Gender differences in negative affect and well-being: The case for emotional intensity.

TLDR

Affect intensity (AI) explains why women report more negative affect yet equal happiness, describing how people vary in response intensity to identical emotional stimuli. The study assessed 66 women and 34 men on positive and negative affect via self‑report, peer report, daily report, and memory performance, then created multimeasure affect balance and AI scores and performed t‑tests. Principal‑components analysis identified affect balance and AI components, showing that gender explains less than 1 % of happiness variance but over 13 % of AI, with women as happy as men yet more emotionally intense, indicating that higher negative affect in women is offset by more intense positive emotions.

Abstract

Affect intensity (AI) may reconcile 2 seemingly paradoxical findings: Women report more negative affect than men but equal happiness as men. AI describes people's varying response intensity to identical emotional stimuli. A college sample of 66 women and 34 men was assessed on both positive and negative affect using 4 measurement methods: self-report, peer report, daily report, and memory performance. A principal-components analysis revealed an affect balance component and an AI component. Multimeasure affect balance and AI scores were created, and t tests were computed that showed women to be as happy as and more intense than men. Gender accounted for less than 1% of the variance in happiness but over 13% in AI. Thus, depression findings of more negative affect in women do not conflict with well-being findings of equal happiness across gender. Generally, women's more intense positive emotions balance their higher negative affect.