This scale was developed by Cole et al. (1988) in Canada to understand the emotional atmosphere between a person who is important to the patient and the patient and to rate some characteristics of the relationship. Studies show that relapses in symptoms of psychiatric diseases, especially schizophrenia, are more common in patients living in families with high emotional expression. The scale consists of 41 items and is administered to the patient's family members. The scale includes questions about how the patient's relatives perceive the patient and themselves, and the level of emotional expression is determined according to the answers given. The scale is evaluated with a true-false answer pattern and includes two dimensions. These are
Critical/Hostility (29 items)
Excessive Emotional Affection (12 items). (excessive attention-protective guardianship-interventionism)
Items numbered 3, 8, 14, 28, 30, 36, 39 and 41 receive one point when the "wrong" answer is marked, while the others receive one point when the "correct" answer is marked, otherwise no point is given. Thus, the total score of the EIQ ranges between 0 and 41.
High scores mean that emotional expression is high.
We experience many emotions throughout the day and exhibit some behaviors after our emotional experiences. These behavioral reactions are expressed by the concept of "emotional expression" and are defined in different ways by different researchers. According to one definition, "it is the visible display of emotion, regardless of its value (positive or negative) or channel (gestural, mimic or verbal)" (Kring, Smith, & Neale, 1994, p. 934). According to another definition, "behavioral changes associated with the experience of emotion such as smiling, frowning, crying" (Gross & John, 1995, p. 555). Kennedy-Moore and Watson (1999, p. 4) defined emotional expression as "observable verbal and nonverbal behaviors that communicate and/or symbolize emotional experience". While some researchers (e.g., Ekman, 1993; 1999) focus on spontaneous, nonverbal expressions, others (e.g., Hayes & Metts, 2008; Snyder, 1974) study controllable expressions. According to Kennedy-Moore and Watson, one of the expressive functions of one's emotions is social communication, and expression can occur both verbally and nonverbally, as well as spontaneously or intentionally.
There are several scales that measure emotional expression. Kring, Smith, and Neale (1994) considered emotional expression as a general tendency that includes many behavioral styles and developed the Emotional Expressivity Scale. The scale is a single-factor instrument that assesses all emotions in general (sample item: "I cannot hide what I feel"). The Berkeley Expression Scale developed by Gross and John (1995) assesses three aspects of emotional expressive behavior. The six-item negative expression sub-factor includes anger, sadness and fear (e.g., "I can see how I feel on my face"), while the four-item positive expression subscale assesses happiness and amusement (e.g., "Whenever I feel positive emotions, people can completely understand how I feel"). Although they accepted emotional expression as a single-factor construct, King and Emmons (1990) also obtained a three-factor structure in the measurement tool they developed (The Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire). The four-item negative emotional expression subscale includes a general assessment of emotions such as frustration and anger (e.g., "I always express my frustration when things do not go the way I want"). The seven-item positive emotion expression subscale provides a general assessment of laughter, liking and affection (e.g., "Watching TV or reading a book can make me laugh out loud"). In addition, the Affective Communication Test (Friedman, Prince, Riggio, & DiMatteo, 1980) and the Self-Monitoring Scale (Snyder, 1974; Snyder & Gangestad, 1986) are also used to measure emotional expression.
Source :
*Cole JD, Kazarian SS. Thelevel of expressedemotionscale: a newmeasure of expressedemotion. J ClinPsychol 1988; 44:392-7.
*Berksun OE: The concept of "expressed emotion". Psychiatry Bulletin 1992; 1:104-107.