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People can easily infer the thoughts and feelings of others from brief descriptions of scenarios. But how do they arrive at these inferences? Three studies tested how, through anchoring-and-adjustment, people used semantic and numerical anchors (irrelevant values provided by experimenters) in inferring feelings from scenario descriptions. We showed that in a between-subject design, people’s inference was biased toward anchoring information (Studies 1 and 2). People made fewer adjustments (anchoring increased) under time pressure in the high-anchor condition but not in the low-anchor condition (Study 3). When inferring affect from scenario descriptions, not only did people integrate their inference with the context, they adjusted away from the initial anchors provided by the experimenters. However, time pressure discouraged people from making adequate adjustments.

The study reported in this article examined the relationship between affect and interpersonal behaviors by identifying the intersection between Yik’s (2009b) Chinese Circumplex Model of Affect (CCMA) and Wiggins’ (1995) Interpersonal Circumplex (IPC). Past research on the relationships between circumplexes has relied on zero-order correlations and principal components analysis, but neither method provides a definitive test of the connections between two structural models. In the present study, Michael Browne’s CIRCUM-extension procedure was used to locate each circumplex within the other. The results show that the two circumplexes overlap on one axis: 37° within the CCMA (pleasant feelings with medium arousal) and 76° within the IPC, which is close to where extraversion lies.

In his commentary on my paper (Yik, 2007), Schimmack (2009 this issue) reanalysed the published correlations and concluded that dialectical thinking moderates bipolarity in rating momentary affect. In this response, I attempt to integrate our interpretations of the data. Overall, bipolarity prevails in all five language groups. At one point of time, when one is happy, one is not sad. The explanations for the small differences provide avenues for future research.

This article offers a new method to describe the relationship between two circumplexes, illustrated empirically with Wiggins' (1995) Interpersonal Adjective Scales (IAS) and Yik, Russell, and Steiger's (2004) 12-Point Affect Circumplex Scales (12-PACS). Michael Browne's CIRCUM-extension procedure was used to place each circumplex within the other. Simulations showed this procedure can reveal the number of dimensions of overlap between the two and can estimate the magnitude and location of the overlap. The IAS space overlaps the 12-PACS space on one axis, which falls at 35 degrees within the 12-PACS space (pleasant activated versus unpleasant deactivated) and at 71 degrees within the IAS space, which is close to where Extraversion (Factor I of the Five Factor Model) also lies.

This study examined if the relation between momentary positive and negative affect varies with culture and gender. In eight samples covering five languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) with 3084 respondents (1305 males and 1779 females), I tested this proposal through structural equation models that controlled for random and systematic errors of measurement. In all eight samples, female respondents yielded a more negative correlation between positive and negative affect than did male respondents, but the differences were tiny and only two were statistically significant. In a multi-sample confirmatory factor analysis, the correlation was found to be substantial and negative in all five languages (Fs ranging from /.80 to /.91). All values from the total samples and from males and females separately were consistent with the bipolarity of positive and negative affect.

The structure of momentary affect among Cantonese-speaking Chinese was explored by developing questionnaire scales in four response formats. Scales can be scored for dimensions defined by Feldman Barrett and Russell; Thayer; Larsen and Diener; and Watson and Tellegen. In a study of recalled affect (N = 487), the newly translated scales were found to support all but Watson and Tellegen’s structural model originating from English. Results cross-validated well in a second sample (N = 402). Affect dimensions were interrelated as found with English-speaking Canadians and they could be integrated into a two-dimensional bipolar space.

This article shows that fundamental aspects of the structure of momentary affect are similar in Japanese and Canadian societies. We developed questionnaire scales in Japanese in four different formats for assessing self-reported momentary affect. Scales can be scored for dimensions defined by Feldman Barrett and Russell (1998), Thayer (1996), Larsen and Diener (1992), and Watson and Tellegen (1985). We administered these newly developed affect scales and NEO five-factor inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992) to a sample of 450 Japanese respondents. The affect scales were found to be psychometrically sound and to be interrelated, as found with English-speaking Canadians. Dimensions could be integrated into a two-dimensional affective space. Personality correlated with momentary affect, though not in the same pattern as found in Canada.

This article reports a study (N = 217) predicting self-reported momentary affect from personality. Affect was described with a two-dimensional space that integrates various affect models including the valence/arousal and the positive affect/negative affect models. Three models of personality were compared: Extraversion and Neuroticism, the Five Factor Model (which adds Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience), and Digman's Alpha and Beta. Both linear and nonlinear (interaction and quadratic) effects were examined. Results favored the Five Factor Model. Nonlinear effects were small. Personality was not linked to affect in a way consistent with the claim that certain dimensions (Positive Affect and Negative Affect) are more basic; indeed, neuroticism was maximally correlated with the Pleasant versus Unpleasant axis rather than with Negative Affect.

Summary: This article shows that basic aspects of the structure of momentary affect are similar in Spanish and Canadian societies. It developed questionnaire scales in Spanish in four different formats for assessing momentary affect. Scales can be scored for dimensions defined by Barrett and Russell (1998) , Thayer (1996) , Larsen and Diener (1992) , and Watson and Tellegen (1985) . In a sample of Spanish-speaking respondents (N = 233), the new scales were found to be psychometrically sound and to be interrelated as found with English-speaking Canadians: Dimensions could be integrated into a two-dimensional bipolar space. Personality correlated with momentary affect, though not in the same pattern as found in Canada.

D. Watson and L. A. Clark (1997) announced “two fundamental psychometric principles” (p. 282) of affect: The positive correlation between affects with the same valence tends to be substantial, whereas the negative correlation between affects with opposite valence tends to be weak. These allegedly robust empirical generalizations underlie various conceptual models of affect (such as those that posit an independence between positive and negative affect) and various scales of affect. The authors offer an alternative analysis: The correlation between two affects is a function of the angle between them within a circular ordering. Two data sets were reanalyzed and showed predicted exceptions to Watson and Clark's principles: same-valenced pairs with weak correlations and oppositely valenced pairs with substantial correlations.

Current affect has been described with various dimensions and structures, including J. A. Russell's (1980) circumplex, D. Watson and A. Tellegen's (1985) positive and negative affect, R. E. Thayer's (1989) tense and energetic arousal, and R. J. Larsen and E. Diener's (1992) 8 combinations of pleasantness and activation. These 4 structures each presuppose bipolar dimensions and have been thought of as interchangeable or 45° rotations of one another, but past data were inconsistent. Huge but not perfect overlap among these four structures was found here in 2 studies of self-reported current affect (Ate = 198 and 217) that controlled for random and systematic errors of measurement. The 4 structures were integrated into a common space defined by 2 bipolar dimensions. Current affect has been described with various dimensions and structures, including Russell's (1980) circumplex, Watson and Tellegen's (1985) positive and negative affect, Thayer's (1989) tense and energetic arousal, and Larsen and Diener's (1992) eight combinations of pleasantness and activation. In this article, we argue that it is possible to integrate these various concepts in a simple scheme, thereby taking a large step towards unifying dimensional approaches to affect as a person experiences and reports it. There have been three major approaches to the broad, general dimensions of reported affect. One approach has focused on activation (also known as arousal, energy, tension, and activity). Sleep, drowsiness, alertness, activation, hyperactivation, and, finally, frenzied excitement describe increasing degrees of activation. Activation was prominent in psychological writing throughout most of this century (Berlyne, 1960; Cannon, 1927; Duffy, 1957; Hebb, 1955; Lindsley, 1951; Mandler, 1984; Schachter & Singer, 1962; Zillmann, 1983). Thayer (1989, 1996) has spearheaded a research program on the causes and consequences of everyday affect, conceptualized in terms of types and degrees of activation, demonstrating that self-reported activation is related to everything from diet to personality to neurochemistr y.

Core Affect is a state accessible to consciousness as a single simple feeling (feeling good or bad, energized or enervated) that can vary from moment to moment and that is the heart of, but not the whole of, mood and emotion. In four correlational studies (Ns = 535, 190, 234, 395), a 12-Point Affect Circumplex (12-PAC) model of Core Affect was developed that is finer grained than previously available and that integrates major dimensional models of mood and emotion. Self-report scales in three response formats were cross-validated for Core Affect felt during current and remembered moments. A technique that places any external variable into the 12-PAC showed that 29 of 38 personality scales and 30 of 30 mood scales are significantly related to Core Affect, but not in a way that revealed its basic dimensions.

Past research on Chinese emotion has been plagued by the lack of a measurement map for affective feelings. In this article, I developed a fine-grained circumplex model of affective feelings that is arbitrarily defined by 12 segments. I created twelve 4-item self-report scales to measure affect felt during a clearly remembered moment (N = 395), and I cross-validated them twice with affect felt during the current moment (Ns = 269, 302). The structural and psychometric properties of these scales were strongly supported. The CIRCUM-extension procedure (M. Browne, personal communication, June 12, 1999) that places external correlates into the affective space showed that 28 of 28 mood states and 6 of 13 traits were significantly related to affect. External correlates did not clarify which of the affect dimensions were basic. The newly developed scales will serve as a useful tool in assessing affect among Chinese people and as a platform on which to extend the nomological net of affect.

This chapter examines the relation between the Five-Factor Model of personality and momentary affect in five languages, based on a pooled sample of 2070 (Ns = 535 for English, 233 for Spanish, 487 for Chinese, 450 for Japanese, 365 for Korean). Affect is described with a two-dimensional space that integrates major dimensional models in English and that replicates well in all five languages. Personality is systematically linked to affect similarly (although not identically) across languages, but not in a way consistent with the claim that Positive Activation and Negative Activation are more basic; indeed, Pleasant vs. Unpleasant and Activated vs. Deactivated came closer to the personality dimensions.