Brief Mood Introspection Scale

What it measures

The BMIS is a brief, widely used measure of current mood state designed for repeated or post-exposure administration in experimental research. Mayer and Gaschke (1988) developed the BMIS to capture the valence and arousal dimensions of momentary mood using a simple adjective checklist rated on a four-point endorsement scale. The 16 adjectives sample four quadrants of the valence x arousal mood space: pleasant-activated (peppy, lively), pleasant-deactivated (calm, content), unpleasant-activated (jittery, nervous), and unpleasant-deactivated (sad, unhappy, tired). The BMIS is particularly valuable in consumer and advertising research for measuring mood induced by music, store atmosphere, film clips, or other affect-generating stimuli. Its brevity makes it suitable for multiple pre/post administrations in within-subjects designs.

Representative items

• Happy (Pleasant-Activated)
• Nervous (Unpleasant-Activated)
• Content (Pleasant-Deactivated)
• Sad (Unpleasant-Deactivated)

Citation

Mayer, J.D., & Gaschke, Y.N. (1988). The experience and meta-experience of mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55(1), 102–111.