Graduate Student University of Kentucky Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Objective: Neuropsychologists commonly administer multiple measures of emotional functioning; however, no prior research has examined whether examinees will normally obtain one or more clinically significant emotional scores if multiple questionnaires are administered and interpreted. This study prepared multivariate base rates for the NIH Toolbox Emotion Battery (NIHTB-EB), examining the frequency at which participants in the normative sample obtained ‘abnormal’ scores on the 17 individual scales (e.g., sadness, loneliness, life satisfaction) and 3 summary scores (i.e., negative affect, social satisfaction, and psychological well-being).
Method: Participants were 2,879 English-speaking community members recruited for the NIHTB norming study (M=46.26 years-old, SD = 17.14; 46.7% men; 80.6% White). The frequency at which participants obtained one or more ‘abnormal’ emotion scores (i.e., either T < 40 or T>60 depending on the scale) was calculated.
Results: When interpreting all 17 individual NIHTB-EB scores, 66.3% of participants were elevated on one or more individual scales. When interpreting the 3 NIHTB-CB summary scores, 26.0% of participants were elevated on one or more of the summary scores.
Conclusions: Similar to findings on performance-based neuropsychological tests, these base rates indicate that obtaining one or more abnormal scores is normal on questionnaires of emotional functioning. When administering multiple questionnaires, one or more low or elevated score(s) may correspond to normal variation in emotional functioning rather than significant distress or a disorder.
