Evaluation of Neuro-Emotive Systems in Children. Explorative Study of the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS) in School Age

The Affective Neuroscience Personality Scale (ANPS, Davis & Panksepp, 2011) is a self-report that measures in adults the expression of six primary emotional systems (SEEKING, RAGE, FEAR, LUST, CARE, PANIC, PLAY) described by Panksepp (1998, 2006 and 2011) and corresponding to specific subcortical areas. The present study aims to explore, through the ANPS, the expression of emotional systems in a sample of 208 school-age children and to measure the concurrent validity of the ANPS with the "Big-Five Children" test. The results show a stability of primary emotional systems during the age and a good concurrent validity of the instrument. Further validation studies on larger populations are needed.