Measuring Emotion: Methodological Issues and Alternatives

Given the increased profile of emotions in the past decade (Ashkanasy & Daus, 2002), the aim of this chapter is to raise awareness of measurement issues. As scholars, we are interested in examining emotions as dependent and independent variables, and also in manipulation checks to verify experimental induction of emotional states. In spite of the many studies on emotion, poor measurement remains the Achilles’ heel of this line of research (Huelsman, Furr, & Nemanick, 2003). Accurate assessment of emotion is imperative for advancing knowledge in this field; therefore, our focus is on critical evaluation of commonly used emotions measure