Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire

Background:

Emotions help us respond adaptively to environmental challenges and opportunities. Unlike other biologically based response tendencies, such as reflexes, however, emotions only incline us to act in certain ways; they do not compel us to do so. This means that we may deny expression to some emotional impulses while freely expressing others. Striking individual differences in ex-pressivity suggest that people differ in their response tendencies and in how they express these impulses as they arise. The Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire assesses three different facets of emotional expressivity: negative expressivity, positive expressivity, and impulse strength.

Psychometrics:

In the most recent study, the alphas were .86 for the total BEQ, and .70, .70, and .80 for the three subscales Negative Expressivity, Positive Expressivity, and Impulse Strength, respectively. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the 16 items in the BEQ were all positively intercorrelated, with a mean interitem correlation of .27. To test whether the BEQ items would again form a General Expressivity factor with three facets, we subjected the interitem correlation matrix to a principal-components analysis. The first unrotated factor accounted for 33% of the total variance, and all 16 items loaded positively, with a mean loading of .57. The two items with the highest loadings (.75 and .73, respectively) were “I am an emotionally expressive person,” and “What I’m feeling is written all over my face.” For full psychometric description, see Gross, J.J., & John, O.P. (1997). Revealing feelings: Facets of emotional expressivity in self-reports, peer ratings, and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 435-448.

Author of Tool:

Gross, J.J., & John, O.P.

Key references:

Primary use / Purpose:

The Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire assesses three facets of emotional expressivity: negative expressivity, positive expressivity, and impulse strength.

Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire

The Berkeley Expressivity Questionnaire assesses three facets of emotional expressivity: negative expressivity, positive expressivity, and impulse strength.

Its citation is:

Other references include:

For each statement below, please indicate your agreement or disagreement. Do so by filling in the blank in front of each item with the appropriate number from the following rating scale:

• strongly disagree   1
• neutral      4                                                                                    
• strongly agree      7                                                                          

1.   Whenever I feel positive emotions, people can easily see exactly what I am feeling.
2.   I sometimes cry during sad movies.
3.   People often do not know what I am feeling.
4.   I laugh out loud when someone tells me a joke that I think is funny.
5.   It is difficult for me to hide my fear.
6.   When I’m happy, my feelings show.
7.   My body reacts very strongly to emotional situations.
8.   I’ve learned it is better to suppress my anger than to show it.
9.   No matter how nervous or upset I am, I tend to keep a calm exterior.
10. I am an emotionally expressive person.
11. I have strong emotions.
12. I am sometimes unable to hide my feelings, even though I would like to.
13. Whenever I feel negative emotions, people can easily see exactly what I am feeling.
14. There have been times when I have not been able to stop crying even though I tried to stop.
15. I experience my emotions very strongly.
16. What I’m feeling is written all over my face.

Scoring:

compute beq03r=(8-beq03). compute beq08r=(8-beq08). compute beq09r=(8-beq09).

compute beq.nex=mean(beq09r,beq13,beq16,beq03r,beq05,beq08r). compute beq.pex=mean(beq06,beq01,beq04,beq10).

compute beq.str=mean(beq15,beq11,beq14,beq07,beq02,beq12). compute beq=mean(beq.nex,beq.pex,beq.str).