based on the concept of emotional stability as defined in the literature , 250 items were developed covering initially the following 6 dimensions of emotional stability : 
 pessimism vs. optimismanxiety vs. calmaggression vs. tolerance.dependence vs. autonomy.emotions vs. logicapathy vs. empathy 
  pessimism vs. optimism aggression vs. tolerance . the items were given to the judges , who were qualified psychologists with minimum 10 years of experience in the field of personality assessment . out of these , 90 items were such where the judges could not reach a consensus , therefore these items were eliminated and only 160 items were retained for the initial trial . besides this , the judges felt that there was an overlapping of items in the last two subscales i.e. emotions vs. logic and apathy vs. empathy . hence the items of these subscales were merged together and the scale had only 5 dimensions . pessimists are gloomy and depressed , disappointed with their existence and at odds with the world . they have low self - esteem , are introverts , have feelings of guilt , interpersonal dependency , and remain passive in social situations . on the other hand optimists are generally cheerful and positive in their outlook . they are satisfied with themselves , find life rewarding , and are at peace with the world . they show persistence in seeking goals in spite of setbacks and obstacles , operating from the hope of success rather than fear of failure . they perceive failures as being due to manageable circumstances rather than a personal flaw . example : do you seem to have more than your share of bad luck ? . people who are apathetic are detached , shrewd , worldly and expedient and harbor self- interest in their dealings with other people . people who are empathic in nature consider other 's feelings along with related factors in the process of making intelligent decisions . example : does it worry you if someone is annoyed with you for a mistake , which you have actually not committed ? the dependent person lacks self - reliance , thinks of himself as a helpless pawn of fate , is pushed around by other people and events and shows a high degree of authoritarian submission ( the unquestioning obedience to institutional power ) . the persons high on autonomy enjoy a great deal of freedom and independence , make their own decisions , view themselves as a master of their own fate and take realistic actions to solve their own problems . example : do you place your trust in supernatural powers such as god or fate to see you through safely ? anxious persons are easily upset by things that go wrong and are inclined to worry unreasonably about things that may or may not happen . people who are calm are placid , serene and resistant to irrational fears and anxieties . because of this ability they can stay calm under pressure . example : do you often feel restless as though you want something but do not really know what ? aggressive individuals are given to the direct or indirect expression of anger , for example , behavior such as temper tantrums , fighting , violent arguments and sarcasm , or participation in adventurous activities like mountaineering , car rallies etc . they take no nonsense from anyone and feel compelled to return fire or get back at anyone who transgresses against them . tolerant individuals are gentle , even tempered , with no personal conflicts and are not given to violence either direct or indirect . an answer sheet was developed , wherein the subjects had 5 alternatives to answer each question i.e.  always , never. since the test was a combination of both positive and negative items the scores for positive items ranged from 5 to1 and for negative items it ranged from 1 to 5 . pessimists are gloomy and depressed , disappointed with their existence and at odds with the world . they have low self - esteem , are introverts , have feelings of guilt , interpersonal dependency , and remain passive in social situations . on the other hand optimists are generally cheerful and positive in their outlook . they are satisfied with themselves , find life rewarding , and are at peace with the world . they show persistence in seeking goals in spite of setbacks and obstacles , operating from the hope of success rather than fear of failure . example : do you seem to have more than your share of bad luck ? . people who are apathetic are detached , shrewd , worldly and expedient and harbor self- interest in their dealings with other people . people who are empathic in nature consider other 's feelings along with related factors in the process of making intelligent decisions . example : does it worry you if someone is annoyed with you for a mistake , which you have actually not committed ? the dependent person lacks self - reliance , thinks of himself as a helpless pawn of fate , is pushed around by other people and events and shows a high degree of authoritarian submission ( the unquestioning obedience to institutional power ) . the persons high on autonomy enjoy a great deal of freedom and independence , make their own decisions , view themselves as a master of their own fate and take realistic actions to solve their own problems . example : do you place your trust in supernatural powers such as god or fate to see you through safely ? anxious persons are easily upset by things that go wrong and are inclined to worry unreasonably about things that may or may not happen people who are calm are placid , serene and resistant to irrational fears and anxieties . because of this ability they can stay calm under pressure . example : do you often feel restless as though you want something but do not really know what ? aggressive individuals are given to the direct or indirect expression of anger , for example , behavior such as temper tantrums , fighting , violent arguments and sarcasm , or participation in adventurous activities like mountaineering , car rallies etc . they take no nonsense from anyone and feel compelled to return fire or get back at anyone who transgresses against them . tolerant individuals are gentle , even tempered , with no personal conflicts and are not given to violence either direct or indirect . an answer sheet was developed , wherein the subjects had 5 alternatives to answer each question i.e.  always , never. since the test was a combination of both positive and negative items the scores for positive items ranged from 5 to1 and for negative items it ranged from 1 to 5 . based on stratified random sampling method , the scale was administered on 200 college students in the age range of 17 to 21 years . item analysis was carried out by calculating the  t values for each item using allen 's , formula . the  t values for 160 items ranged from .94 to 9.73 . out of these a total of 50 items with highest the above mentioned scale is a 50 item self - administered 5 point rating scale comprising of 10 items from each of the abovementioned dimensions . the scores range from 5 to 1 for positive items and from 1 to 5 for negative items . hence the minimum score on the scale can be 50 and the maximum score can be 250 . cronbach 's alpha was computed as an index of internal consistency for the 50 items of the scale on a sample of 400 college students in the age range of 17 to 21 years . content validity was seen through collective agreement among the judges as well as empirically through item analysis . construct validity of the scale was measured in terms of inter - correlation between subscales of emotional stability scale and total scale . correlation matrix in table 1 reveals that the inter - correlation among various subscales ranged from .135 between aggression vs. tolerance and apathy vs. empathy to .503 between dependence vs. autonomy and pessimism vs. optimism . all the subscales showed significantly positive correlation with the total score on the test ranging from .33 ( aggression vs. tolerance ) to .63 ( anxiety vs. calm ) . inter - correlation between emotional stability subscales and total scale the norms are given in the form of cumulative percentages based on the frequency distributions of the total score . based on the obtained frequencies as shown in table 2 , 181 can be taken as minimum cut off score for a normal individual . in terms of mean and standard deviations 12.79 ) , which means the scores in the range of 174 to 200 can be considered as normal . a 50 item 5 point rating scale is developed based on the psychometric principles of test development to measure various dimensions of emotional stability . however further research in the area can be taken up to develop the norms for various age groups .