Structure of Emotions

Abstract

Interesting structures emerge in scaling analyses of emotions when stimuli are confined to terms that are relativelyffee of cognitive and behavioral connotations. Study 1focused on 99 such terms, rated on semantic differential scales. It revealed a bimodal distribution of emotions with regard to pleasantness, further distinctions in terms of activation, and a third dimension representing flight-fight. Study 2 obtained dissimilarity ratings for a representative subset of the terms; nonmetric multidimensional scaling replicated the dimensions in Study 1 with a clarijied third dimension. None of the results conform strictly to a circumplex model of emotion. Instead the results suggest that emotions are hedonically polarized feelings. Activation appears to be the main discriminating factor in positive emotions, but activation and a sense of potency combine in discriminating negative emotions. These