Development and Validation of the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale

Abstract

This article describes the development and validation of the Multidimensional State Boredom Scale (MSBS)—the first and only full-scale measure of state boredom. It was developed based on a theoretically and empirically grounded definition of boredom. A five-factor structure of the scale (Disengagement, High Arousal, Low Arousal, Inattention, and Time Perception) was supported by exploratory factor analyses and confirmatory factor analyses of two independent samples. Furthermore, all subscales were significantly related to a single, second-order factor. The MSBS factor structure was shown to be invariant across gender. MSBS scores were significantly correlated with measures of trait boredom, depression, anxiety, anger, inattention, impulsivity, neuroticism, life satisfaction, and purpose in life. Finally, MSBS scores distinguished between participants who were experimentally manipulated into a state of boredom and those who were not, above and beyond measures of trait boredom, negative affect, and depression.

Keywords

boredom scale development engagement attention time perception

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abramson

E. E.

Stinson

S. G.

(1977). Boredom and eating in obese and non-obese individuals. Addictive Behaviors, 2, 181-185.

Ahmed

S. M. S.

(1990). Psychometric properties of the Boredom Proneness Scale. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 71, 963-966.

Bargdill

R. W.

(2000). The study of life boredom. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 31, 188-219.

Benet-Martinez

John

O. P.

(1998). Los Cinco Grandes across cultures and ethnic groups: Multitrait multimethod analyses of the Big Five in Spanish and English. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 729-750.

Berlyne

D. E.

(1960). Conflict, arousal, and curiosity. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Bernstein

H. E.

(1975). Boredom and the ready-made life. Social Research, 42, 512-537.

Blaszczynski

McConaghy

Frankova

(1990). Boredom proneness in pathological gambling. Psychological Reports, 67, 35-42.

Chen

F. F.

(2007). Sensitivity of goodness of fit indices to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 14, 464-504.

Cherrier

M. M.

Small

G. W.

Komo

La Rue

(1997). Mood state and cerebral metabolism in persons with age-associated memory impairment. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 76(2-3), 67-74.

10.

Cheung

G. W.

Rensvold

R. B.

(2002). Evaluating goodness-of-fit indices for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9, 233-255.

11.

Conrad

(1997). It’s boring: Notes on the meanings of boredom in everyday life. Qualitative Sociology, 20, 465-475.

12.

Costello

A. B.

Osborne

J. W.

(2005). Best practices in exploratory factor analysis: Four recommendations for getting the most from your data analysis. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 10(7), 1-9.

13.

Crumbaugh

J. C.

(1968). Cross-validation of Purpose-in-Life Test based on Frankl’s concepts. Journal of Individual Psychology, 24, 74-81.

14.

Crumbaugh

J. C.

Maholick

L. T.

(1964). An experimental study in existentialism: The psychometric approach to Frankl’s concept of noogenic neurosis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 20, 200-207.

15.

Csikszentmihalyi

(1997). Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York, NY: Basic Books.

16.

Csikszentmihalyi

(2000). Beyond boredom and anxiety: Experiencing flow in work and play (25th anniversary ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (Original work published 1975)

17.

de Bont

(Director). (1994). Speed [Motion picture]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox.

18.

De Chenne

T. K.

(1988). Boredom as a clinical issue. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 25(1), 71-81.

19.

DeVellis

R. F.

(2003). Scale development: Theory and applications. London, England: Sage.

20.

Diener

Emmons

R. A.

Larsen

R. J.

Griffin

(1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71-75.

21.

Eastwood

J. D.

Cavaliere

Fahlman

S. A.

Eastwood

A. E.

(2007). A desire for desires: Boredom and its relation to alexithymia. Personality and Individual Differences, 42, 1035-1045.

22.

Fabrigar

L. R.

Wegener

D. T.

MacCallum

R. C.

Strahan

E. J.

(1999). Evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in psychological research. Psychological Methods, 4, 272-299.

23.

Fahlman

S. A.

Mercer

K. B.

Gaskovski

Eastwood

A. E.

Eastwood

J. D.

(2009). Does a lack of life meaning cause boredom? Results from psychometric, longitudinal, and experimental analyses. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 28, 307-340.

24.

Farmer

Sundberg

N. D.

(1986). Boredom proneness: The development and correlates of a new scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 50, 4-17.

25.

Fenichel

(1953). On the psychology of boredom. In Fenichel

(Ed.), The collected papers of Otto Fenichel (Vol. 1, pp. 292-302). New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

26.

Finney

S. J.

DiStefano

(2006). Non-normal and categorical data in structural equation modeling. In Hancock

G. R.

Mueller

R. O.

(Eds.), Structural equation modeling: A second course (pp. 269-312). Greenwich, CT: Information Age.

27.

Fisher

C. D.

(1993). Boredom at work: A neglected concept. Human Relations, 46, 395-417.

28.

Fiske

D. W.

Maddi

S. R.

(1961). Functions of varied experience. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.

29.

Frankl

V. E.

(1959). Man’s search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy. London, England: Hodder Stoughton.

30.

Frankl

V. E.

(1962). Man’s search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy. New York, NY: Pocket Books.

31.

Frankl

V. E.

(1984). Man’s search for meaning: An introduction to logotherapy (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

32.

Ganley

R. M.

(1989). Emotion and eating in obesity: A review of the literature. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 8, 343-361.

33.

Geiwitz

P. J.

(1966). Structure of boredom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3, 592-600.

34.

Gordon

Wilkinson

McGown

Jovanoska

(1997). The psychometric properties of the boredom proneness scale: an examination of its validity. Psychological Studies, 42, 85-97.

35.

Greenson

R. R.

(1951). Apathetic and agitated boredom. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 20, 346-347.

36.

Greenson

R. R.

(1953). On boredom. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1, 7-21.

37.

Hamilton

J. A.

(1981). Attention, personality, and the self-regulation of mood: Absorbing interest and boredom. Progress in Experimental Personality Research, 10, 281-315.

38.

Hamilton

J. A.

Haier

R. J.

Buchsbaum

M. S.

(1984). Intrinsic Enjoyment and Boredom Coping scales: Validation with personality, evoked potential and attention measures. Personality and Individual Differences, 5, 183-193.

39.

Harris

M. B.

(2000). Correlates and characteristics of boredom proneness and boredom. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 30, 576-598.

40.

Hartocollis

(1972). Time as a dimension of affects. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 20, 92-108.

41.

Hebb

D. O.

(1966). A textbook of psychology. Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders.

42.

Hill

A. B.

Perkins

R. E.

(1985). Towards a model of boredom. British Journal of Psychology, 76, 235-240.

43.

Iso-Ahola

S. E.

Weissinger

(1990). Perceptions of boredom in leisure: conceptualization, reliability and validity of the Leisure Boredom Scale. Journal of Leisure Research, 22, 1-17.

44.

Jarvis

Seifert

(2002). Work avoidance as a manifestation of hostility, helplessness, and boredom. Alberta Journal of Education Research, 48, 174-187.

45.

Kass

S. J.

Vodanovich

S. J.

Callender

(2001). State-trait boredom: Relationship to absenteeism, tenure, and job satisfaction. Journal of Business and Psychology, 16, 317-327.

46.

Kessler

R. C.

Adler

Ames

Demler

Faraone

Hiripi

. . . Walters

E. E.

(2005). The World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS): A short screening scale for use in the general population. Psychological Medicine, 35, 245–256.

47.

Klapp

O. E.

(1986). Overload and boredom. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

48.

Leary

M. R.

Rogers

P. A.

Canfield

R. W.

Coe

(1986). Boredom in interpersonal encounters: Antecedents and social implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 968-975.

49.

Lee

C. M.

Neighbors

Woods

B. A.

(2007). Marijuana motives: Young adults’ reasons for using marijuana. Addictive Behaviors, 32, 1384-1394.

50.

Lee

T. W.

(1986). Toward the development and validation of a measure of job boredom. Manhattan College Journal of Business, 15, 22-28.

51.

London

Monello

(1974). Cognitive manipulation of boredom. In London

Nisbett

(Eds.), Thought and feeling (pp. 44-59). Chicago, IL: Aldine.

52.

London

Schubert

D. S.

Washburn

(1972). Increase of autonomic arousal by boredom. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 80, 29-36.

53.

Maddi

(1967). The existential neurosis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 72, 311-325.

54.

Maddi

S. R.

(1970). The search for meaning. In Arnold

W. J.

Page

M. M.

(Eds.), The Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (pp. 134-183). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

55.

Maltsberger

J. T.

(2000). Case consultation: Mansur Zaskar: A man almost bored to death. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 30, 83-90.

56.

Martin

Sadlo

Stew

(2006). The phenomenon of boredom. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3, 193-211.

57.

McLeod

C. R.

Vodanovich

S. J.

(1991). The relationship between self-actualization and boredom proneness. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6, 137-146.

58.

Melton

A. M. A.

Schulenberg

S. E.

(2009). A confirmatory factor analysis of the boredom proneness scale. Journal of Psychology, 143, 493-508.

59.

Mercer

K. B.

Eastwood

J. D.

(2010). Is boredom associated with problem gambling behaviour? It depends on what you mean by “boredom.” International Gambling Studies, 10, 91-104.

60.

Mikulas

W. L.

Vodanovich

S. J.

(1993). The essence of boredom. Psychological Record, 43, 3-12.

61.

Nakamura

Csikszentmihalyi

(2003). The construction of meaning through vital engagement. In Keyes

C. L. M.

Haidt

(Eds.), Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived (pp. 83-104). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

62.

Neu

(1998). Boring from within: endogenous versus reactive boredom. In Flack

W. F.

Laird

J. D.

(Eds.), Emotions in psychopathology: Theory and research (pp. 158-170). London, England: Oxford University Press.

63.

O’Connor

(1967). The phenomena of boredom. Journal of Existentialism, 7(27), 381-399.

64.

O’Hanlon

J. F.

(1981). Boredom: Practical consequences and a theory. Acta Psychologica, 49, 53-82.

65.

Patton

J. H.

Stanford

M. S.

Barratt

E. S.

(1995). Factor structure of the Barratt Impulsivity Scale. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, 768-774.

66.

Pattyn

Neyt

Henderickx

Soetens

(2008). Psychophysiological investigation of vigilance decrement: Boredom or cognitive fatigue? Physiology & Behavior, 93, 369-378.

67.

Paulhus

D. L.

(1991). Measurement and control of response bias. In Robinson

J. P.

Shaver

P. R.

Wrightsman

L. S.

(Eds.), Measures of personality and social psychological attitudes (pp. 17-59). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

68.

Polly

L. M.

Vodanovich

S. J.

Watt

J. D.

Blanchard

M. J.

(1993). The effects of attributional processes on boredom proneness. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 8, 123-132.

69.

Posner

Russell

J. A.

Peterson

B. S.

(2005). The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 715-734.

70.

Radloff

L. S.

(1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385-401.

71.

Ragheb

M. G.

Merydith

S. P.

(2001). Development and validation of a unidimensional scale measuring free time boredom. Leisure Studies, 20, 41-59.

72.

Reker

G. T.

(1977). The Purpose-in-Life Test in an inmate population: An empirical investigation. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 33, 688-693.

73.

Rose

McDermott

(Video tape cochairs). (1998). SIGGRAPH 98: Computer graphics conference proceedings video tape [Video recording]. New York, NY: ACM SIGGRAPH.

74.

Rupp

D. E.

Vodanovich

S. J.

(1997). The role of boredom proneness in self-reported anger and aggression. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 12, 925-936.

75.

Seel

R. T.

Kreutzer

J. S.

(2003). Depression assessment after traumatic brain injury: an empirically based classification method. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation, 84, 1621-1628.

76.

Smith

R. P.

(1981). Boredom: A review. Human Factors, 23, 329-340.

77.

Sommers

Vodanovich

S. J.

(2000). Boredom proneness: its relationship to psychological- and physical-health symptoms. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 56, 149-155.

78.

Spielberger

C. D.

(1995). Manual for the revised State-Trait Personality Inventory (STPI). Palo Alto, CA: Mind Garden.

79.

Spielberger

C. D.

Reheiser

E. C.

(2004). Measuring anxiety, anger, depression, and curiosity as emotional states and personality traits with the STAI, STAXI, and STPI. In Hilsenroth

M. L.

Segal

D. L.

(Eds.), Comprehensive handbook of psychological assessment (Vol. 2, pp. 70-86). Hobokon, NJ: John Wiley.

80.

Stickney

M. I.

Miltenberger

R. G.

(1999). Evaluating direct and indirect measures for the functional assessment of binge eating. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 26, 195-204.

81.

Strauss

Corbin

(1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

82.

Sundberg

N. D.

Latkin

C. A.

Farmer

R. F.

Saoud

(1991). Boredom in young adults: Gender and cultural comparisons. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 22, 209-223.

83.

Thackray

R. I.

(1981). The stress of boredom and monotony: A consideration of the evidence. Psychosomatic Medicine, 43, 165-176.

84.

Todman

(2003). Boredom and psychotic disorders: Cognitive and motivational issues. Psychiatry, 66, 146-167.

85.

Tolor

(1989). Boredom as related to alienation, assertiveness, internal-external expectancy, and sleep patterns. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45, 260-265.

86.

Troutwine

O’Neal

E. D.

(1981). Volition, performance of a boring task, and time estimation. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 52, 865-866.

87.

Video Tutor, Inc. (1995). Easy English: Using numbers and money [DVD]. Manasquan, NJ: Author.

88.

Vodanovich

S. J.

(2003). Psychometric measures of boredom: A review of the literature. Journal of Psychology, 137, 569-593.

89.

Vodanovich

S. J.

Kass

S. J.

(1990a). Age and gender differences in boredom proneness. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 5, 297-307.

90.

Vodanovich

S. J.

Kass

S. J.

(1990b). A factor analytic study of the boredom proneness scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 55, 115-123.

91.

Vodanovich

S. J.

Wallace

J. C.

Kass

S. J.

(2005). A confirmatory approach to the factor structure of the boredom proneness scale: Evidence for a two-factor short form. Journal of Personality Assessment, 85, 295-303.

92.

Wangh

(1975). Boredom in psychoanalytic perspective. Sociological Research, 42, 538-550.

93.

Watson

Clark

L. A.

Tellegen

(1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.

94.

Watt

J. D.

Ewing

J. E.

(1996). Toward the development and validation of a measure of sexual boredom. Journal of Sex Research, 33, 57-66.

95.

Watt

J. D.

Vodanovich

S. J.

(1992). An examination of race and gender differences in boredom proneness. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 7, 169-175.

96.

Watt

J. D.

Vodanovich

S. J.

(1999). Boredom proneness and psychosocial development. Journal of Psychology, 133, 303-314.

97.

Weinstein

Xie

Cleanthous

(1995). Purpose in life, boredom, and volunteerism in a group of retirees. Psychological Reports, 76, 482.

98.

White

R. W.

(1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297-333.

99.

Wiesbeck

G. A.

Wodarz

Mauerer

Thome

Jakob

Boening

(1996). Sensation seeking, alcoholism and dopamine activity. European Psychiatry, 11, 87-92.

100.

Zuckerman

(1979). Sensation seeking: Beyond the optimal level of arousal. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

101.

Zuckerman

Eysenck

S. B. G.

Eysenck

H. J.

(1978). Sensation seeking in England and America: Cross-cultural, age, and sex comparisons. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 139-149.