Psychologists and researchers use a variety of questionnaires and measures to assess emotion, and individual differences in emotion-related skills and experiences. Are you someone sensitive to specific emotions? Are you someone who is emotionally expressive? How empathetic are you? These measures may also be useful if you are interested in conducting research of your own, on how these emotions, and individual differences affect a wide range of psychological outcomes.
There are no right or wrong answers, so do answer the questions on the self-assessment as honestly as you can. No data is collected from these self-assessments, and there is no way for anyone at Emotivity to identify you from your responses.
15 items, approximately 5-10 minutes
How sensitive, or susceptible are you to certain emotions? Does the sight of another person’s emotions makes you feel like you were experiencing those emotions yourself?
28 items, approximately 10-15 minutes
This widely-used measure of empathy assesses empathy through four dimensions – perspective taking, fantasizing, personal distress and empathic concern.
60 items, approximately 15-20 minutes.
This newer measure of empathy returns a score on your empathy quotient (EQ, not to be confused with emotional quotient).
16 items, approximately 10-15 minutes.
This measure of empathy assesses empathy as primarily an emotional (rather than a cognitive) process.
21 items, approximately 10-15 minutes.
Initially to assess resilience among social workers, this 21-item measure can be used to more generally assess personal competence, acceptance of self and life, and social support – key elements of developing resilience.
19 items, approximately 10-15 minutes.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, perceive and use emotions to facilitate thought and behaviours towards effective functioning and/or performance. Self-rated emotional intelligence tests are sometimes used as alternatives to ability-based tests of emotional intelligence.
20 items, approximately 10-15 minutes.
Here’s another measure of emotional intelligence consisting of 20-item to assess emotional intelligence skills and competencies both in relation to oneself (e.g. identifying and understanding own emotions) and others (e.g. identifying and understanding another’s emotions).
30 items, approximately 10-15 minutes
Emotional intelligence has also been examined – and measured, as a trait; an individual difference. This 30-item measure assesses emotional intelligence as a trait, and has been specifically designed for adolescents.
42 items, approximately 15-20 minutes.
This emotional intelligence test assesses how well you understand emotions in relation to the situations that give rise to them. Unlike most of the other self-assessments here, this questionnaire takes on more of a ‘test’ format, and therefore, has clearly marked ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ responses.
44 items, approximately 15-20 minutes
This emotional intelligence test assesses how well you manage/regulate emotions in relation to the situations that give rise to them. Unlike most of the other self-assessments here, this questionnaire takes on more of a ‘test’ format, and therefore, has clearly marked ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ responses.
16 items, approximately 10-15 minutes
Here is a short 16-item measure of emotional intelligence, developed for use in management research and studies. The items on the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS) is based on the ability model of emotional intelligence.
36 items, approximately 15-20 minutes
Emotion regulation is the ability to modulate – that is, change and alter one’s emotional experiences. Emotion regulation is differentiated from suppression, i.e. ‘bottling up’ one’s emotions, and is also different from catharsis, where one expresses or vents their emotions. This questionnaire assesses how well you regulate emotions through a range of cognitive processes such as positive reappraisal (rethinking the emotion-causing event more positively), acceptance, rumination and self-blame.
34 items, approximately 15-20 minutes.
What do you most likely to do when you experience anger? This 34-item measure assesses anger responses for children and adolescents – and may tell you which response you tend to favour when experiencing this strong, unpleasant emotion.
10 items, approximately 5-10 minutes
Non-productive thoughts can elicit unpleasant emotions – the replaying of unpleasant memories and the unpleasant emotions that accompany them is known as rumination, and can lead to lower levels of happiness and psychological well-being. This measure of such non-productive thoughts for children was initially developed by Dutch researchers, and has been translated to bother English and Farsi.
14 items, approximately 5-10 minutes
Traffic, inconsiderate drivers – few things rile us as much as experiences when we’re behind the wheel. This shorter version of the Deffenbacker Driving Anger Scale (14 items compared with the original version consisting of 33 items) measures your anger responses to hostile gestures, illegal driving, police presence, slow driving, discourtesy and traffic obstructions.
5 items, approximately 5-10 minutes
Irritability is different from trait anger. It is the proneness and susceptibility towards states of frustration and annoyance despite little provocation. This is sometimes expressed outwardly (Holtzman et al. 2015). This very short 5-item test assesses your irritability. Quite fittingly, this is a sufficiently short measure if you are irritated by long questionnaires!
12 items, approximately 5-10 minutes.
Are you kind to yourself, and accepting of your personality? Self-compassion relates to your ability to ‘hold one’s suffering with a sense of warmth, connection and concern (Neff, 2003). This ability consists of self-kindness, self-judgement, the view that others suffer too (common humanity), feelings of isolation from others when one fails, as well as mindfulness towards one’s difficult situation and the extent to which one over-identifies with failure.
21 items, approximately 10-15 minutes.
Compassionate love is an attitude towards others, which contains feelings, thoughts and actions that are focused on caring, concern, tenderness and a tendency to want to support and understand others – especially when they are suffering or in need (Sprecher & Fehr, 2005: 630). This measure assesses the extent to you have compassionate love towards a specific close other. The ___ blanks can be replaced with ‘family and friends’, ‘other people’ or a name of any individual.
30 items, approximately 10-15 minutes.
Do you engage in a form of helping as part of your profession? If so, you much you enjoy and persist in your line of work may be dependent on how much compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue you experience as part of this job.
15 items, approximately 5-10 minutes
Being mindful means being consciously, deliberately attentive towards your present circumstances and environment, and being curious and non-judgmental towards the thoughts and emotions that arise as a result of one’s situation. This 15-item measure of mindfulness, called the Mindful Attempt Awareness Scale (MAAS) is designed to assess how mindful you generally are.
17 items, approximately 10-15 minutes
Individuals vary in the extent to which they display outward expressions of emotion. This 17-item measure of emotional expressivity assesses how emotionally expressive you are of emotions (pleasant, or unpleasant) – be it whether you express them via facial expressions, vocalizations, or gestures.
7 items, approximately 5-10 minutes.
Are you a naturally curious individual? Do you actively seek out new understandings, and opportunities to grow as a person?
6 items, approximately 5-10 minutes.
Do you have much in life to be grateful for? Are you someone who can easily think of things you are thankful for? This brief 6-item measure of gratitude assesses your trait (i.e. dispositional) gratitude.
10 items, approximately 5-10 minutes.
Is the glass half empty, or half full? This revised test assesses the degree to which you hold optimistic views of life.
10 items, 5-10 minutes.
Envy – the desire to have another’s achievements, possessions, abilities or qualities deemed desirable, is an emotion most of us would have felt at one time or another. Individuals, however, vary in terms of how envious they tend to be. This 10-item measure assesses this dispositional envy.
5 items, approximately 5-10 minutes.
Life satisfaction is an overall, global assessment that one’s life is close to ideal and/or close to one’s desired level. This five-item measure, called the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), is a widely-used measure of one’s life satisfaction.
16 items, approximately 10-15 minutes
Shame and guilt are two self-conscious emotions, triggered by (usually) negative evaluations and assessments of oneself and of one’s behaviours. In this questionnaire you will read about situations that people are likely to encounter in day-to-day life, followed by common reactions to those situations. As you read each scenario, try to imagine yourself in that situation.
16 items, approximately 10-15 minutes.
Disgust is an emotion experienced in relation to objects and acts that one appraises as offensive or repulsive. Some individuals, however, have been shown to be more easily disgusted than others.
14 items, approximately 5-10 minutes.
How you describe yourself (and how others would describe you) says quite a fair bit about the type of pride you experience most, and are likely to experience.
8 items, approximately 5-10 minutes.
Inspiration is a positive emotion that consists of three components – evocation, motivation and transcendence. It is an emotion we experience when we witness greatness or excellence in others, which then motivates us to pursue goals that transcends our mundane concerns. Here is a short 8-item measure of inspiration, assessing how frequently and intensely you feel this positive emotion.
16 items, approximately 10-15 minutes.
What’s the difference between a full life, and an empty one? This measure assesses your life satisfaction and general happiness by taking into account the three ways in which most people derive a happiness: pleasure, engagement, and meaning.