The Emotional Processing Scale: scale refinement and abridgement (EPS-25)

The Emotional Processing Scale (EPS) is a 38-item, eight-factor self-report questionnaire designed to measure emotional processing styles and deficits. Scale development is an ongoing process and our aim was to (i) refine the scale by trying out items from a new item pool and (ii) shorten the scale to enhance its clinical and research utility.

Fifteen new items were added to the original 38-item pool. The resulting 53-item scale was administered to four groups (N=690) (mental health, healthy controls, pain patients, and general medical practice attendees). Exploratory factor analysis was used to explore the underlying factor structure.

Maximum likelihood (ML) factor analysis was used to guide the process of item selection and scale reduction. Four of the previous eight factors remained in similar form, two of the original factors were discarded, and one new factor emerged incorporating items from two previous factors. The revised version of the scale (EPS-25) has a 25-item five-factor structure. Internal reliability was moderate to high for all five factors.

The psychometric properties of the revised scale appear promising, particularly in relation to the detection of differences between diagnostic groups.