2. I sometimes sulk to get someone to change their behavior.
3. If someone’s behavior has caused me distress, I try to make them feel guilty about it.
4. I sometimes use flattery to gain or keep someone’s good opinion.
5. If I want someone to do something for me, I try to elicit sympathy from them.
6. If I want someone to do something for me, I am especially nice to them before asking.

CONCEAL
1. I often conceal feelings of anger and distress from others.
2. I hide my feelings so others won’t worry about me.
3. When someone has made me upset or angry, I often conceal my feelings.
4. When someone has made me upset or angry, I tend to downplay my feelings.
5. I don’t believe in telling others about my problems – I keep them to myself.
6. If someone tries to make me feel better when I am feeling low, I pretend to feel happier to please that person.

References

许晨曦. 亲密关系中情绪操纵的影响因素研究[D].西南大学,2022.DOI:10.27684/d.cnki.gxndx.2022.000724.
Wang Qianglong,Zhang Zhuo,Song Ping,Liu Zhenbiao,Zhang Qingyun,Vivino Anthony A,Yang Bo,Hu Ping. Factor structure and construct validity of the short form of managing the emotions of others (MEOS-SF) scale in the Chinese sample.[J]. PloS one,2021,16(4).
Austin Elizabeth J,Saklofske Donald H,Smith Martin M. Development and Validation of Two Short Forms of the Managing the Emotions of Others (MEOS) Scale.[J]. Frontiers in psychology,2018,9.