Achievement Emotions Questionnaire
AEQPermission: Free for research use. Free for non-commercial academic research, with no licence fee. Cite the original publication.
A modular instrument measuring nine achievement emotions (enjoyment, hope, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, boredom, relief) across class, learning, and test settings.
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Reliability & validation
Subscales
Response anchors
Strongly disagree · Disagree · Neutral · Agree · Strongly agree
Known limitations
The full instrument is very long (232 items) and is designed to be used modularly by setting or emotion; scales are domain-specific and were validated primarily with university students.
Original citation
Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Frenzel, A. C., Barchfeld, P., & Perry, R. P. (2011). Measuring emotions in students' learning and performance: The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ). Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36(1), 36-48.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2010.10.002Questions researchers ask
What does the AEQ measure?
A modular instrument measuring nine achievement emotions (enjoyment, hope, pride, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, boredom, relief) across class, learning, and test settings.
How many items does the AEQ have?
The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) has 232 items across 9 subscales: Enjoyment, Hope, Pride, Anger, Anxiety, Shame, Hopelessness, Boredom, Relief.
Is the AEQ free to use?
The AEQ is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.
Is the AEQ reliable?
Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.75–0.93. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.
Who developed the AEQ, and how do I cite it?
Pekrun, R., Goetz, T., Frenzel, A. C., Barchfeld, P., & Perry, R. P. (2011). Measuring emotions in students' learning and performance: The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ). Contemporary Educational Psychology, 36(1), 36-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2010.10.002
Related scales
Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.