Affect regulation and affective experience: individual differences, group differences, and measurement using a Q-sort procedure.

This article describes the development of, and preliminary findings with, the Affect Regulation and Experience Q-Sort (the AREQ), an observer-based assessment of affect regulation and experience. In Study 1, 31 clinicians provided Q-sort descriptions of 90 patients. Factor scores correlated in predicted ways with criteria such as suicide attempts and hospitalizations, as well as with clinicians' ratings of functioning in a variety of domains. Correlations between prototype Q-sorts and actual Q-sort profiles for patients sharing a diagnosis (dysthymia, borderline personality disorder, and narcissistic personality disorder) also provided evidence for convergent and discriminant validity. The data also suggested the importance of distinguishing 2 kinds of negative affect that have very different correlates. Study 2 showed that the AREQ can be applied reliably using an interview that avoids many of the problems of self-report.