The CALM Program

The Interpersonal Regulation Interaction Scale (IRIS)

Having emotions is a natural part of life. We are interested in how interactions with other people affect our emotions. You might remember times when someone else’s presence or something they did or said helped you to manage your emotions or feel better. These other people might include romantic partners, friends, family members, acquaintances, or anyone else. More specifically, think about a time [or times] when you wanted to feel more or less positive, more or less negative, or more or less calm, and someone else tried to help you. The subscales have been consistently found to be elevated among those at risk for bipolar disorder, as measured using subsyndromal lifetime symptoms, as well as those with diagnoses of remitted bipolar disorder.  Among those at risk for the disorder, it predicts the onset of diagnosis of bipolar disorder, and among those already diagnosed, it predicts conversion to more severe forms as well as more severe symptoms of mania over time.  It has been tied to a biological measure of reward, namely eye blink rate while anticipating a reward task.  

Here is how we administer the IRIS here, followed by scoring instructions:

IRIS Measure Items & Scoring

Rate each of the following statements based on what the other person actually did.
They…

  1. 1 = Didn’t do this at all
  2. 5 = Did a lot of this

(or I prefer it when the other person… [1 = Doesn’t do this at all; 5 =Does a lot of this])

  1. Encouraged me to share my feelings with them
  2. Gave me advice
  3. Expressed anger or hostility toward me
  4. Were honest with me
  5. Helped me to see the situation in a new light
  6. Expressed sympathy or concern
  7. Laughed at me
  8. Made an effort to listen to me
  9. Reminded me of the good things that I have
  10. Ignored or invalidated my feelings
  11. Comforted or consoled me
  12. Helped me to solve the problem
  13. Agreed with my opinion of the situation
  14. Took an interest in my feelings
  15. Helped me to make a plan
  16. Let me know that they were physically present with me
  17. Understood my feelings
  18. Expressed resentment toward me
  19. Helped me to see a silver lining
  20. Were overwhelmed by my feelings
  21. Conveyed their availability through body language (for example, eye contact, facial expressions, body posture)
  22. Let me vent my emotions
  23. Criticized my response to the situation
  24. Communicated their thoughts and feelings through physical contact (for example, a pat on the shoulder, a hug)
  25. Let me know that my feelings were understandable or legitimate
  26. Told me I was being too emotional
  27. Suggested alternative interpretations of the situation
  28. Communicated their love or positive regard for me

PresentationItems may be presented in a random order or in the order shown above.  ScoringItems are summed to form subscales as shown below:

  1. Responsiveness: 1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 22, 25, 28
  2. Hostility: 3, 7, 10, 18, 20, 23, 26
  3. Cognitive Support: 2, 5, 9, 12, 15, 19, 27
  4. Physical Presence: 16, 21, 24

References

Swerdlow, B.A., & Johnson, S. L. (in press). The Interpersonal Regulation Interaction Scale (IRIS): A multistudy investigation of receivers’ retrospective evaluations of interpersonal emotion regulation interactions. Emotion.