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The German Translation of the Novaco Anger Scale and Provocation Inventory (Ger - NAS-PI)

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Abstract

Anger has become one of the most widely studied emotions in the psychological literature. In order to accurately assess individual differences in emotions, validated and reliable measures must be incorporated to compare findings across studies. One of the most widely used anger scales is the Novaco Anger Scale—Provocation Inventory (NAS-PI; Novaco 2003). This project examined a new translation of the NAS-PI into the German language (Ger - NAS-PI). To validate the new German translation of the NAS-PI in German and U.S. samples. In two samples of undergraduate students, U.S. and German, internal consistency, subscale correlations, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and predictive validity were all analyzed. For both ethnic groups, all coefficient alphas exceeded .70 for the major subscales (NAS-PI), and correlations between the subscales were strong for both groups within each measure and with measures of convergent and discriminant validity. In predicting PI scores and Aggression Questionnaire (AQ; Buss & Perry 1992) scores, there was no evidence of intercept invariance for the AQ across the two national groups and limited evidence of slope invariance. Results suggest that the new translation is appropriate for use with German samples, but the concept of anger in German population may need further evaluation.

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Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest with respect to authorship or publication of this article

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Department. 8380, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, 58202, USA

    Andre Kehn

  2. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA

    Scott E. Culhane

  3. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Larisa Kolmans

  4. Institut für Psychologie, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany

    Stephan J. Bongard

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  1. Andre Kehn
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  2. Scott E. Culhane
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  3. Larisa Kolmans
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  4. Stephan J. Bongard
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Correspondence to Andre Kehn.

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Author Note

Andre Kehn, Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota; Scott E. Culhane, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Wyoming; Larisa Kolmans, Freie Universität Berlin; Stephan J. Bongard, Institut für Psychologie, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität.

This article was prepared with support of a Basic Research Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Wyoming. We would like to thank Alyssa Colistro for her assistance in data collection. A portion of this research was used to fulfill a component of the third author’s Master’s degree program.

The Ger NAS-PI can be requested by contacting the first author.

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Kehn, A., Culhane, S.E., Kolmans, L. et al. The German Translation of the Novaco Anger Scale and Provocation Inventory (Ger - NAS-PI). Curr Psychol 34, 294–310 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9258-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9258-x

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