Emotion, Structural Approaches

Discrete Emotion Approaches to the Structure of Emotion

A discrete emotion approach to the structure of emotion argues that certain categories (e.g., those described by such English words as anger, sadness, fear, happiness, and disgust) form the most basic elements of emotional life. Discrete emotion approaches have been consistently criticized throughout the history of emotion research because instrument-based measures of the face, voice, body, and brain in humans (i.e., measures that do not require a human perceiver) as well as animal studies have not revealed the existence of discrete categories [Page 298]in nature (for recent reviews, see Barrett and colleagues). Some studies of cardiovascular measurements, electromyographic activity of facial muscles, acoustical analyses of vocal cues, and blood flow changes within the brain do show consistent differences between discrete emotion categories, but the larger body of evidence disconfirms anger, sadness, fear, happiness, and disgust as fundamental mental elements. This is because there is tremendous variability in the patterns observed within a single category, as well as low consistency in the patterns observed across categories. Nonetheless, perceiver-based measurements (as when one person judges the face or actions of another) often give evidence of clear categories.

Dimensional Approaches to the Structure of Emotion

A dimensional approach to the structure of emotion assumes that the words anger, sadness, fear, and so on name folk categories that divide up the continuous and contextually sensitive range of mental events consisting of highly variable measurable outcomes (e.g., facial muscle movements, peripheral physiology, behavior). These events are constructed from more fundamental building blocks, with affect as one key element. In English, the word affect means to produce a change. To be affected by something is to be influenced by it. In science, and particularly in psychology, affect refers to a special kind of influence—something's ability to influence your mind in a way that is linked to your body. Historically, affect referred to a simple feeling—to be affected is to feel something. In modern psychological usage, affect refers to the mental counterpart of internal bodily representations associated with emotions, actions that involve some degree of motivation, intensity, and force, or even personality dispositions.

Dimensional models describe affect as having the properties of valence and arousal (Russell and Barrett), valence and intensity (e.g., Lang), positive and negative activation (e.g., Watson and Tellegen), positive and negative affect (Cacioppo and colleagues), tense and energetic arousal (Thayer), or approach and withdrawal (e.g., Davidson). The properties of affect, no matter how they are characterized, can be summarized using the affective circumplex (Barrett and Bliss-Moreau) (see Figure 1). The circumplex has two parts: a circle, which depicts the similarity or relatedness between affective elements (be they words or faces or reports of emotional [Page 299]experience), and a set of axes, which are the dimensions themselves and represent the psychological properties that quantify what is similar and different about the elements. Not all dimensional models of affect incorporate circumplex assumptions, although they are usually depicted in a circular space. And although there are debates over which set of dimensions best describes affective space, all can be incorporated into the same circular structure (Carroll and colleagues). Dimensional approaches to the structure of emotion have been criticized because they cannot explain how the instances referred to by the English words anger, fear, and disgust are different from one another (for example, these are all unpleasant, high arousal states).

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