Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire:

Short-Form (FFMQ-SF)
Below is a collection of statements about your everyday experience. Using the 1–5 scale below, please
indicate, in the box to the right of each statement, how frequently or infrequently you have had each
experience in the past month (or other agreed time period). Please answer according to what really
reflects your experience rather than what you think your experience should be.

1 2 3 4 5
Sometimes true,
Never or very Very often or
Not often true sometimes not Often true
rarely true always true
true

Item score/
Reverse Final
Item Facet keyed items score

1. I’m good at finding the words to describe my DESCRIBE

feelings. EXPERIENCES

2. I can easily put my beliefs, opinions, and DESCRIBE

expectations into words. EXPERIENCES

3. I watch my feelings without getting carried NON-

away by them. REACTIVITY

4. I tell myself that I shouldn’t be feeling the way SELF

I’m feeling. COMPASSION 6–

5. It’s hard for me to find the words to describe DESCRIBE

what I’m thinking. EXPERIENCES 6–

6. I pay attention to physical experiences, such OBSERVING

as the wind in my hair or sun on my face. INNER EVENTS

7. I make judgments about whether my thoughts SELF-

are good or bad. COMPASSION 6–

8. I find it difficult to stay focused on what’s ACTING

happening in the present moment. MINDFULLY 6–

9. When I have distressing thoughts or images, NON-

I don’t let myself be carried away by them. REACTIVITY

10. Generally, I pay attention to sounds, such as

OBSERVING
clocks ticking, birds chirping, or cars INNER EVENTS
passing.

11. When I feel something in my body, it’s hard DESCRIBE

for me to find the right words to describe it. EXPERIENCES 6–
 Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire: Short-Form (FFMQ-SF) 2

12. It seems I am “running on automatic” without ACTING

much awareness of what I’m doing. MINDFULLY 6–

13. When I have distressing thoughts or images, NON-

I feel calm soon after. REACTIVITY

14. I tell myself I shouldn’t be thinking the way SELF-

I’m thinking. COMPASSION 6–

15. I notice the smells and aromas of things. OBSERVING

INNER EVENTS

16. Even when I’m feeling terribly upset, I can DESCRIBE

find a way to put it into words. EXPERIENCES

17. I rush through activities without being really ACTING

attentive to them. MINDFULLY 6–

18. Usually, when I have distressing thoughts or

NON-
images, I can just notice them without REACTIVITY
reacting.

19. I think some of my emotions are bad or SELF-

inappropriate and I shouldn’t feel them. COMPASSION 6–

20. I notice visual elements in art or nature, such

OBSERVING
as colors, shapes, textures, or patterns of
INNER EVENTS
light and shadow.

21. When I have distressing thoughts or images, NON-

I just notice them and let them go. REACTIVITY

22. I do jobs or tasks automatically without being ACTING

aware of what I’m doing. MINDFULLY 6–

23. I find myself doing things without paying ACTING

attention. MINDFULLY 6–

24. I disapprove of myself when I have illogical SELF-

ideas. COMPASSION 6–

This patient assessment measure is intended for clinical use in research and evaluation as a potentially useful tool to enhance an
ACT-consistent approach. Not intended for commercial distribution. For use with Goubert DP, Törneke N, Purssey R, et al.:
Learning Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Essential Guide to the Process and Practice of Mindful Psychiatry.
Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association Publishing, 2020.
 Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire: Short-Form (FFMQ-SF) 3

FFMQ-SF Scoring Instructions

Record score and final score on survey. Record final facet scores in scoring table and sum. Divide
sum by # items in facet. Record subscale mean. Note facet target(s).

Facet # Items in
scores/sum Divide by facet Target(s)

Observing inner events 4

Describe experience 5

Non-reactivity 5

Self-compassion 5

Acting mindfully 5

Total score

This patient assessment measure is intended for clinical use in research and evaluation as a potentially useful tool to enhance an
ACT-consistent approach. Not intended for commercial distribution. For use with Goubert DP, Törneke N, Purssey R, et al.:
Learning Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: The Essential Guide to the Process and Practice of Mindful Psychiatry.
Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association Publishing, 2020.
5 facet questionnaire: short form (ffmq-sf)
Below is a collection of statements about your everyday experience. Using the 1–5 scale below,
please indicate, in the box to the right of each statement, how frequently or infrequently you have
had each experience in the last month (or other agreed time period). Please answer according to
what really reflects your experience rather than what you think your experience should be.
never or not often sometimes true often very often
very rarely true true sometimes not true true or always true
1 2 3 4 5

1 I’m good at finding the words to describe my feelings DS

2 I can easily put my beliefs, opinions, and expectations into words DS

3 I watch my feelings without getting carried away by them NR

4 I tell myself that I shouldn’t be feeling the way I’m feeling /NJ

5 it’s hard for me to find the words to describe what I’m thinking /DS
I pay attention to physical experiences,
6 such as the wind in my hair or sun on my face
OB

7 I make judgments about whether my thoughts are good or bad. /NJ

8 I find it difficult to stay focused on what’s happening in the present moment /AA
when I have distressing thoughts or images,
9 I don’t let myself be carried away by them
NR
generally, I pay attention to sounds, such as clocks ticking,
10 birds chirping, or cars passing
OB
when I feel something in my body, it’s hard
11 for me to find the right words to describe it
/DS
it seems I am “running on automatic”
12 without much awareness of what I’m doing
/AA

13 when I have distressing thoughts or images, I feel calm soon after NR

14 I tell myself I shouldn’t be thinking the way I’m thinking /NJ

15 I notice the smells and aromas of things OB

16 even when I’m feeling terribly upset, I can find a way to put it into words DS

17 I rush through activities without being really attentive to them /AA

usually when I have distressing thoughts or
18 images I can just notice them without reacting NR

PTO.
 never or not often sometimes true often very often
very rarely true true sometimes not true true or always true
1 2 3 4 5
I think some of my emotions are bad
19 or inappropriate and I shouldn’t feel them /NJ
I notice visual elements in art or nature, such as colors,
20 shapes, textures, or patterns of light and shadow OB
when I have distressing thoughts or
21 images, I just notice them and let them go NR

22 I do jobs or tasks automatically without being aware of what I’m doing /AA

23 I find myself doing things without paying attention /AA

24 I disapprove of myself when I have illogical ideas /NJ

correct scores for items preceded by a slash (/NJ, /AA, etc) by subtracting from 6
non react = ; observe = ; act aware = ; describe = ; non judge =

In the research study where the short form of the FFMQ was developed (see Bohlmeijer et al.
below), most of the 376 participants were educated women with “clinically relevant symptoms of
depression and anxiety”. They were randomized to a nine week clinical intervention involving an
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) self-help book “Living life to the full”, plus 10 to 15
minutes per day of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction meditation exercises, plus some email
support. Mean (and Standard Deviation) scores pre- and post- intervention were:

non react observe act aware describe non judge

pre-
13.47 (3.07) 13.86 (3.21) 13.19 (3.32) 16.28 (3.91) 14.09 (3.63)
mean (sd)
~70% 10.4–16.5 10.6–17.0 9.9–16.6 12.4–20.2 10.5–17.7

~95% 7.3–19.6 7.4–20.3 6.5–19.8 8.5–24.1 6.8–21.3

post-
16.90 15.22 15.98 18.46 18.14
intervention

Bohlmeijer, E., P. M. ten Klooster, et al. (2011). "Psychometric properties of the five facet mindfulness questionnaire in depressed adults and
development of a short form." Assessment 18(3): 308-320. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in therapies that include the
learning of mindfulness skills. The 39-item Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) has been developed as a reliable and valid comprehensive
instrument for assessing different aspects of mindfulness in community and student samples. In this study, the psychometric properties of the
Dutch FFMQ were assessed in a sample of 376 adults with clinically relevant symptoms of depression and anxiety. Construct validity was examined
with confirmatory factor analyses and by relating the FFMQ to measures of psychological symptoms, well-being, experiential avoidance, and the
personality factors neuroticism and openness to experience. In addition, a 24-item short form of the FFMQ (FFMQ-SF) was developed and assessed
in the same sample and cross-validated in an independent sample of patients with fibromyalgia. Confirmatory factor analyses showed acceptable
model fit for a correlated five-factor structure of the FFMQ and good model fit for the structure of the FFMQ-SF. The replicability of the five-factor
structure of the FFMQ-SF was confirmed in the fibromyalgia sample. Both instruments proved highly sensitive to change. It is concluded that both
the FFMQ and the FFMQ-SF are reliable and valid instruments for use in adults with clinically relevant symptoms of depression and anxiety.
EAQ30 UK

© Carolien Rieffe, Developmental Psychology, Leiden University, the Netherlands

www.focusonemotions.nl

Rieffe, C., Oosterveld, P., Miers, A.C., Meerum Terwogt, M., & Ly, V. (2008). Emotion
awareness and internalising symptoms in children and adolescents; the Emotion Awareness
Questionnaire revised. Personality and Individual Differences, 45, 756-761.
 The way I feel
Please fill out your first name.................................................................
And your date of birth .............................................................................
And whether you are a boy or a girl .......................................................

On the next pages, you will find 30 short sentences. Every

sentence is a statement about how you can feel or think about
your feelings. You can mark each sentence if this is true,
sometimes true or not true for you. Choose the answer that
best fits you. You can only mark one answer. If you find that
difficult, choose the answer that fits you most of the time.
Different children have different feelings and ideas about their
feelings. Therefore, there are no right or wrong answers,
because it is just about what you think.

For example the sentence

“When I feel upset, I try to forget about it”

If this statement is true for you, then mark “true”

not true sometimes true true



If this statement is sometimes true for you, then mark

“sometimes true”

not true sometimes true true



If this statement is not true for you, then mark “not true”

not true sometimes true true


 not sometimes true
true true

1 I am often confused or puzzled about what I am feeling

2 I find it difficult to explain to a friend how I feel

3 Other people don’t need to know how I am feeling.

4 When I am scared or nervous, I feel something in my

tummy

5 It is important to know how my friends are feeling

6 When I am angry or upset, I try to understand why

7 It is difficult to know whether I feel sad or angry or

something else

8 I find it hard to talk to anyone about how I feel

9 When I am upset about something, I often keep it to

myself

10 When I feel upset, I can also feel it in my body

11 I don´t want to know how my friends are feeling

12 My feelings help me to understand what has happened

13 I never know exactly what kind of feeling I am having

14 I can easily explain to a friend how I feel inside

15 When I am angry or upset, I try to hide this

 not sometimes true
true true

16 I don´t feel anything in my body when I am scared or

nervous

17 If a friend is upset, I try to understand why

18 When I have a problem, it helps me when I know how I

feel about it

19 When I am upset, I don´t know if I am sad, scared or

angry

20 When I am upset, I try not to show it

21 My body feels different when I am upset about

something

22 I don’t care about how my friends are feeling inside

23 It is important to understand how I am feeling

24 Sometimes, I feel upset and I have no idea why

25 When I am feeling bad, it is no one else’s business

26 When I am sad, my body feels weak

27 I usually know how my friends are feeling

28 I always want to know why I feel bad about something

29 I often don’t know why I am angry

30 I don´t know when something will upset me or not

Please check
that you have marked all of the sentences.

Thank you!
 LIFE ORIENTATION TEST –Revised (LOT-R)
Reference:
Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Bridges, M. W. (1994). Distinguishing optimism from neuroticism
(and trait anxiety, self-mastery, and self-esteem): A re-evaluation of the Life Orientation
Test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 1063-1078.

Description of Measure:

A 10-item measure of optimism versus pessimism. Of the 10 items, 3 items measure

optimism, 3 items measure pessimism, and 4 items serve as fillers. Respondents rate each item on a
4-point scale: 0 = strongly disagree, 1 = disagree, 2 = neutral, 3 =
agree, and 4 = strongly agree.

LOT-R is a revised version of the original LOT (Scheier & Carver, 1992; see abstract below).
The original LOT had 12 items: 4 worded positively, 4 worded negatively, and 4 fillers.

Abstracts of Selected Related Articles:

Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1992). Effects of optimism on psychological and physical well-being:
Theoretical overview and empirical update. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 16, 201-228.

The primary purpose of this paper is to review recent research examining the beneficial
effects of optimism on psychological and physical well-being. The review focuses on research
that is longitudinal or prospective in design. Potential mechanisms are also identified
whereby the beneficial effects of optimism are produced, focusing in particular on how
optimism may lead a person to cope more adaptively with stress. The paper closes with a
brief consideration of the similarities and differences between our own theoretical approach
and several related approaches that have been taken by others.

Vautier, S., Raufaste, E., & Cariou, M. (2003). Dimensionality of the Revised Life Orientation Test
and the status of the filler items. International Journal of Psychology, 38, 390-400.

Dispositional optimism was originally construed as unidimensional (Scheier & Carver, 1992).
However, LOT-R data (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 1994) generally appeared bidimensional
as a number of studies suggest a twocorrelated- factor model representing optimism and
pessimism. Attempts at corroborating one-factor models suggest that correlated errors
between positively worded items are required for an adequate account of the data. This
article explains bidimensionality by the influence of social desirability (i.e., being positive is
desirable). Namely, in the present study, correlated errors are interpreted as the presence of
individual differences related to the tendency to present oneself in a positive manner.
Moreover, response styles can be corroborated by appropriately modelling the entire
covariance matrix (i.e., including fillers), by checking that fillers with positive meaning
correlate with the faking-good group factor. Students (N = 442) responded to a French
adaptation of the LOT-R. The data were submitted to SEM analyses. The traditional two-
correlated factor model (optimism–pessimism) was outperformed by a model including a
common factor (“optimism”) plus a factor grouping positive items only (“faking positive”). In
addition, reliability analyses showed that the choice of the model clearly impacts the
reliability estimates based on the model. The entire dataset was modelled for exploring the
relationships between the fillers and the measurement model (i.e., the set of all relationships
between factors and their indicators). The specific correlations of fillers whose meaning is
positive with the faking-good group factor corroborated its substantial interpretation. It is

Self Report Measures for Love and Compassion Research: Optimism

 concluded that there is no empirical necessity for hypothesizing that the dispositional
optimism construct must be split into optimism plus pessimism.

Wimberly, S. R., Carver, C. S., & Antoni, M. H. (2008). Effects of optimism, interpersonal
relationships, and distress on psychosexual well-being. Psychology and Health, 23, 57-72.

This study examined associations between optimism, social support, and distress as they
relate to psychosexual well-being among 136 women with Stage 0, I, and II breast cancer.
Women were assessed immediately post-surgery and 3, 6, and 12 months post-surgery.
Results support two cross-sectional mediation models. The first model indicates that patients
who are more optimistic experience greater psychosexual well-being (i.e., feel more feminine,
attractive, and sexually desirable) partly because they perceive themselves as having more
social support available. The second model indicates that patients who are more optimistic
experience greater psychosexual well-being partly because they experience less emotional
distress related to the disease. When the two models were tested simultaneously, distress no
longer contributed uniquely to the model at any time point except for 12 months follow-up.

Scale:

Please be as honest and accurate as you can throughout. Try not to let your response to one
statement influence your responses to other statements. There are no "correct" or "incorrect"
answers. Answer according to your own feelings, rather than how you think "most people"
would answer.

A = I agree a lot
B = I agree a little
C = I neither agree nor disagree
D = I disagree a little
E = I disagree a lot

1. In uncertain times, I usually expect the best.

2. It's easy for me to relax.
3. If something can go wrong for me, it will. (R)
4. I'm always optimistic about my future.
5. I enjoy my friends a lot.
6. It's important for me to keep busy.
7. I hardly ever expect things to go my way. (R)
8. I don't get upset too easily.
9. I rarely count on good things happening to me. (R)
10. Overall, I expect more good things to happen to me than bad.

Scoring:

Items 3, 7, and 9 are reverse scored (or scored separately as a pessimism measure). Items 2, 5, 6,
and 8 are fillers and should not be scored. Scoring is kept continuous – there is no benchmark for
being an optimist/pessimist.

Self Report Measures for Love and Compassion Research: Optimism

 Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ)
Gross & John
9/03

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire is designed to assess individual differences in the habitual use of two
emotion regulation strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression.

Citation

Gross, J.J., & John, O.P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for
affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 348-362.

Instructions and Items

We would like to ask you some questions about your emotional life, in particular, how you control (that is, regulate
and manage) your emotions. The questions below involve two distinct aspects of your emotional life. One is your
emotional experience, or what you feel like inside. The other is your emotional expression, or how you show your
emotions in the way you talk, gesture, or behave. Although some of the following questions may seem similar to one
another, they differ in important ways. For each item, please answer using the following scale:

1-----------------2------------------3------------------4------------------5------------------6------------------7
strongly neutral strongly
disagree agree

1. ____ When I want to feel more positive emotion (such as joy or amusement), I change what I’m thinking about.
2. ____ I keep my emotions to myself.
3. ____ When I want to feel less negative emotion (such as sadness or anger), I change what I’m thinking about.
4. ____ When I am feeling positive emotions, I am careful not to express them.
5. ____ When I’m faced with a stressful situation, I make myself think about it in a way that helps me stay calm.
6. ____ I control my emotions by not expressing them.
7. ____ When I want to feel more positive emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about the situation.
8. ____ I control my emotions by changing the way I think about the situation I’m in.
9. ____ When I am feeling negative emotions, I make sure not to express them.
10. ____ When I want to feel less negative emotion, I change the way I’m thinking about the situation.

Note

Do not change item order, as items 1 and 3 at the beginning of the questionnaire define the terms “positive emotion”
and “negative emotion”.

Scoring (no reversals)

Reappraisal Items: 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10; Suppression Items: 2, 4, 6, 9.