Affective Impressions Scale (AIS): The Development of a Visual Scale to Measure Affective Synchrony Among Children

Abstract

From a young age, the affective impressions we share of others are great conditioners of our social behaviors. Affective Accuracy (AA) and Affective Synchrony (AS) are the phenomenons of accurately identifying and matching feelings with others. This paper presents the development of the Affective Impressions Scale (AIS), a dedicated tool to measure the AA and AS levels of peers in a group. The lesser the difference between evaluations, the higher the AS levels will be and the expected group integration of participants. The AIS development is discussed throughout 3 different studies, each performed with 36 to 42 participants aged between 6 and 14 y/o, grouped in teams of 3 to 4 members. In study 1, after performing a group task, participants were asked to report their dominant emotion from a list of six feelings and choose an emotion to represent each group member. Study 2 asked participants to rate their happiness levels from 1 to 5 and evaluate their group members happiness using the same scale. Finally, study 3 asked participants to rate their Happiness, Energy, and participation levels from 1 to 5. Through repeated measures, study 2 and 3 were successful in establishing significant differences in participants AA/AS levels and in partially predicting their group behaviors. Results displayed the AIS potential as a tool to evaluate children’s unbiased impressions in group situations, leading to higher comprehensions of Group Kansei.