A Preliminary Validation of the Worcester Affect Scale

DOI:10.2478/v10237-011-0033-8Sport Science Review, vol. XIX, No. 5-6, December 2010

Affect in Sporting Activities: a Preliminary Validation of the Worcester Affect Scale

Clare RHODEN • Julia WEST

he overly long psychometric measures available for affect may have Tcaused difficulty measuring this construct during physical activity (Barkoff & Heiby, 2005; Wilhelm & Schoebi, 2007). This paper aims to create a two-item affect scale to measure feeling states during physical activity. In study 1 ninety-four participants completed the PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) and the newly designed Worcester Affect Scale (WAS) measuring positive and negative affect. In study 2, seven participants completed two 20km cycle time trials in the laboratory. PANAS and WAS were administered prior to and after the trials and WAS was reported at frequent regular intervals during each time trial. Preliminary validation of the WAS was confirmed with significant correlations between the WAS and PANAS. The WAS scale is quick and easy to administer and was sensitive in measuring fluctuations in affect within a 20km cycle time trial. Future work is needed to examine the fluctuations in affect and clarify the relationship between positivity and negativity.

Keywords: Affect, mood, emotion, measurement.

Introduction Psychological research has acknowledged the importance of affect in developing an understanding of human behaviour and cognition (Fazackerley, Lane & Mahoney, 2004; Kramer & Yoon, 2007; Martin, Anderson & Gates 2000; Watson & Clark, 1997). Thus mood, emotion and affect have received much attention in many areas of sport and exercise psychology (Jones, Lane, Bray, Uphill & Catlin, 2005; Lane, Beedie & Stevens, 2005; Watson & Clark, 1997). As there is a common difficulty with access to and therefore, measurement of participants during sporting situations, assessing the effects and changes of affect, mood or emotion during activity have not been well documented (Baker,

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Denniston, Zabora, Polland & Dudley, 2002; Malouff, Schutte & Ramerth, 1985; Västfjäll & Gärling, 2007; Wilhelm & Schoebi, 2007). This important process may have been hindered in the past due to the overly long psychometric measures available (Barkoff & Heiby, 2005). This paper proposes to address this issue by seeking to create and validate an affect scale which could be used to collect feeling states during a physical activity. Thus the specific aims of the study are to provide a rationale for a very brief measure and to validate this measure using previously established, valid and reliable tools. Moods and emotions have both been described as affective feelings (Neumann, Seibt & Strack, 2001). However, more explicit definitions describe emotion as an immediate response to a specific stimulus, whereas mood is considered to be a less intense more general response which is not linked to a triggering stimulus (Diener & Iran-Nejad, 1986; Jones, 2003; Lane et al., 2005). Affect is usually related to an overall concept of valence encompassing both mood and emotion and classifying them as positive or negative (Barkoff & Heiby, 2005; Lane et al., 2005). Additionally, the resultant person by situation interactions which occur in every day experiences can influence or impact on an individuals’ psychological state and have been collectively described as affect (Duncan & Barrett, 2007). Whilst many authors seem to use the terms emotion, mood and affect synonymously; this usually occurs when discussing general factors such as valence and during discussion of positive or negative descriptors and constructs (Bartels, 2007; Bryant, Yarnold & Grimm, 1996; Bye, Pushkar & Conway, 2007; Haddock, Zanna & Esses, 1994;; Laurin & Nicolas, 2008; Neumann et al., 2001; Smith, 2006; Weinstein, Mermelstein, Hankin, Hedeker & Flay, 2007). Where an individual experiences fear as a negative affect this can be related to other negative affects such as anger or sadness (Watson & Clark, 1992). This is also found with specific types of positive affect, for example, those experiencing love tend to also experience joy (Diener, Smith & Fujita, 1995; Watson & Clark, 1992). Further evidence provides support for this, finding that different mood elements can be correlated together resulting in a common broad dimension of affect (Diener et al., 1995; Ekkekakis, 2008; Tellegen, Watson & Clark, 1999; Watson & Clark, 1992, 1997; Watson & Tellegen, 1985). Extensive research in this area demonstrates robust and significant evidence for a hierarchical structure where positive and negative affect are acknowledged as two broad dimensions (Watson & Clark, 1997). Within this hierarchical model, the lower level experiences of affect equate to specific descriptors such as joy, happiness, sadness and fear. At the higher level these specific descriptors align together and represent the two non specific broad dimensions of affect (Watson & Clark, 1997). Variations in negative and

72 Sport Science Review, vol. XIX, No. 5-6, December 2010 positive affect are related but largely independent of one another (Watson & Clark, 1997). The evidence suggests that positive and negative affect are the two major consistent factors across different time frames/ response formats/ rotational themes and within, between tests also supports these as higher order factors (for a detailed review see Watson & Clark, 1997). Thus assessment of affect within this hierarchical framework requires a focus on measuring the higher order factors of positive and negative affect (Watson & Clark, 1997). Lower order assessment of affect has been more complex with many similar mood states and emotional response scales being developed in the absence of an underlying theoretical framework (Carels, Coit, Young & Berger, 2007; Lane et al., 2005; Malouff et al., 1985; Martin et al., 2000; Terry, Lane, Lane & Keohane, 1999; Watson & Clark, 1997). However, the continuing discussion concerning mood and emotion as lower order factors is beyond the scope of this study (see Watson & Clark, 1997 or Lane et al., 2005 for a review). This paper acknowledges the proposed hierarchical framework suggested by Watson & Clark (1997) and focuses on measuring the situation feelings using the higher order factors of positive and negative affect. Further in a contrasting major model of affect (Russell’s, 1980 Circumplex model) containing two principal dimensions; pleasantness/ unpleasantness, activation/ deactivation, it has been shown empirically that Watson and Clark (1997) concept of positive and negative affect align with the pleasantness and unpleasantness in the activated state (Feldman Barrett and Russell, 1998; Yik, Russell & Suzuki, 2003). It may be logical to assume that exercise equates to an activated state and hence this study proposes to measure affect during activity utilising the positive and negative definitions represented in the activated state of the Circumplex model (Yik, Russell & Suzuki, 2003; Watson & Clark, 1997). Physical activity and sport has been shown to have beneficial positive effects on affect (Barkoff & Heiby, 2005; Carels et al., 2007; Jones, 2003; Russell, Pritschet, Frost, Emmett, Pelley, Black & Owen, 2003). In some instances, the difficulty in measuring affect pre and post activity seems to be timing the administration of the instrument to enable sufficient time for completion and being confident that the upcoming or previous activity is responsible for the resulting data. However, whilst these studies have measured affect before and after activity there is little evidence for assessing this construct during actual performance. Performance is determined by both psychological and physiological variables thus sampling at a higher frequency, in line with physiological protocols, will enable interdisciplinary analysis and a greater understanding of the causes of successful sports performance. In many dynamic situations, where positive and negative affect may change rapidly, researchers need to use as brief a measure

73 Affect in Sport Activities as possible. These quick assessments of affect may provide a reduction in respondent burden resulting in more valid responses (Baker et al., 2002; Malouff et al., 1985; Västfjäll & Gärling, 2007; Wilhelm & Schoebi, 2007). Furthermore, asking for frequent data during investigation may be impractical within the sporting activity using current measures. Therefore, brief versions of common affect measures are necessary.

Various shortened versions have already been created (Bryant et al., 1996; Malouff et al., 1985). The Profile of Mood States (POMS; McNair, Lorr & Droppleman, 1971) is a commonly used measure for mood in the sport and physical activity domain. The Profile of Mood States – Short Form (POMS-SF; Shacham, 1983 in Malouff et. al, 1985) and the Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS: Terry et al., 1999) have both been developed from the original POMS instrument in an attempt to provide a more useable and less time consuming measures. However, the POMS is a 65-item scale and takes approximately 5-7 minutes for a healthy individual to complete, those who are physically ill may take up to 3 times longer (Baker et al., 2002; Curran, Andrykowski & Studts, 1995). Even using the shortened version of the POMS (POMS-SF) response time is only reduced by 50% which may still preclude their usage in some situations (Baker et al., 2002). Furthermore, the POMS bases its normative values on college students and psychiatric outpatients who may perceive, for example vigor and fatigue, in a totally different way (Baker et al., 2002; Martin et al., 2000). Furthermore, the POMS measures lower order factors whereas this study purports to assess the higher order affect. The Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS; Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988), on the other hand, is an accepted short measure of positive and negative affect which captures these higher order constructs (Watson & Clark, 1997). Furthermore, extensive analysis of the PANAS reveals it is valid and reliable for within and between subject analyses over a range of different time periods (Watson & Clark, 1997; Watson et al., 1988). However, to ask participants to complete twenty questions during continuous sport performance is still unrealistic and time consuming taking between 35-45 seconds to complete. The Physical Activity Affect Scale (PAAS; Lox et al, 2000) was developed in response to a need for domain specific measures (e.g. exercise and physical activity) and consists of 12 single adjective items in subscales of positive affect, negative affect, tranquillity and fatigue. The PAAS has received empirical support for its structure in a range of situations (Lox et al, 2000); for example active and non active (Carpenter et al, 2010) and exercise induced affect in a sample of participants with brain injuries (Driver, 2006). The PAAS is a multidimensional measure and aligns with the circumplex model of affect (Russell, 1980). Whilst

74 Sport Science Review, vol. XIX, No. 5-6, December 2010 the PAAS could be used as a short measure of affect before, during and after activity (Driver, 2006), it may still be too lengthy, taking 30-40 seconds to complete, for use during continuous activity in some competitive sport (e.g. long distance running, cycling and rowing). This is particularly the case in this current research with proposed high frequency sampling protocol where the aim is to align affect measures with RPE and other physiological measures during exercise for interdisciplinary analysis. There may be an assumption that brief scales could lose information and sensitivity (Curran et al., 1995). However, reducing the number of subscales has been found to have no effect on the reliability and validity of some measures (Västfjäll & Gärling, 2007). In contrast, reducing the number of subscales by possibly removing potential anomalies has led to superior internal consistency than the longer measure, thus strengthening the validity of the shorter version (Curran et al., 1995). Although there is increasing pressure for shorter and quicker measures, they should still be valid and reliable (Baker et al., 2002). This study proposes a new two item measure for use during activity; one single item for positive affect and one for negative affect. The use of single items may mean that reliability of the specific components cannot be determined or separated from measurement error (Wilhelm & Schoebi, 2007). However, if the shortened form is correlated with another measure (e.g. PANAS) or the measure it derived from this may be more acceptable and results have shown confidence in the validity of the brief scale (Curran et al., 1995; Malouff et al., 1985; Västfjäll & Gärling, 2007). The development of an extremely short affect measure (Worcester Affect Scale; WAS) is necessary to enable the collection of affect data during a laboratory controlled physical activity. Even the shortened versions of various mood, emotion and affect scales such as, POMS-SF (Shacham, 1983, in Malouff et al., 1985), BRUMS (Terry et al., 1999), Sport Emotion Questionnaire (SEQ; Jones et al., 2005) and PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) would distract the participant for too long during the task making regular and repeated measurements too cumbersome and impractical. Ekkekakis, Hall & Petruzello (2008) used the Feeling Scale as a measure of affective valence which consists of a single item, however, the scoring only enables a bipolar concept of affect (-5 to +5) and does not allow the option for independence. Using an independent scale will allow individuals to choose whether their interpretation is indeed bipolar (e.g. scoring 8 on positive scale and 2 on the negative scale) or independent. More importantly this aspect of choice may help to determine affectual changes during exercise from an independent or bipolar perspective (Russell, 1980). Therefore, taking into consideration recommendations from previous literature, the aim of this research was to develop and validate a two item scale for measuring affect

75 Affect in Sport Activities based on the well established and validated PANAS which could be used during a continuous physical activity. Study 1 In study 1, we sought to explore the relationships between the newly created WAS and its parent scale the PANAS within a non exercise setting, in order to assess the extent to which the WAS measured levels of positive and negative affect similarly to the PANAS. As the PANAS measures subscales of positive and negative affect and the WAS scale comprised two separate single rating scales of positive and negative affect our assumption was that there would be positive correlations between PANAS positive affect (PA) and WAS PA and then PANAS negative affect (NA) and WAS NA. Method Participants. This study used a cross-sectional survey design collecting data from a range of participants at a single point in time (Smith, 2010; Cozby, 2007; Thomas & Nelson, 2001). A heterogeneous opportunity sample of ninety four adults (male and female; age 18+) who currently participate in a range of sports or physical activities (hockey, football, netball, running, tennis and swimming) were recruited for this study. The sample comprised a mix of both physically active non-competitive (50%) and competitive sports participants (50%). Of the competitive sport participants, all competed at either Club or recreational level. As the focus of this current investigation was the correlation between the newly created WAS scale and the PANAS, whole group data was analysed with no analysis of male/female or competitive/non-competitive differences. All participants were provided with detailed information about the research and gave full informed consent prior to data collection.

Measures. Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). The PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) was devised in response to the need for a reliable and valid measure of positive and negative affect and comprised two separate 10-item mood scales. For each adjective participants rated how they feel “right now” on a five point likert scale (0= not at all; 1=a little; 2=moderately; 3=quite a bit and 4=very much) for adjectives on the PA scale (for example; active, inspired, enthusiastic and determined) and on the NA scale (for example; afraid, scared, upset, and ashamed). Initial assessment of the measure revealed that internal consistency reliability scores range from .86 to .90 for PA and .84 to .87 for NA (Crawford & Henry, 2004; DePaoli & Sweeney, 2000). Furthermore, subsequent contradictory findings (for example, Green, Goldman & Salovey, 1993), provoked Watson &

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Clark (1997) to complete further statistical analysis of new and existing data thus confirming the PANAS as a reliable and valid measure of PA and NA.

Worcester Affect Scale (WAS). The WAS was developed within the hierarchical framework suggested by Watson & Clark (1997) to measure the non specific higher order level of PA and NA rather than the specific lower level affect descriptors, e.g. sad, joy. Further, in response to the need for a concurrent measure to track fluctuations of affect during physical activity two single item scales were devised. The positive scale required participants to rate how positive they felt “right now” on a 10-point likert scale (1= not at all positive; 10=extremely positive). The negative scale required participants to rate how negative they felt right now on a 10-point likert scale (1= not at all negative; 10=extremely negative).

Procedure. After gaining Institutional ethical clearance, potential participants were briefed about the study and invited to participate at a later date. Participants were assured of confidentiality and anonymity and provided informed consent prior to completion of questionnaires. Participants were asked to complete both the PANAS and WAS relating their responses to “how they felt right now”. All participants completed both measures in a controlled environment, individually and on one occasion in a non sport or physical activity setting to provide initial validation of this measure. To avoid order effects, a counterbalancing strategy was employed where half of the participants completed the WAS first whilst the remaining participants completed the PANAS first. Data was collated, stored and analysed and WAS scores were correlated to PANAS subscale scores. Results After assessment of homogeneity and variance, non-parametric Spearman’s Rank Order Correlations of item-totals were used to assess the relationships between the PANAS PA subscale with the WAS PA scale and similarly, the PANAS NA subscale with the WAS NA scale. Classification of correlational strength were reported following Cohen’s (1988) criteria where r=0.10 to 0.29 equates with a low correlation, r=0.30 to 0.49 is reported as a medium correlation and r=0.50 to 1.0 is classified as a large correlation. There was a significant large positive correlation between the PANAS positive affect scale and the WAS positive affect scale (r=0.56, n=94, p=0.0001, see Table 1). Thus, high levels of positive affect as measured through the PANAS were associated with high levels of positive affect as measured by the WAS with an explained variance of 31.6% (r2 = 0.316). Assessment of the PANAS negative affect scale and the WAS negative affect scale revealed a

77 Affect in Sport Activities medium strength correlation (r=0.36, n=94, p=0.0001) with 13.2% of shared variance. Increases in negativity on the PANAS negative scale were reflected in corresponding increases on the WAS negative scale. Table 1. PANAS and WAS scale correlations. Variables n Spearman’s Rho r2 PANAS positive/WAS positive 94 0.56* 0.316 PANAS negative/WAS negative 94 0.36* 0.132 Note: *p <0.01

The internal correlation assessing the relationship between the PANAS positive and negative scale was significant and positive. Increasing positive scores experienced by participants also corresponded to an increase in negative scores (r = 0.36, p<0.01, r2 = 0.132; see Table 2). In contrast, the correlation between the WAS positive and negative scales was significant and negative (r = –0.48, p<0.01, r2 = 0.23). In both of the cases, the coefficient of determination was low with 13% and 23% of the variance explained by the respective relationships. Table 2. PANAS and WAS scale internal correlations. Variables n Spearman’s Rho r2 PANAS positive/WAS positive 94 0.56* 0.316 PANAS negative/WAS negative 94 0.36* 0.132 Note: * p<0.01 Study 2 In study 2 we were keen to examine changes in affect at regular, frequent time intervals throughout continuous physical activity. Although there is empirical support for a short measure of affect in physical activity (PAAS) (Carpenter et al., 2010; Driver, 2006; Lox et al., 2000), this measure is still too lengthy for assessment at short intervals. The test protocol in this research included the assessment of affect every 0.5km throughout a 20km cycle time trial. During the pilot study, the timing of this assessment differed between participants but generally occurred every 40-80 seconds. Current brief affect scales, for example PANAS and PAAS take 35-45 seconds and 25-35 seconds to complete respectively. Use of these scales would mean that for this protocol we would be sampling almost continually. In addition this research focuses on measurement of the valence of affect at the broad higher order dimensions level (Watson,

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2000) with a view to future interdisciplinary analyses. There is the potential for a loss of sensitivity of affective states by utilising this measurement approach; however literature suggests that the relationship between affective states can be encompassed within few broad dimensions (Ekkekakis et al., 2008; Russell, 1980; Watson & Clark, 1997). There is a need for continuous measurement of affect during continuous exercise and sports such as cycling, running, triathlon and rowing. Previous studies have shown relationships between positive and negative affect and their effect on performance with higher negative affect occurring in failure conditions (Walsh et al., 1992) and higher levels of positive affect occurring with higher levels of performance (Sanchez et al., 2010). Consequently the aim of study 2 was to analyse the changes in positive and negative affect over the course of two 20km cycle time trials. From anecdotal evidence it was suggested that significant fluctuations in affect occur over the time trial and between time trials. Method Participants. In an experimental laboratory based study, seven participants (6 male and 1 female) aged 32.6 ± 11.5 years were recruited from local endurance based sports clubs where a significant part of their training involved cycling. All participants were well trained experienced cyclists. Institutional ethics clearance was gained and participants completed health screening and written informed consent prior to testing.

Measures. Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). Similar to study 1 the PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) was used to assess PA and NA prior to and post two 20km time trials a maximum of two weeks apart.

Worcester Affect Scale (WAS). The Worcester Affect Scale (WAS) was used to assess state affect prior to and post the 20km time trials. In addition, to measure state affect within activity, it was administered with instructions regarding “how you feel right now?” and this related to their feelings at that point in time and was the same in both time trials. The WAS takes between 5-10 seconds to complete thus enabling measurement of affect at a high frequency sampling during activity.

Procedure. On arrival and upon completion of health screening and informed consent forms, participants completed the PANAS and WAS measures within one hour before the time trial. Participants used their own cycle mounted upon a Kingcycle ergometer rig (Kingcycle Ltd, High Wycombe UK) and were allowed appropriate familiarisation time and self-designed warm up. The Kingcycle rig was interfaced to a PC equipped with the Kingcycle v6.7 software

79 Affect in Sport Activities package and calibrated. During a self-selected warm up participants were briefed about responding verbally on the PA and NA scale when prompted by the researcher and this would occur every 0.5km throughout the trial. Participants were instructed to complete the 20km time trial as fast as possible. Within 10 minutes of completion of the time trial and appropriate cool down, participants completed the PANAS and WAS. The second time trial was conducted under the same conditions within two weeks. Results Study 2 aimed to analyse the fluctuations in positive and negative affect over the course of two 20km cycle time trials and to analyse relationships between PA and NA. Graphical representation of the data was undertaken to show the fluctuations in state affect over the course of both time trials. Wilcoxon signed Ranks tests assessed differences between Trial 1 (T1) and Trial (T2). Spearman’s Rank Order correlations were performed between PA and NA PANAS and WAS data pre and post time trial similar to study 1.

Fluctuations in affect. Group median scores for T1 and T2 show different patterns of PA and NA over the course of the time trials (see Figure 1). Visual inspection shows continuous fluctuations in NA throughout the 20km time trial and these fluctuations are significantly different between T1 and T2 (Z=-4.15, p=0.001). There are also fluctuations observed for PA, however, these occur in the first 6km (section 1) and the last 5.5km (section 3) of the time trial (Figure 1). Whilst there were no significant differences between T1 and T2 across the whole 20km for PA, there was a significant difference for section 1 (Z=-2.92, p=0.004) showing higher levels of PA for T2. Section 2 shows no change in PA for both trials and section 3 was found to be non significant (Z= -1.82, p=0.068) although there was a trend for lower PA in T2.

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6 Trial 1 Trial 2 5

4 Median affect score

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 Pre 10.0 10.5 11.0 11.5 12.0 12.5 13.0 13.5 14.0 14.5 15.0 15.5 16.0 16.5 17.0 17.5 18.0 18.5 19.0 19.5 20.0 Post Time Trial Interval (km)

Figure 1. Positive and Negative Affect (WAS) before during and after the 20km time trials

Relationships between PA and NA. In both trials weak, negative, non significant correlations were found (T1; Rho=-0.287, p=0.065; T2; Rho=-0.205, p=0.192) suggesting independence between the PA and NA scales. Similar to study 1, relationships between WAS and the PANAS scales were investigated. Item total correlations between both measures for T1 and T2 reveal different relationships (see Table 3). Table 3. Correlations of Positive and Negative Affect between the PANAS and WAS scales prior to Trial 1 and 2. TRIAL 1 TRIAL 2 WAS PANAS WAS PANAS Pre-Trial PA NA PA NA PANAS .19 -.075 .72 -.12 PA WAS - .62 -.94** .22 NA 1.000** Note: * p<0.05, ** p< 0.01. Dissimilar to Study 1, no significant correlations were found between the WAS and its parent Scale PANAS for PA and NA prior to T1 and T2, although

81 Affect in Sport Activities the correlation between WAS PA and PANAS PA in T2 (rho=0.72, p=0.07) was approaching significance. Internal correlations between PA and NA for each scale differed between the PANAS and WAS. In both T1 and T2, PANAS PA/NA correlations were low and negative (Table 3), in contrast WAS PA/NA correlations were strong and negative suggesting independence and bipolarity respectively. Post time trial affect scores were measured and again correlations between WAS and Parent PANAS scales and NA/PA were assessed (Table 4). ` Table 4. Correlations of Positive and Negative Affect between the PANAS and WAS scales post Trial 1 and 2. TRIAL 1 TRIAL 2 WAS PANAS WAS PANAS Pre-Trial PA NA PA NA PANAS .19 -.075 .72 -.12 PA WAS - .62 -.94** .22 NA 1.000** Note: * p<0.05, ** p< 0.01. The correlation between WAS PA and its parent scale PANAS PA were stronger post time trial (Table 4) with significance in T2. Again similar to pre- trial, WAS PA/NA correlations were negative and a strong significant negative correlation for T2 was found suggesting bipolarity in this scale. Internal correlations for the PANAS post trial were again negative but much stronger than pre trial suggesting similar bipolarity to the WAS correlations (T1=-.80; T2 = -.65). In summary, significant fluctuations in PA and NA were observed during the time trial and these fluctuations differed between the trials. Relationships between PA and NA varied somewhat although the WAS PA/NA correlations seem to be more frequently high and negative suggesting more bipolarity than the PANAS PA/NA scales. Discussion There are many measures which assess mood/emotion and affect, however, even the shortened versions are too long and unwieldy to implement during exercise. The purpose of this study was to validate a two item scale for measuring

82 Sport Science Review, vol. XIX, No. 5-6, December 2010 affect based on the well established and validated PANAS which could be used for frequent sampling during a physical task in a laboratory controlled situation.

Relationship to the Parent Scale. Although potential reliability issues of single item measures has been queried, correlation with parent scales is acknowledged as acceptable protocol for attaining confident results (Curran et al., 1995; Malouff et al., 1985; Västfjäll & Gärling, 2007). The significant positive correlations between the WAS and PANAS subscales in study 1 (PA = .56; NA = .36; p<0.01) confirmed similarity between measures. Hence the use of the WAS scale is acceptable as a brief measure of positive and negative affect. An individual’s experience is related to the meaning they attach to a specific event and this can vary widely between individuals and between situations (Jones, 2003). Thus by requesting that individuals categorise their affect into either positive or negative valence, the results can more easily show trends in valence or direction of affective feelings. This supports the assessment of affect at the higher order level, Watson & Clark (1997, p. 289) emphasise the “lack of a compelling taxonomy at the lower order level” and research literature has not yet achieved “…consensus regarding the basic states that must be included in a complete and comprehensive investigation of mood”. The WAS also allows the individual a greater choice of adjectives for their assessment of positivity or negativity in contrast to prescribed lists, fundamentally supporting the assumption that affective states are systematically interrelated and can be modelled by a few basic dimensions (Ekkekakis et al, 2008). The explained variances between the PANAS and WAS scales were rather small (32% explained variance for positive affect and 13% explained variance for negative affect). Consequently, it is important to consider and analyse the possible factors affecting the relationships between the WAS and the parent scale (PANAS). Individuals are required to express themselves on the WAS using one word to convey an interpretation of many different feelings. By their nature and requirements, self-report ordinal likert scales (including the PANAS) have a rigid structure with prescribed scoring systems and the grouping of specific identified adjectives or statements together. Additionally, the WAS measure allows for greater variation in the interpretation and grouping of specific adjectives which may result in different classifications within an open structure. For example, “excited” may be interpreted as negative, particularly where individuals experience high levels of excitement and may perceive this as debilitative. However, the PANAS scores this adjective as an item on the positive scale which might account for the low explained variances found.

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The two-facture structure of positive and negative affect at the higher order level has received much supporting evidence (Watson & Clark, 1997) in contrast to the alternative conceptualisation of Pleasantness/Activation as general dimensions underlying mood (see Watson & Clark, 1997). However, a further possible confounding explanation of the low explained variances found between PANAS and WAS scales is that individuals may be utilising a wider choice of information in their assessment of general dimensions of affect and may, in some instances, be drawing on information relating to pleasantness and activation as well as positive and negative affect. Certainly a sporting population would potentially be more inclined towards the conceptualisation of activation in addition to whether they feel positive or negative overall. It is possible that despite the two factor structures of both positive/negative affect and pleasantness/ activation, individuals overall assessment of affect/mood encompasses of all of these concepts together. Certainly recent research (Fontaine, Scherer, Roesch & Ellsworth, 2007) into the assessment of emotions has identified the need to evaluate emotions using a four factor structure incorporating the assessment of the dimensions of evaluation - pleasantness, potency control, activation-arousal and unpredictability. Fontaine et al. (2007) emphasise that simple two-dimensional models such as the valence-arousal model are unable to distinguish between important emotions such as fear and anger, which in their four facture structure, are separated by the potency-control dimension. This has important implications for research particularly within the sport and exercise domain. Hence further investigation with the analysis of positive affect, negative affect, pleasantness and activation underlying the assessment of mood and more recently factors potency control and unpredictability is warranted. Further research comparing WAS structure to the four structure model may help identify and clarify these assumptions. Russell (1980) suggests that individuals do not always know what information they use to interpret their own emotional states. Essentially, the WAS utilises a very open structure enabling individuals to interpret any feeling as contributing to either positive or negative affect. This could be seen as a strength if the focus of future research was more related to individual differences. The authors propose that it makes no difference whether individuals categorise excitement as positive one moment or negative the next, because in the situational context we are interested in the fluctuations and when these changes coincide with optimum performance. The WAS scale is intended to be used as a situational specific measure.

Relationships between PA and NA. Results revealed a medium strength significant correlation between PA and NA as measured through the PANAS and a medium negative correlation between PA and NA as measured through the WAS (PANAS = .36; WAS = -.48; p<0.01). The PANAS subscales have been

84 Sport Science Review, vol. XIX, No. 5-6, December 2010 extensively validated across different time frames with inter- and intra-individual positivity and negativity scores found to be independent across a wide range of temporal instructions (Watson & Clark, 1997). However, the correlations for study 1 were somewhat smaller than other reported ranges of the PANAS (PA = .84 to .86 and NA = .68 to .79; Barker & Jones, 2008). One explanation may be due to using retrospective recall from the sample group of sport and exercise participants who were not physically taking part in a sport and exercise activity at the time of measurement. Participants were asked to relate the measures to their sport or exercise activity, which for some may have been quite recent or for others more than one or two days previously. This may have affected accurate recording of the actual intensity of affect at the time of participation resulting in lower scores at the point of recall. In previous research positive and negative affect were predicted by different antecedents leading to a conclusion that these were separate constructs rather than just at opposite ends of the same scale (McDonough & Crocker, 2007). In contrast Green et al. (1993) and Diener et al. (1995) suggested that positive and negative affect may lie at opposite ends of a bipolar scale although previous measurement of affect in different temporal situations acknowledges that the relationship between these two constructs changes according to the time frame. Specifically positive and negative affect is potentially bipolar at short immediate moment to moment time frames yet they have been found to be separate with positive and negative affect changing differently over longer time frames (e.g. week, month, year) (Diener & Emmons, 1984). However, more recent and equally valid analysis confirms that positive and negative affect are relatively independent across a variety of temporal instructions including moment to moment (Kramer & Yoon, 2007; McDonough & Crocker, 2007; Watson & Clark, 1997). However, the results from the WAS do not show this trend towards independence and instead provide support for a bipolar subscale in this situation. It may be that by providing a single positive and single negative subscale as in this study, individuals perceive they should respond as high for one and accordingly low for the other thus confounding these results through self response distortion. Equally this could be due to the fact that participants in study 1 were not physically active or in their sport or exercise situation at the time of measurement but were only thinking about it. Relationships between PA and NA in study 2 also varied somewhat and the WAS PA/NA correlations seem to be more frequently high and negative suggesting more bipolarity than the PANAS PA/NA scales. These results concur with Diener and Emmons (1984) work demonstrating bipolarity at moment-to moment time frames. Future work clarifying the relationship between PA and NA specifically within activity is required.

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Fluctuations in PA and NA. In both trials fluctuations in PA and NA were observed throughout the time trial and provide empirical evidence to support the necessity of measuring affect at regular and frequent intervals during sport and exercise. Previous research has found relationships between affect and performance (Walsh et al., 1992; Sanchez et al., 2010) however these utilised pre and post measures of affect. To date limited assessment of affect during activity has occurred. Carpenter et al. (2010) study measured affect at 3 time points during a 30 minute exercise bout (10, 20 and 30 mins) and analysis only included the data from the 20 minute time point. With such variable PA and NA scores reported by participants in study 2 (see figure 1), less frequent sampling might mean that crucial changes in positivity and negativity are missed. Identifying immediate changes in affect within activity has important implications for the deployment of psychological skills to enhance performance. Conclusion This preliminary study supports the WAS as an acceptable brief measure of PA and NA, in particular, for use within frequent and regular sampling protocols as required in many sport situations. The WAS measures affect at the higher order factors in accordance with Watson and Clark’s (1997) two factor structure of affect. The results show wide fluctuations in affect within performance for participants in study 2. Future work is needed to examine the fluctuations in affect and clarify the relationship between positivity and negativity.

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Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Professor Alan St.Clair Gibson for his helpful comments on a previous version of this article.

Clare RHODEN, Ph.D., is currently a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Worcester, United Kingdom. After completing her Ph.D. research in the area of multidimensional competitive state anxiety and stress management intervention, Clare has researched in the areas of imagery use in sport, psychological responses to injury and injury rehabilitation and affect in endurance sports. E-mail: [email protected]

Julia WEST, Ph.D. Student, is a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Exercise Science at the Uni- versity of Worcester, UK. Julia is currently undertaking a PhD in the area of motivation and performance. Other areas of interest include soccer goal keeping and the implications of state affect on performance. Julia has worked with many gifted and talented athletes helping them to explore their motivation and enhance performance. E-mail: [email protected]