Convergent, Discriminant, and Incremental Validity of the Nightmare Proneness Scale
Dreaming (New York, N.Y.) March 1, 2019 W. Kelly, Qiujun Yu
The Nightmare Proneness Scale (NPS) shows promise as a measure of a personality trait that makes people more likely to have frequent nightmares. In a sample of 140 university students, the scale's scores correlated with nightmare frequency, distress from nightmares, effects of nightmares, general psychological distress, neuroticism, and trauma symptoms, supporting its convergent validity. Discriminant validity was shown by weak or absent correlations with feminine gender role, habitual sleep length, and social desirability. The NPS also predicted additional variance in nightmares beyond that explained by general distress, neuroticism, and trauma symptoms combined, as well as beyond nightmare distress and effects.