(App. 1 cont.)

NOT AT ALL DEFINITELY
MODERATELY
sleepy. ......1 2 3 45 67 8 9
sluggish. .....1 2 3 45 67 8 9
sorry. ......1 23 45 678 9
startled. .....1 2 3 45 6789
steady. ......1 2 3 45 678 9
suspicious. ....1 2 3 45 6789
talkative .....1 2 345 67 8 9
tense. ......1 2 3 45 67 8 9
terrified .....1 2 3 45 67 8 9
thoughtful. ....1 2 3 45 67 8 9
tired. ......1 2 3 45 678 9
uncertain. ....1 2 3 45 678 9
upset .......1 2 3 45 6789
vigorous. .....1 2 3 45 67 8 9
warmhearted ....1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9
witty .......1 2 3 45 67 8 9

+
u
a
~
fo)
Ro}

worrying. .....1 2 3

Please be sure you have completed all 4 pages.

18




Table 1

The percentage of paired ratings in Experiment I for each CMACL adjective in which

the rating for the simulated record was lower than that for the authentic record.

Adjective h Adjective h Adjective hb
active 25 fatigued 82 rebellious 62
affectionate 80 fearful 87 regretful 77
afraid 80 fed-up 91 sad 70
angry 90 forgiving 68 satisfied 77
annoyed 92 frightened 76 secure 80
anxious 89 frustrated 81 serious 30
ashamed 60 full of pity - not scored shaky 85
attentive 51 grouchy 90 shocked 81
blue 63 happy 89 skeptical 73
bored 33 insecure 96 sleepy 53
calm 82 intent 43 sluggish 54
carefree 91 introspective 66 sorry 58
careful 50 jittery 85 startled 73
cheerful 90 joyful 77 steady 71
clutched-up 91 kindly 81 suspicious 58
concentrating 38 lazy 25 talkative 51
contemplative 68 leisurely 85 tense 77
contented 85 lively 57 terrified 81
defiant 75 lonely 49 thoughtful 77
desperate 82 loving 79 tired 84
dizzy 77 nauseous 72 uncertain 72
downhearted 75 nervous 89 upset 91
drowsy 51 nonchalant - not scored vigorous 49
dubious 60 optimistic 77 warmhearted 80
dull 44 panicky 86 witty 75
earnest 66 playful 73 worrying 84
energetic 65 pleasant 90



(App. 1 cont.)

downhearted .
drowsy... .

dubious...

dull. 2...
earnest...
energetic ...

fatigued. . .
fearful...
fed-up. ...

forgiving . .

frightened. ..

frustrated. .

full of pity. .

grouchy...
happy.....
insecure. . .

intent. ...

introspective .

jittery...
joyful. ...

kindly... .

NOT AT ALL

16

MODERATELY

3

4

Se a a ee a a > a a > a ee Se a

DEFINITELY


Table 5
Distribution of sums of scores for the six-vord index from authentic

and simlated CMACL records in both Experiments I and IT.

Experiment Experiment IT

Rating Authentic Simulated Authentic Simulated

Sum Frequency-% Frequency: Frequency: Frequency-%
6 - 0 1s 19 - 0 - 0
7 - 0 5 25 - 0 - 0
8 - 0 7 34 - 0 203
9 - 0 4 39 - 0 - 3
10 - 0 2 42 - 0 - 3
n - 0 - 42 - 0 3 6
12 - 0 5 48 - 0 209
13 - 0 5 54 - 0 2
4 - 0 5 61 - 0 1.
15 - 0 5 67 - 0 1
16 - 0 3071 - 0 5 20
7 - 0 - 7 ou Loa
18 - 0 3075 13 3 25
19 - 0 - 75 1 4 2 28
20 toa 3 78 - 4 5 M4
21 - 1 3 82 - 4 6 4
22 13 2 85 - 4 - 4
23 - 3 - 85 - 4 4 46
24 - 3 2 87 - 4 5 53
25 - 3 1 89 - 4 - 53
26 1 4 - 89 Los 3 56
27 - 4 = 89 - 5 4 61
28 - 4 1 90 1 6 4 66
29 - 4 - 90 1 8 7 95
30 15 3 9 - 8 1 76
2 1 6 - 94 - 8 4 81
32 - 6 - 94 2 10 3 85
33 2 9 - 9% - 10 - 85
34 2 + 9% - 10 - 85
35 - ou 2 96 - 10 2 88
36 1 2B - % tou 3091
37 2015 - 9% 3015 1 93
38 3019 - 9% - 15 2 95
39 2 2 - % 3019 1 96
40 2 2% - 9% 4 2% - %
a 1 25 - 96 2 2% - 9%
42 2 28 - 9% 2 29 - 9%
43 433 - 9% 1 30 - 9%
4a 4 38 1 97 2°33 - 9%
45 1 39 1 99 4 38 1 98
46 2 42 1 100 645 - 98
47 7 50 - 100 4 50 - 98
48 3 54 - 100 2 53 - 98
49 4 59 - 100 4 58 - 98
50 7 68 = 100 7 6 - 98
31 6 76 = 100 aon 1 99
32 8 & = 100 9 83 - 99
53 8 96 = 100 6 95 - 99
34 3 100 = 100 8 100 1 100


correctly classified 97 per cent of the non-biased
records, and 75 per cent of the distorted profiles.

Ill. Experiment II.

This experiment was designed to investigate
further the utility of the index developed in
Experiment I for the measurement of sets to
emphasize stress effects in CMACL protocols.
The first study examined the records of subjects
told to produce a maximally biased profile on
the second administration. However, many in-
dividuals, when simulating various conditions,
may not be so obvious in their exaggeration of
their responses. Therefore, the subjects in
Experiment II were asked, when administered
the CMACL for a second time, to simulate the
profile so as to present a picture of maximum
stress, but to do it in such a manner that an
examiner would be unable to identify such a
trend in the protocol. In other words, the focus
in Experiment IT was upon subtle, rather than
obvious, protocol distortion to suggest severe
stress.

Method

The procedure for Experiment II was gen-
erally the same as in Experiment I, except that
the 80 subjects recruited for this study were
given additional instructions at the beginning
of the second CMACL administration. Besides
being told to respond so as to make it appear as
if they were under great: stress, the subjects were
also directed to “try to prevent the examiner
from knowing that you were exaggerating your
responses.”

Results and Discussion

First, the direction of change in ratings was
tabulated. The results (Table 3) show that for
only one word (annoyed) did as many as 90 per
cent of the ratings change in one direction. Of
the group of nine words chosen for the stress-
set index from Experiment I, six exceeded the
80 per cent level for agreement in direction
change (angry, annoyed, clutched-up, cheerful,
grouchy, upset) and the remaining three exceeded
70 per cent agreement.

The scores obtained from the nine-word index
for both administrations of the CMACL in Ex-
periment II are shown in Table 4. While in
Experiment I a score of 39 identified 90 per cent,
and a score of 50 identified 96 per cent of the

simulated protocols, in this study the same scores
yielded 62 and 88 per cent correct identifications
of the biased records. However, the false posi-
tive rates for non-simulated records were similar
for the two experiments, as the score of 39
yielded three per cent (Experiment I) and five
per cent (Experiment II) error rates, and the
score of 50 resulted in 13 per cent and 14 per
cent false positive rates for Experiments I and IT
respectively. The cutting scores which yielded
the fewest misidentified profiles in the second
study were 48 (twelve false negatives and eight
false positives) and 49 (eleven false negatives
and nine false positives). Considered across both
studies, the score of 49 provided the best overall
index, as it would have identified 144 of the 159
simulated profiles (91%) while misidentifying
only 17 of the 159 non-simulated records (10%).

While the hit-rates, or correct identifications,
were still reasonably high in Experiment II, even
with subtle instructions, the variance in the
specific words identified which showed the
greatest consistency in direction of change be-
tween the studies suggested that perhaps the
original set of nine items could be refined to
provide a more sensitive measure of the effects of
such biasing response sets. Therefore, the
original set of nine words was reduced to the six
words (angry, annoyed, clutched-up, cheerful,
grouchy, and upset) which were the ones that
showed over 90 per cent agreement in the first
study and over 80 per cent agreement in the
second experiment in direction of rating change
as a function of response set. The scores ob-
tained from summing the ratings for these six
words for each subject for both administrations
in each experiment are shown in Table 5. For
Experiment I, the best cutting score was 30,
which resulted in the correct classification of 74
of 79 simulated profiles (94%) and 75 of the 79
non-biased records (95%). This represents a
net gain of one additional profile correctly classi-
fied over the nine-item index. For Experiment
II, the best cutting scores were 36 or 38. Using
36 as a limit resulted in 78 correct identifications
of the 80 simulated profiles (91%) and 71 correct,
classifications (88%) of the actual protocols,
while the 38 score correctly labeled 76 biased rec-
ords (95%) and 68 non-biased profiles (85%).
Both scores represented a moderate gain over the
best scores for the nine-item index, in that four
additional profiles were correctly classified using



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lazy...

leisurely... .

lively. ...

lonely. .

loving. . .

nauseous, . .

nervous .

nonchalant

optimistic. ...

panicky .

playful .

pleasant. ..

rebellious.

regretful

sad...

satisfied ..

secure. .

serious .

shaky...

shocked .

skeptical .

NOT AT ALL

17

MODERATELY

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TECHNICAL REPORT STANDARD TITLE PAGE

1, Report No, 2. Government Accession No, 3. Recipient's Catalog No,
FAA~AM- 71-14

4, Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date
ASSESSMENT OF A RESPONSE-SET IN THE COMPOSITE April 1971
MOOD ADJECTIVE CHECK LIST. 6. Performing Organization Code

7. Author! s) 8. Performing Orgonization Report No.
Roger C. Smith, Ph.D.

9. Performing Orgonization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No.

FAA Civil Aeromedical Institute

11, Contract or Grant No.

P. 0. Box 25082
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73125

13. Type of Report and Period Covered

12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address

Office of Aviation Medicine OAM Report
Federal Aviation Administration
800 Independence Avenue, S, W. 14. Sponsoring Agency Code

Washington, D. C. 20590

15. Supplementary Notes

This study was conducted under AM-A-70-PSY-20 and AM-A-71-PSY-20,

16. Abstract

The effects of response sets to emphasize the appearance of stress in Composite
Mood Adjective Check List (CMACL) records was investigated. Responses of 79
subjects asked to simulate stress, and 80 subjects asked to simulate stress in
a subtle manner, were compared to CMACL responses obtained under normal
conditions, A six-word index was developed which was successful in identifying
95 per cent of the simulated profiles, while misclassifying only 12 per cent
of the non-simulated, or authentic, profiles. The application of the index

to clinical and research settings in aviation was discussed,

17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement
Availability is unlimited. Document may
stress be released to the National Technical
personnel assessment Information Service, Springfield,
psychological evaluation Virginia 22151, for sale to the public,
19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Clossif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages | 22, Price
Unclassified Unclassified 18 $3.00

Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-69)





the six-item scale. Combined across both studies,
the score of 36 was most efficient, as 149 of 159
invalid records were identified (95%) and only
19 of the 159 non-biased protocols were misclassi-
fied (12%); a net gain of three correctly identi-
fied CMACLs.

It is clear that the reduction in items did not
diminish the efficiency of this screening technique,
and may, in fact have improved it slightly.

IV. General Discussion.

The results of these experiments suggest that it
is possible to apply a simple, yet efficient, screen-
ing check to CMACL records which are obtained
in situations where effects of stress might be over-
emphasized by respondents. The index is ap-
parently effective in detecting both obvious and
subtle biasing sets, although, not unexpectedly,
it is more accurate in identifying obvious distor-
tions. The efficiency of the index also compares
favorably with the indices of distortion developed
for other types of inventories, such as the MMPI
or the 16PF.*

Of interest was the finding that several of the
words which showed consistent change were asso-
ciated with hostile and aggressive feelings.
Thus, while aggressive feelings are often thought
of as stress producers, these and other data e.g.*
indicate that such feelings may be responses to
threat and stress as well. This aspect of aggres-
sive affective states has been discussed by
Lazarus‘ as part of the coping process under
stress.

It should be noted that identification of a
record as possibly biased through the use of such
indices cannot be interpreted as proof that a
record has been distorted by a response set.
Such an identification means only that a record
has some characteristics in common with protocols
obtained under distorting response sets. It has
generally been found, as in this study, that some
legitimate records will be included by most
potentially useful cutting scores, with the per-
centage of such false-positive errors increasing
as the cutting score is varied to identify an in-
creasing proportion of valid positives. The
determination of whether or not a profile has
been actually distorted must be made by other
means. In a clinical situation, further evaluation
by other psychological techniques would be called
for by such an ‘identification, In a research set-
ting, the decision might be made to eliminate all
such scores from data analysis realizing that the
loss of a considerable number of valid records
might have to be tolerated for the desired gain in
experimental precision.

While the index derived in this study should
prove useful, especialy in research settings where
use of the CMACL is contemplated, further
validation of the adequacy of the present index
will be required. Among the issues which need
exploration are the utility of the index for use
with other subject populations, such as psychiatric
patiénts, and the identification of the effects of
other major response sets.



Table 3

The percentage of paired ratings in Experiment II for each CMACL adjective

in which the rating for the record simulated under instructions

to be subtle was lower than that for the authentic record.

Adjective

active
affectionate
afraid
angry
annoyed
anxious
ashamed
attentive
blue

bored

calm
carefree
careful
cheerful
clutched-up
concentrating
contemplative
contented
defiant
desperate
dizzy
downhearted
drowsy
dubious
dull
earnest

energetic

26
52
71
81
93
68
28
40
56
38
74
73
36
83
83
39
50
84
65
79
55
70
55
56

35
54

Adjective

fatigued
fearful
fed-up
forgiving
frightened
frustrated

full of pity -

grouchy
happy
insecure

intent

introspective

jittery
joyful
kindly
lazy
leisurely
lively
lonely
loving
nauseous
nervous
nonchalant
optimistic
panicky
playful

pleasant

%

87
68
78
48
70
86
not scored
81
25
55
41
41
79
65
70
20
25
54
4L
56
68
81
not scored
76
78
71
71

Adjective

rebellious
regretful
sad
satisfied
secure
serious
shaky
shocked
skeptical
sleepy
sluggish
sorry
startled
steady
suspicious
talkative
tense
terrified
thought ful
tired
uncertain
upset
vigorous
warmhearted
witty
worrying

h

56
61
59
70
61
26
83
60
66
54
64
62
51
61
54
45
88
64
55
25
59
86
36
60
64
76


2. Materials—The 80 adjectives which com-
prised the CMACL were typed into booklet
form, with a cover sheet of instructions (Ap-
pendix 1). The adjectives were listed in
alphabetical order, and each was accompanied by
a nine point rating scale. The lowest point on
the scale was designated as indicating that the
particular adjective was “not at all” representa-
tive of the individual’s feelings, while the highest
point corresponded to a judgment that the ad-
jective in question “definitely” described the cur-
rent feelings of the subject.

3. Procedure—The CMACL was administered.
as one part of a multi-task experimental session.
The CMACL was not related to the other sub-
tasks in the study.

The CMACL was presented to each subject
twice during the experiment. The first ad-
ministration was always made with the standard
instructions, i.e., to rate the adjectives so as to
describe one’s feelings at the time of testing.
The subjects were not told that they would be
responding to.the check list a second time later
in the session. After the CMACL was completed,
other sub-tasks were presented, then the second
CMACL administered. For the second presenta-
tion, the experimenter instructed the subject to
respond to the check list as if he were an em-
ployee who wanted to appear to the evaluator as
if he was in a job which was extremely stressful.
The second CMACL was completed without the
subject having access to his first responses.

4, Scoring.—A pilot survey had shown that 78
of the 80 words could be characterized as reflect-
ing essentially positive or negative feelings.
The ratings on the nine-point scale from each of
these words were then scored in the direction of
positive feelings; the more positive the feeling,
the higher the assigned score. For example, if
a subject rated the word “sad” as “not at all”
representative of his current feeings, he was given
a rating score of nine, just as he would receive the
same score from a rating of “definitely” for the
word “happy.” By the same token, had he rated
“sad” as being “definitely” or “happy” as “not at
all” descriptive of his feelings, he would have
received scores of one on each word.

Results and Discussion

The two ratings for each word obtained from
each subject were compared and the direction of
change in feelings was tabulated. For each word,

the percentage of subjects who gave the second
word a lower rating when asked to simulate stress
was then determined (Table 1). The rating
changes tended to be in one direction for most
words, however there were only a few adjectives
for which the ratings showed nearly unanimous
change in one direction. As shown in Table 1,
there were only nine words which had over 90
per cent of the subjects agreeing on the direction
of rating change. These adjectives (angry,
annoyed, carefree, cheerful, clutched-up, fed-up,
grouchy, pleasant, and upset) contributed to five
of the 15 affect factors identified within the
CMACL. Four of these nine words were from
the six adjectives which defined the “aggression”
factor.

After identification of the adjectives which
showed a high degree of uniformity in direction
of change under the “stress-set,” the rating scores
obtained for these nine words on the second ad-
ministration were summed for each subject. The
range of total scores, the frequency with which
each occurred, and the cumulative percentage of
biased CMACLs accounted for by each score, are
shown in Table 2. It can be seen that a sum of
39 identifies 90 per cent, and a score of 50 in-
cludes 96 per cent of the biased profiles.

The scores for the same nine adjectives were
subsequently summed for the CMACLs obtained
from the first, or standard instruction admin-
istration. These scores are also presented in
Table 2. At a level which identifies 90 per cent
of the biased profiles, only three per cent of the
actual profiles were incorrectly classified as
distorted (false positive). When the score was
raised to account for 96 per cent of the simulated
profiles, the false positive percentage increased to
18 per cent of the true profiles. The scores which
yielded the fewest misidentified profiles ranged
from 39 (eight false-negatives and two false-
positives) to 42 (seven false-negatives and three
false-positives).

These findings suggest that it is possible to
screen CMACL protocols for distorting response-
sets, at least of the type used in this study, with
a high degree of accuracy. Using 39 as a cutting
score correctly classifies 97 per cent of the
authentic protocols and 90 per cent of the simu-
lated, or biased records. This compares very
favorably with the results of other studies on the
biasing effects of response sets, e.g., Gough found
that an index for “faking bad” on the MMPI


APPENDIX 1
Time Name.

Pre Shift Post Shift Date

INSTRUCTIONS

Each of the words in the following list has been used
at some time or other to describe feelings or mood. I would
like you to use this list to describe your feelings at this
moment. Mark each word according to the following instruc-
tions:

If the word definitely describes your mood or feelings
at this moment, circle the number "9." For example, if the
word is "peaceful" and you definitely feel peaceful, circle
the "9" as follows:

peaceful. ....1 2 3 45 67 8 9
If, on the other hand, the word does not at all describe your
mood or feelings at this moment, circle the number "1," as
follows:

peaceful. ....1 2 3 45 67 8 9
The numbers "1" and "9" are the two extremes at which you
can mark a word. The higher the number you circle, the more
that word describes your present mood. The in-between numbers,
"2" to "8," indicate various degrees between these extremes,

to which the word describes your mood. For example, if you

18



(App. 1 cont.)

NOT AT ALL DEFINITELY
MODERATELY
active...... 1 23 45 67 8 9
affectionate... 1 2 3 45 67 8 9
afraid. ..... 12345 6789
angry. ...... 12345 67 89
annoyed. ..... 12345 6789
anxious. ..... 12 3 45 67 89
ashamed. ..... 123 45 67 8 9
attentive..... 12 345 67 8 9
blue. ...... 1234567 89
bored... .... 12345 67 8 9
calm. ...... 12345 678 9
carefree. .... 12 3 45 67 8 9
careful. ..... 212345 67 89
cheerful. .... 1 23 45 67 89
clutched-up.... 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9
concentrating. .. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
contemplative... 12 3 45 67 8 9
contented. .... 12 3 45 67 8 9
defiant...... 12345 678 9
desperate. .... 12 345 67 8 9
dizzy. ...... 12345 6789

15



ASSESSMENT OF A “STRESS” RESPONSIVE-SET IN THE COMPOSITE
MOOD ADJECTIVE CHECK LIST

I. Introduction.

One difficulty associated with the study of
stress and its psychological effects upon air traffic
control (ATC) personnel has been the lack of an
appropriate device for measuring such effects.
Most of the common psychological techniques,
e.g., the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality In-
ventory (MMPI), the Sixteen Personality Fac-
tors Questionnaire (16PF), or the Rorschach
Test, have significant limitations for such pur-
poses. Some are difficult to administer, others
require considerable experience for adequate
scoring, and nearly all require a considerable
length of time for completion (45 minutes to
two hours). The time requirement also tends to
limit the number of administrations which may
be repeated, since not only is the actual time
needed for each administration substantial, but
the subject’s attitude toward submitting to such
long, demanding, and boring (when repeated)
tasks may have a greater influence on response
trends than variations in the individual’s
psychological state.

One technique which may have some potential
as a device for measuring the psychological con-
comitants of stress is the Composite Mood Ad-
jective Checklist (CMACL).’ This technique
consists of 80 adjectives describing various feel-
ings or moods, which the subject rates in terms
of the degree to which each adjective describes
his current affectual status. It yields values for
15 factors identified by Mahlstrom * which range
across a wide variety of general feeling states,
@g., anxiety, aggression, etc. It requires only
about ten minutes for the subject to complete and
is easy to both administer and score. Thus, the
CMACL may circumvent several of the problems
noted above, especially with respect to the
mutiple administrations which might be required
in surveying stress effects in ATC personnel.

Although several attributes of the CMACL
would seem to make it a highly appropriate tech-
nique for use in the assessment of stress effects in
ATC personnel, the device may also be very
susceptible to the effects of biasing response sets.
Such sets, in which the respondent’s approach to
answering inventory items varies from that in-
tended by the examiner and the instructions,
have been shown to influence the results of a
variety of personality assessment techniques.’
For example, malingering, acquiesence (the
tendency to reply affirmatively to any question),
faking good, and other sets have been identified
as influencing psychological assessment devices
such as the MMPI?

As yet, there has been little research on the ef-
fects of response sets on check list techniques such
as the CMACL. Other forms of the check list,
specifically the Zuckerman Multiple Affect Ad-
jective Check List,’ have been studied with re-
spect to the set to check many, as opposed to few,
items, but it is difficult to generalize these findings
across techniques since the CMACL requires a
response to each item. The focus of this investi-
gation was upon the set to emphasize the psycho-
logical effects of stress as reflected in responses to
the CMACL. The purpose of the study was to
determine to what extent such response sets sys-
tematically influence responses to the CMACL
items, and to develop an index which could be
used to identify such response trends.

II. Experiment I.

Method

1. Subjects——The subjects for this study were
79 respondents, both male and female, recruited
from the student body at a large university
through the use of advertisements. Each sub-
ject was paid for his participation in the
experiment.



ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The assistance of Sharon Bowles, Dennis Waggoner, Jennifer Jordan,
and Charles Abbott in the conduct of this study is gratefully acknowledged.


v

REFERENCES

. Berg, I. A.: Response Set in Personality Assessment,

Chicago, Aldine, 1967.

Butcher, J. N. (Ed.): MMPI: Research Developments
and Clinical Applications, New York, McGraw-Hill,
1969.

. Gough, H. G.: The F minus K dissimulation index for

the MMPI. JOURNAL OF CONSULTING PSY-
CHOLOGY, 14 :408-418, 1950.

. Lazarus, R. S.: Psychological Stress and the Coping

Process, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1966.

it

5. Mahlstrom, E. J.: Coraposite Mood Adjective Check
List, Unpublished Manuscript, University of Cali-
fornia, Los Angeles, 1968.

6. Murray, E. J.: The psychological effects of adverse
environmental conditions and their implication for
adjustment in fallout shelters. Disaster Research
Group, National Academy of Sciences for OCDM, 1959.

7. Zuckerman, M.: Response set in a check list test:.A
sometimes. thing. PSYCHOLOGICAL REPORTS, 25:
713-774, 1969.



feel moderately peaceful, circle "5" (the middle of the
scale), and so on.

Please work quickly. Your first reaction to each word
is what I want, so mark each word quickly and move down to
the next. Do the words in order, and please do not skip
any words. Do not try to remember how you marked words
earlier in the list. Rather, give your immediate reaction
to each word. However, do not work so hastily that you
become careless. It is very important you be as accurate

and honest as possible in describing your mood.

Please turn the page now and begin.

14