Measurement error masks bipolarity in affect ratings

There is no happiness in positive affect: the pervasive misunderstanding of the rotated circumplex model

Research on positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) is often guided by the rotational variant of the circumplex model of affect (RCMA). According to the RCMA, PA and NA are posited to be orthogonal, with PA ranging from the union of positive valence and high activation (e.g., excited) to the union of negative valence and low activation (e.g., sluggish), and NA ranging from the union of negative valence and high activation (e.g., distressed) to the union of positive valence and low activation (e.g., relaxed). However, many authors incorrectly interpret the RCMA as positing that positively valenced affect (i.e., pleasure) and negatively valenced affect (i.e., displeasure)-rather than PA and NA, as defined in the RCMA-are orthogonal. This "received view" of the RCMA has led to significant confusion in the literature. The present paper articulates the "received view" of the RCMA and characterizes its prevalence in psychological research. A random sample of 140 empirical research articles on affect published in 14 high-impact journals covering a range of psychological subdisciplines were reviewed. Over half of the articles subscribing to the RCMA showed evidence of the "received view," demonstrating that misuse of the terms PA and NA in the context of the RCMA is rampant in the psychological literature. To reduce continued confusion in the literature, we recommend abandoning use of the terms positive affect and negative affect. We further recommend referring to the two dimensions of the RCMA as positive activation and negative activation, and the two poles of the valence dimension as positive valence and negative valence (or pleasure and displeasure).

Towards an affect intensity regulation hypothesis: Systematic review and meta-analyses of the relationship between affective states and alcohol consumption

While self-medication and positive and negative reinforcement models of alcohol use suggest that there is an association between daily affect and alcohol consumption, findings within the academic literature have been inconsistent. This pre-registered systematic review meta-analytically interrogated the results from studies amongst non-clinical populations that examine the relationship between daily affective states and alcohol consumption volume. PRISMA guided searches of PsychINFO, PsycARTICLES, Science Direct, PubMed, SCOPUS, and JSTOR databases were conducted. When both laboratory and field studies were included, meta-analyses with robust variance estimation yielded 53 eligible studies on negative affect (8355 participants, 127 effect sizes) and 35 studies for positive affect (6384 participants, 50 effect sizes). The significant pooled associations between intra-day affect and alcohol consumption were r = .09, [.03, .14] for negative affect, and r = .17, [.04, .30] for positive affect. A small-to-medium sized effect (d = .275, [.11, .44]) of negative affect on daily alcohol consumption volume was found in laboratory studies (14 studies, 1100 participants). While publication bias was suspected, P-curve analyses suggested that the results were unlikely to be the product of publication bias and p-hacking alone, and selection model analysis revealed no significant differences in results when publication bias was accounted for. For negative affect, using number of drinks as the measure of alcohol consumption was associated with lower effect sizes. For positive affect, the results demonstrated a decline of this observed effect over time. Overall, findings point towards the possibility of developing an affect intensity regulation theory of alcohol use. Conceptualizing the mood-alcohol nexus in terms of affect intensity regulation may afford a more parsimonious explanation of alcohol consumption rather than viewing the behavior as being shaped by either positive or negative affective states.

A multilevel Multitrait–Multimethod Analysis of Self– and Peer–Reported Daily Affective Experiences

We examined the psychometric properties of an experience–sampling measure of affect (PANAS) using data from self– and peer reports. A multivariate multilevel model was used to assess the reliability of the latent PANAS scales at the within– and between–person level. Findings suggest satisfying internal consistencies for self– and peer reports of affective experiences at both levels of analysis. Convergent and discriminant validity of the two affect scales were examined by means of a multilevel multitrait–multimethod approach (MLM–MTMM) indicating distinct findings at the within– and between–person level. These findings provide further insights into the structural relations between the two PANAS scales: Whereas positive and negative affect were unrelated at the between–person level; they were negatively correlated at the within–person level. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

What multi‐method data tell us about construct validity

Structural equation modelling of multi‐method data has become a popular method to examine construct validity and to control for random and systematic measurement error in personality measures. I review the essential assumptions underlying causal models of multi‐method data and their implications for estimating the validity of personality measures. The main conclusions are that causal models of multi‐method data can be used to obtain quantitative estimates of the amount of valid variance in measures of personality dispositions, but that it is more difficult to determine the validity of personality measures of act frequencies and situation‐specific dispositions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An Updated Guideline for Assessing Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity was originally presented as a set of empirical criteria that can be assessed from multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrices. Because datasets used by applied researchers rarely lend themselves to MTMM analysis, the need to assess discriminant validity in empirical research has led to the introduction of numerous techniques, some of which have been introduced in an ad hoc manner and without rigorous methodological support. We review various definitions of and techniques for assessing discriminant validity and provide a generalized definition of discriminant validity based on the correlation between two measures after measurement error has been considered. We then review techniques that have been proposed for discriminant validity assessment, demonstrating some problems and equivalencies of these techniques that have gone unnoticed by prior research. After conducting Monte Carlo simulations that compare the techniques, we present techniques called CICFA(sys) and [Formula: see text](sys) that applied researchers can use to assess discriminant validity.

The Retrospective Independence of Positive and Negative Affect

We examine independence in retrospective evaluations of positive and negative affect (PA and NA, respectively). Study 1 shows that the estimation of weekly PA and NA frequencies depends on the congruent daily affects but not on the incongruent daily affects (i.e., weekly PA [NA] depends on the daily PAs [NAs], but not on the daily NAs [PAs]). Study 2 replicates and extends the results of Study 1 by using a within- and between-subjects design as well as both frequency and intensity measures of affect, and by also examining the relationship between momentary and daily affect. Study 3 shows that daily PA and NA are affected by the existence of subjectively defined congruent peak affect and less by subjectively defined incongruent peak affect. We suggest a focusing bias account, according to which asking about positive [negative] affect focuses attention on positive [negative] experiences.

Ritual morphospace revisited: the form, function and factor structure of ritual practice

Human rituals exhibit bewildering diversity, from the Mauritian Kavadi to Catholic communion. Is this diversity infinitely plastic or are there some general dimensions along which ritual features vary? We analyse two cross-cultural datasets: one drawn from the anthropological record and another novel contemporary dataset, to examine whether a consistent underlying set of latent dimensions in ritual structure and experiences can be detected. First, we conduct a factor analysis on 651 rituals from 74 cultural groups, in which 102 binary variables are coded. We find a reliable set of dimensions emerged, which provide potential candidates for foundational elements of ritual form. Notably, we find that the expression of features associated with dysphoric and euphoric experiences in rituals appears to be largely orthogonal. Second, we follow-up with a pre-registered factor analysis examining contemporary ritual experiences of 779 individuals from Japan, India and the US. We find supporting evidence that ritual experiences are clustered in relatively orthogonal euphoric, dysphoric, frequency and cognitive dimensions. Our findings suggest that there are important regularities in the diversity of ritual expression and experience observed across both time and culture. We discuss the implications of these findings for cognitive theories of ritual and cultural evolution.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours'.

Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes Disrupt the Feedback Loop of Affective States and Smoking Behavior

INTRODUCTION

Smoking to reduce negative affect has been identified as a key motivational feature of tobacco use. Our recent work suggests that smoking very low nicotine content (VLNC) cigarettes reduces the relationship between negative affect and smoking behavior over a 6-week period. Here, we sought to extend our findings by evaluating whether a gradual or immediate approach to switching to VLNC cigarettes led to a differential reduction in the relationship between affect and smoking behavior over a longer (20-week) period.

AIMS AND METHODS

Participants (n = 1250) were adult smokers from 10 US sites randomized to one of three groups: gradual nicotine reduction (15.5, 11.7, 5.2, 2.4, and 0.4 mg of nicotine per gram of tobacco [mg/g]), immediate nicotine reduction (0.4 mg/g), or standard nicotine content cigarettes (15.5 mg/g; control), for 20 weeks. We examined whether the relationship between affect-both negative and positive-and cigarettes per day differed as a function of reduction group.

RESULTS

We found that both negative and positive affect were associated with cigarette consumption in the control group, but not in the gradual or immediate reduction groups across the 20 weeks of exposure.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results extend previous findings that switching to VLNC cigarettes disrupts the relationship between affect and cigarette consumption by showing that either gradually or immediately reducing cigarette nicotine content achieves this disruption. These findings provide further evidence that switching to VLNC cigarettes reduces nicotine-related reinforcement of cigarette smoking.

IMPLICATIONS

These findings support the notion that switching to very low nicotine content cigarettes reduces the association between affect and smoking behavior, and that either a gradual or immediate nicotine reduction approach achieves this reduction. This provides further evidence that switching to very low nicotine content cigarettes weakens reinforcement mechanisms associated with nicotine dependence.

Explanatory preferences for complexity matching

People are adept at generating and evaluating explanations for events around them. But what makes for a satisfying explanation? While some scholars argue that individuals find simple explanations to be more satisfying (Lombrozo, 2007), others argue that complex explanations are preferred (Zemla, et al. 2017). Uniting these perspectives, we posit that people believe a satisfying explanation should be as complex as the event being explained-what we term the complexity matching hypothesis. Thus, individuals will prefer simple explanations for simple events, and complex explanations for complex events. Four studies provide robust evidence for the complexity-matching hypothesis. In studies 1-3, participants read scenarios and then predicted the complexity of a satisfying explanation (Study 1), generated an explanation themselves (Study 2), and evaluated explanations (Study 3). Lastly, in Study 4, we explored a different manipulation of complexity to demonstrate robustness across paradigms. We end with a discussion of mechanisms that might underlie this preference-matching phenomenon.

Identifying the representational structure of affect using fMRI

The events we experience day to day can be described in terms of their affective quality: some are rewarding, others are upsetting, and still others are inconsequential. These natural distinctions reflect an underlying representational structure used to classify affective quality. In affective psychology, many experiments model this representational structure with two dimensions, using either the dimensions of valence and arousal, or alternatively, the dimensions of positivity and negativity. Using fMRI, we show that it is optimal to use all four dimensions to examine the data. Our findings include (1) a gradient representation of valence that is anatomically organized along the fusiform gyrus and (2) distinct sub-regions within bilateral amygdala that track arousal versus negativity. Importantly, these results would have remained concealed had either of the commonly used 2-dimensional approaches been adopted a priori, demonstrating the utility of our approach.

Constructing validity: New developments in creating objective measuring instruments

In this update of Clark and Watson (1995), we provide a synopsis of major points of our earlier article and discuss issues in scale construction that have become more salient as clinical and personality assessment has progressed over the past quarter-century. It remains true that the primary goal of scale development is to create valid measures of underlying constructs and that Loevinger's theoretical scheme provides a powerful model for scale development. We still discuss practical issues to help developers maximize their measures' construct validity, reiterating the importance of (a) clear conceptualization of target constructs, (b) an overinclusive initial item pool, (c) paying careful attention to item wording, (d) testing the item pool against closely related constructs, (e) choosing validation samples thoughtfully, and (f) emphasizing unidimensionality over internal consistency. We have added (g) consideration of the hierarchical structures of personality and psychopathology in scale development, discussion of (h) codeveloping scales in the context of these structures, (i) "orphan," and "interstitial" constructs, which do not fit neatly within these structures, (j) problems with "conglomerate" constructs, and (k) developing alternative versions of measures, including short forms, translations, informant versions, and age-based adaptations. Finally, we have expanded our discussions of (l) item-response theory and of external validity, emphasizing (m) convergent and discriminant validity, (n) incremental validity, and (o) cross-method analyses, such as questionnaires and interviews. We conclude by reaffirming that all mature sciences are built on the bedrock of sound measurement and that psychology must redouble its efforts to develop reliable and valid measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Ambivalence toward healthy and unhealthy food and moderation by individual differences in restrained eating

Food may be a particularly ambivalent stimulus, as it may be associated with high feelings of both positivity and negativity (objective ambivalence), in addition to feelings of conflict (subjective ambivalence). In this study we examine objective and subjective ambivalence toward healthy and unhealthy food, as well as nonfood objects. We show that food (particularly unhealthy food) images do elicit higher ambivalence than nonfood images, particularly due to increased negative feelings. Furthermore, individuals higher in eating restraint showed increased objective and subjective ambivalence to healthy food, suggesting that food may be a highly arousing, conflicting stimulus for constant dieters. Implications for treatment of eating disorders and for future research on food consumption are discussed.

Measuring Perceived Service Innovation Typologies in Retail Industry

Purpose: The study is undertaken with two objectives, first to develop a scale that can measure service innovation from customer perspective in retail industry, and second to find out how the developed service innovation measurement scale has an effect on predicting customer’s Word-of-Mouth (WOM), followed by testing the mediation effect of corporate reputation between service innovation and WOM.

Methodology: The study followed the Integrated Design Approach that included qualitative studies and quantitative studies in exploring and validating the measurement items for service innovation typologies. The codes that represent the typologies of service innovation were elicited through group discussions with selected customers and validated through in-depth interviews with decision maker/managers of retail industry in different parts of South India. The approved codes were validated through two expert opinion surveys and further authenticated through quantitative approaches such as: Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis with two different sets of samples. Finally, the nomological validity of the developed scale was tested on estimating its effect on Corporate Reputation and WOM.

Findings: The developed service innovation scale can be adopted by both researchers and managers in measuring service innovation in retail industry. The path analysis results concluded that service innovation has positive impact on corporate reputation and WOM, where the decision makers/managers can note that if service innovations are brought in frequently, it would make the firm reputed in the market and ultimately results in positive WOM from the customers. The mediation analysis result also gives an insight that even if the service innovation is by a non-reputed retailer, it still gets positive WOM.

Originality/Value: The study contributes by providing a unique scale to measure service innovation from customer perspective in retail industry, overcoming the existing Goods-Dominant logic. Further, by empirically testing nomological validity, the effect on non-financial performance is estimated to understand how innovation in services would build corporate reputation that ultimately results in customers’ positive WOM which is wanting in literature on service innovation.

The Bipolarity of Attitudes: Unfolding the Implications of Ambivalence

Recently, some attitude researchers have argued that the traditional bipolar model of attitudes should be replaced, claiming that a bivariate model is superior in several ways, foremost of which is its ability to account for ambivalent attitudes. This study argues that ambivalence is not at odds with bipolarity per se, but rather the conventional view of bipolarity, and that the psychometric evidence supporting a bivariate interpretation has been flawed. To demonstrate this, a scale developed out of the bivariate approach was examined using a unidimensional unfolding item response theory model: general hyperbolic cosine model for polytomous responses. The results were consistent with a bipolar interpretation, providing support for the argument that ambivalent evaluations are the correct middle-point of a bipolar evaluative dimension. Thus, it is argued that attitudinal ambivalence does not necessitate moving beyond bipolarity, but rather, moving beyond the conventional conceptualization and assessment of attitudes.

Management succession and success in a professional soccer team

Research into sports team performance has shown that across many sports and league competitions, teams that change their coaches after a decline in performance do rebound, but fare no better on average than teams that have not changed their coach in a similar situation. A similar lack of succession benefits has been reported in studies of manager and CEO succession: it has not been established that changing a team's leader improves a declining team's performance. We study the effect of a change of coach on the performance of a professional soccer team. Based on rarely obtained access to a whole season (one year) of daily close observation of the team and coaching staff in practice and matches, this study uses quantitative and qualitative data to go beyond the "average" pattern reported in the literature. We document in detail how, in a single team case study over an entire season, the processes in leadership behavior changed with a change of coach, the effect this had on the state of mind of the team, how the match behaviors of the players changed, and how these changes translated into improved performance. The process effects of a leadership change on the performance of a sports team may hold insights for leader succession in management: in addition to the aggregate organizational and experience fit of the new team leader, the specific leadership processes introduced by the new leader are critical for performance effects.

Employee optimism in India: validation of the POSO-E

Purpose

The purpose of this paper was to validate the short version of personal optimism and self-efficacy optimism scale developed by Gavrilov-Jerkovic et al. (2014) on a sample of 398 employees working in private and public sector organizations in India.

Design/methodology/approach

The study needs to test the psychometric properties of the Indian version of scale by using exploratory factor analysis, convergent validity, discriminant validity and confirmatory factor analysis.

Findings

The results supported for the two-dimensional factor-structure of optimism in consonance with Gavrilov-Jerkovic et al. (2014).

Research limitations/implications

The findings will benefit both the management and the employees. Also, the study expands the existing literature on the variable in the Indian context.

Originality/value

The work validates and provides a unique instrument to measure the employee optimism that can help the management and the employees to focus on themselves to increase the positivity to provide an innovative and creative environment. Also, the work supplements the existing literature on positive attitude or outcome expectancies and helps in establishing the bi-dimensional nature of the construct of optimism.

Establishing Construct Continua in Construct Validation: The Process of Continuum Specification

Many areas of psychological science rely heavily on theoretical constructs, such as personality traits, attitudes, and emotions, and many of these measured constructs are defined by a continuum that represents the different degrees of the attribute. However, these continua are not usually considered by psychologists during the process of scale development and validation. Unfortunately, this can lead to numerous scientific problems, such as incomplete measurement of the construct, difficulties in distinguishing between constructs, and compromised evidence for validity. The purpose of the current article is to propose an approach for carefully considering these issues in psychological measurement. This approach, which we term continuum specification, is a two-stage process in which the researcher defines and then properly operationalizes the target continuum. Defining the continuum involves specifying its polarity (i.e., the meaning of its poles, or ends) and the nature of its gradations (i.e., the quality that separates high from low scores). Operationalizing the continuum means using this definition to develop a measure that (a) sufficiently captures the entire continuum, (b) has appropriate response options, (c) uses correct procedures for assessing dimensionality, and (d) accounts for the underlying response process. These issues have significant implications for psychological measurement.

A Mathematical Model Captures the Structure of Subjective Affect

Although it is possible to observe when another person is having an emotional moment, we also derive information about the affective states of others from what they tell us they are feeling. In an effort to distill the complexity of affective experience, psychologists routinely focus on a simplified subset of subjective rating scales (i.e., dimensions) that capture considerable variability in reported affect: reported valence (i.e., how good or bad?) and reported arousal (e.g., how strong is the emotion you are feeling?). Still, existing theoretical approaches address the basic organization and measurement of these affective dimensions differently. Some approaches organize affect around the dimensions of bipolar valence and arousal (e.g., the circumplex model), whereas alternative approaches organize affect around the dimensions of unipolar positivity and unipolar negativity (e.g., the bivariate evaluative model). In this report, we (a) replicate the data structure observed when collected according to the two approaches described above, and reinterpret these data to suggest that the relationship between each pair of affective dimensions is conditional on valence ambiguity, and (b) formalize this structure with a mathematical model depicting a valence ambiguity dimension that decreases in range as arousal decreases (a triangle). This model captures variability in affective ratings better than alternative approaches, increasing variance explained from ~60% to over 90% without adding parameters.

Structure and content of affective associations with health behaviours: Is the behaviour 'good OR bad' or 'good AND bad'

OBJECTIVE

The feelings and emotions individuals associate with health-related behaviours influence engagement in those behaviours. However, the structure and the content of these affective associations have not been examined. The studies reported here examined competing hypotheses about the structure (unidimensional or bidimensional) and content (generalised affect or specific emotions) of affective associations with two health-related behaviours: physical activity and fruit/vegetable consumption.

DESIGN

For each behaviour, participants (fruit and vegetable consumption n = 149; physical activity n = 199) completed an assessment of the association of 40 positive and 51 negative affect concepts with the behaviour.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Ratings of affective associations with each behaviour.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analyses comparing unidimensional and bidimensional affect structure models showed that the structure of individuals' affective associations was bidimensional for both behaviours - positive and negative affective associations were shown to be separate and distinct constructs. Exploratory factor analyses supported a model of affective associations as generalised affect for both behaviours.

CONCLUSION

Affective associations with both physical activity and with fruit/vegetable consumption consist of separate positive and negative dimensions of generalised affect. These findings lead to recommendations for research and intervention development based on the implications for how affective associations might operate to influence behavioural decision-making.

Finding the good in the bad: age and event experience relate to the focus on positive aspects of a negative event

All lives contain negative events, but how we think about these events differs across individuals; negative events often include positive details that can be remembered alongside the negative, and the ability to maintain both representations may be beneficial. In a survey examining emotional responses to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, the current study investigated how this ability shifts as a function of age and individual differences in initial experience of the event. Specifically, this study examined how emotional importance (i.e. self-reported emotional arousal and personal significance), involvement (i.e. self and friend/family involvement in the 2013 Boston Marathon and self-involvement in prior marathons), and self-reported surprise upon hearing about the event related to the tendency to report focusing on the negative and positive aspects of the bombings. Structural equation models revealed that while greater emotional importance and surprise were associated with a greater focus on negative elements, involvement and age were associated with increased consideration of positive aspects. Further, emotional importance was more strongly related to an increased focus on negative aspects for young adults and an increased focus on positive aspects for older adults, highlighting a tendency for older adults to enhance positive features of an otherwise highly negative event.

Emotion Blends and Mixed Emotions in the Hierarchical Structure of Affect

We explore the implications of a hierarchical structure, consisting of (a) the higher order dimensions of nonspecific Positive Activation and Negative Activation and (b) multiple specific negative affects (e.g., fear, sadness, and anger) and positive affects (e.g., joviality, self-assurance, and attentiveness) at the lower level. Emotional blends of the same valence (e.g., simultaneously experiencing both fear and sadness) are an essential part of this structure and form the basis of the higher order Negative and Positive Activation dimensions. Mixed cross-valence emotions (e.g., feeling both nervous and alert) are not central to this hierarchical scheme but are compatible with it. We examine the frequency of pure emotional states, same-valence emotional blends, and cross-valence mixed emotions in a large momentary mood sample.

Hierarchical Brain Systems Support Multiple Representations of Valence and Mixed Affect

We review the psychological literature on the organization of valence, discussing theoretical perspectives that favor a single dimension of valence, multiple valence dimensions, and positivity and negativity as dynamic and flexible properties of mental experience that are contingent upon context. Turning to the neuroscience literature that spans three levels of analysis, we discuss how positivity and negativity can be represented in the brain. We show that the evidence points toward both separable and overlapping brain systems that support affective processes depending on the level of resolution studied. We move from large-scale brain networks that underlie generalized processing, to functionally specific subcircuits, finally to intraregional neuronal distributions, where the organization and interaction across levels allow for multiple types of valence and mixed evaluations.

Estimating correlation of prevalence at two locations in the farm-to-table continuum using qualitative test data

The presence or absence of contaminants in food samples changes as a commodity moves along the farm-to-table continuum. Interest lies in the degree to which the prevalence (i.e., infected animals or contaminated sample units) at one location in the continuum, as measured by the proportion of test-positive samples, is correlated with the prevalence at a location later in the continuum. If prevalence of a contaminant at one location in the continuum is strongly correlated with the prevalence of the contaminant later in the continuum, then the effect of changes in contamination on overall food safety can be better understood. Pearson's correlation coefficient is one of the simplest metrics of association between two measurements of prevalence but it is biased when data consisting of presence/absence testing results are used to directly estimate the correlation. This study demonstrates the potential magnitude of this bias and explores the utility of three methods for unbiased estimation of the degree of correlation in prevalence. An example, based on testing broiler chicken carcasses for Salmonella at re-hang and post-chill, is used to demonstrate the methods.

Individualism: A Valid and Important Dimension of Cultural Differences Between Nations

Oyserman, Coon, and Kemmelmeier's (2002) meta-analysis suggested problems in the measurement of individualism and collectivism. Studies using Hofstede's individualism scores show little convergent validity with more recent measures of individualism and collectivism. We propose that the lack of convergent validity is due to national differences in response styles. Whereas Hofstede statistically controlledfor response styles, Oyserman et al.'s meta-analysis relied on uncorrected ratings. Data from an international student survey demonstrated convergent validity between Hofstede's individualism dimension and horizontal individualism when response styles were statistically controlled, whereas uncorrected scores correlated highly with the individualism scores in Oyserman et al.'s meta-analysis. Uncorrected horizontal individualism scores and meta-analytic individualism scores did not correlate significantly with nations' development, whereas corrected horizontal individualism scores and Hofstede's individualism dimension were significantly correlated with development. This pattern of results suggests that individualism is a valid construct for cross-cultural comparisons, but that the measurement of this construct needs improvement.

Implicit Theories and Self-Perceptions of Traitedness Across Cultures

From the trait perspective, traitedness, or consistency of behavior, is expected in all cultures. However, cultural psychologists argue that behavior may be more determined by traits in individualistic than collectivistic cultures. The authors investigated implicit theories and self-perceptions of traitedness in two individualistic cultures, the United States ( n = 342) and Australia ( n = 172), and four collectivistic cultures, Mexico ( n = 400), Philippines ( n = 363), Malaysia ( n = 251), and Japan ( n = 192). Although implicit trait beliefs were endorsed in all cultural groups, they were stronger in individualistic than collectivistic cultures. Cultural differences in self-perceptions of one’s own traitedness, as operationalized by self-monitoring, were also found, and comparisons involving the United States and most collectivistic cultures were consistent with cultural psychology perspectives. The ability of self-construals to predict implicit beliefs and self-perceptions of traitedness was also investigated. Overall, the results supported efforts to integrate trait and cultural psychology perspectives.

Measurement of Acculturation, Scale Formats, and Language Competence

This study was conducted to test whether the lack of independence between ethnic and mainstream cultural orientations is partially due to the adoption of a specific scale format. It was hypothesized that unique structural features commonly found in bidimensional acculturation instruments (paired questions that differ only in their cultural orientations and utilize the “frequency” format) cause strong inverse associations between the two cultural orientations. This study also explored the relative importance of language competence over the other domains of acculturation in the prediction of psychosocial adjustment (i.e., self-esteem, perceived stress, peer relationship, adjustment to college, family conflict). As predicted, results from a sample of 489 Asian Americans supported the hypothesis that the scale formats contribute to the lack of orthogonality. They also showed that language competence was a stronger predictor of adjustment than the other domains of acculturation, implying that language competence is a better indicator of acculturation among Asian Americans.

Australian and Japanese Concepts of Expressive Behavior

This study investigated differences in the concepts of the expression of emotion held by Japanese and Australians for themselves and each other, both in terms of degree and kind of expressive behavior and in underlying dimensionality. Through a structured questionnaire, 80 Australian and 80 Japanese male and female students indicated how they thought they expressed eight emotions on 12 behaviors, and how someone of the other nationality would express them. Results show Australians were rated as more expressive by Japanese and that Japanese may conceptualize emotions as less intense. There was considerable agreement between the two groups on the level of expressivity of the Japanese. The dimensions of positive/negative, arousal and "affective focus" were shown to underlie the concepts and to distinguish the two national groups to varying degrees.

The Structure And Personality Correlates Of Affect In Mexico

The structure and personality correlates of affect were studied in a sample of 351 predominantly Mexican university students using a large and representative list of 271 Spanish affect terms and a Spanish translation of the Big Five personality dimensions. Results were compared with those obtained previously in the United States, the Philippines, and Estonia. We found (a) good support for the cross-cultural comparability of global Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA) dimensions and the hierarchical structure of affect; (b) cross-cultural similarities, but also differences, in the configuration of more specific positive and negative affects; and (c) fairly comparable patterns of relationships across cultures between the Big Five dimensions of personality and the Big Two dimensions of affect (PA, NA). Most of these results were more consistent with evolutionary biological perspectives on personality and affect than strong social constructivist perspectives.

University Students' Emotion During Online Search Task: A Multiple Achievement Goal Perspective

Endorsing a multiple goal perspective, students' academic emotions were examined with different goal profiles while solving learning tasks online. One hundred and seven Chinese undergraduates were classified based on the 2 × 2 achievement goal framework into three groups: Mastery-approach-focused, Approach-oriented, and Avoidance-oriented group. Participants' emotional states were assessed immediately prior to the task and following the task. Prior to the task, the Avoidance-oriented group reported significantly higher levels of deactivated negative emotion (i.e., bored and confused) than the Approach-oriented group. The Mastery-approach-focused group reported significantly higher levels of activated positive emotions (i.e., excited and eager) than the Avoidance-oriented group after the task. Within each group, all three groups followed a similar emotion change pattern prior versus after the search task in deactivated positive emotion, with a significant increase. In addition, the Mastery-approach-focused group also reported a significantly higher level of happiness after completing the task, whereas the other two groups did not report much change. The Avoidance-oriented group also reported a significant drop in the feeling of excitement, eagerness, anxiety, and nervousness; whereas, the Approach-oriented group reported a significantly higher level of confusion after the task was finished. Implications of the findings are further discussed.

Similarity Judgments and Covariations of Affects: Findings and Implications for Affect Structure Research

Results from four studies document very high agreement between the raw data matrices of affect similarity judgments and correlations computed from self-ratings. This was found both for the global structural level, where the correlation-similarity correspondence was as high as the average correspondence of correlation matrices from different studies, and for local subgroups of affects, provided that reliable measures were used. The findings suggest that self-rating correlations and similarity judgments of affects contain essentially the same structural information. As a consequence, the two data types are equally valid starting points for structural analyses of affect, and differences between the models of affect that have been derived from them may reflect primarily method artifacts, such as the use of different scaling methods, rather than differences in the original data. Possible explanations for the high correspondence between self-rating correlations and similarity judgments of affect are discussed.

Perceptions of Disadvantage Versus Conventionality: Political Values and Attitudes Toward the Elderly Versus Blacks

This article examines the role of political ideology in social prejudice. In contrast to a simple bipolar conceptualization of liberalism and conservatism, the authors present a framework stipulating that (a) liberalism is associated with the desire to assist disadvantaged groups but (b) conservatism is associated with respect for conventional, old-fashioned values. Unlike Blacks (who are potentially viewed by White Americans as both unconventional and disadvantaged), the elderly are highly disadvantaged but relatively conventional. On the basis of these differences, the authors predicted that liberalism would be positively correlated with attitudes toward both groups, whereas conservatism would be negatively correlated with attitudes toward Blacks but positively correlated with attitudes toward the elderly. This framework received strong support and, moreover, successfully predicted reactions to other types of groups that varied in terms of their conventionality/disadvantaged status. Implications for research on stereotypes and possible conceptualizations of political ideology are discussed.

Independence Revisited: The Relation between Positive and Negative Affect in a Naturalistic Setting

Although most research supports Bradburn's 1969 finding that positive and negative affect are independent between situations, affect independence within a given situation has not been demonstrated convincingly. The relation between the two types of affect, within and between situations, was examined in a naturalistic setting. Subjects were students who participated in a longitudinal study of emotion. Separate measures of positive and negative affect were obtained at the beginning and end of three successive class sessions. A natural mood induction of test performance feedback separated the two measurements on the second day of the study. Results support the independence of positive and negative affect within and between situations: Success feedback increased positive affect but did not influence negative affect; failure feedback increased negative affect but did not influence positive affect. Within each measurement period, correlations between positive and negative affect were nonsignificant. Results offer support for a two-dimensional structure of affect.

Facets of Affective Experiences: A Framework for Investigations of Trait Affect

Research on the relation between personality and affect is concerned with the nature of affect dispositions. The authors propose that the general notion of trait affect is too broad and propose a more refined framework that differentiates facets of affect-related traits. Each facet is a combination of a type (e.g., mood, emotion), an aspect (e.g., frequency, intensity, duration), and a quality (e.g., pleasure, displeasure) of affective experiences. Previous research on the relation between pleasant trait affect and unpleasant trait affect has yielded inconsistent results. In the present article, the authors demonstrate that these inconsistencies are resolved once the theoretical distinctions between facets are recognized. In particular, they show that the facets “frequency of pleasant emotions” and “frequency of unpleasant emotions” are positively correlated. In contrast, the amount of time that people are in a pleasant mood is negatively correlated with the amount of time that people are in an unpleasant mood.

The Structure of Current Affect

For some years now, emotion researchers have debated a series of issues related to the structure of consciously experienced affective states. The present article reviews evidence that current affective experience can be summarized by a structure that is anchored by two bipolar but independent dimensions of experience, pleasure and activation. Four issues have presented themselves as central to the nature of this structure: the number of dimensions necessary to describe the space, the bipolarity of the dimensions, whether the structure displays a circumplex shape, and the definition of the activation dimension. Points of consensus and the remaining controversies regarding each issue are presented.

Why Self-Reports of Happiness and Sadness May Not Necessarily Contradict Bipolarity: A Psychometric Review and Proposal

It is assumed that bipolarity in happiness and sadness requires mutual exclusion. However, we present psychometric research to show how coendorsements of happiness and sadness do not necessarily constitute evidence against bipolarity. Because individuals have a tendency to endorse emotion terms close to their current state, individuals whose current state is close to the middle of a bipolar continuum would report both happiness and sadness, despite their current state being best represented by a single point. As such, endorsements of happiness and sadness are theoretically expected when individuals’ current state is in the middle of the continuum. Bipolarity however would be violated if endorsements of extreme levels of happiness and sadness can be demonstrated, which has yet to be shown.

On the Dimensional and Hierarchical Structure of Affect

Green, Goldman, and Salovey (1993) challenged the view that “positive affect” and “negative affect” are largely uncorrelated dimensions. On the basis of factor analytic studies of happiness and sadness, and of positive and negative emotional activation (PA and NA), they claimed that a “largely bipolar structure of affect” (p. 1029) emerges when random and nonrandom error are taken into account. A reappraisal of their own findings and confirmatory analysis of additional data do not support this claim. Happiness and sadness form a largely unidimensional bipolar structure, but PA and NA are relatively independent. However, exploratory analyses yield a three-level hierarchy incorporating in one structure a general bipolar Happiness-Versus-Unhappiness dimension, the relatively independent PA and NA dimensions at the level below it, and discrete emotions at the base. We emphasize the heuristic value of a hierarchical perspective.

In What Sense are Positive and Negative Affect Independent? A Reply to Tellegen, Watson, and Clark

We agree with most of the claims made by Tellegen, Watson, and Clark: Pleasant and unpleasant affect (i.e., happiness and unhappiness) are strongly negatively correlated; random and nonrandom error need to be taken into account before interpreting correlations among affect scales; scales of positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) embedded within the affective circumplex are orthogonal in theory, as are pleasure and arousal; and two-dimensional views of the affective space are more valid and useful than one- or three-dimensional models. Finally, and most important, we agree that PA and NA, as typically operationalized, are not independent, despite what may be the case theoretically. In this brief rejoinder, we offer some reasons why measurement problems likely prevent PA and NA from being measured orthogonally, why the factor analytic work reported in the target article is unlikely to shed new light on the perplexing problem of how best to characterize and measure affect, and why Pleasantness and Arousal tend to be operationally superior to their PA and NA counterparts.

Further Support for a Hierarchical Model of Affect: Reply to Green and Salovey

Green and Salovey agree with us that happiness and sadness are strongly bipolar, and that Positive and Negative Activation are not. However, Green and Salovey subscribe to the two-dimensional circumplex, a model we find wanting. Actually, the problems they discuss arise from the limitations of the circumplex rather than from issues fundamental to affective structure. And they do not consider the evidence, reported in our target article, that supports an alternative to the circumplex: a three-level hierarchical model. In this reply, we take a closer look at the empirical findings supporting this model, and we emphasize its heuristic promise.

Recommendations for Creating Better Concept Definitions in the Organizational, Behavioral, and Social Sciences

Despite the importance of establishing good, clear concept definitions in organizational research, the field lacks a comprehensive source that explains how to effectively develop and articulate a concept’s domain. Thus, the purpose of this article is to explain why clear conceptual definitions are essential for scientific progress and provide a concrete set of steps that researchers can follow to improve their conceptual definitions. First, we define what is meant by a concept, describe the functions served by concepts in scientific endeavors, and identify problems associated with a lack of conceptual clarity. Then we explain why it is so difficult to adequately define concepts. Next, we provide a series of recommendations for scholars in the organizational, behavioral, and social sciences who are either trying to define a new concept or revise the definition of one that already exists in the field. Following this, we provide some examples that generally meet the criteria for a good conceptual definition. We conclude with a set of questions that authors, reviewers, and editors can use as a guide for evaluating concept definitions.

Eudaimonic well-being and tumor norepinephrine in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer

BACKGROUND

The impact of psychological well-being on the physiologic processes involved in cancer progression remains unclear. Prior research has implicated adrenergic signaling in tumor growth and metastasis. Given that adrenergic signaling is influenced by both positive and negative factors, the authors examined how 2 different aspects of well-being (eudaimonic and positive affect) and psychological distress were associated with tumor norepinephrine (NE) in patients with ovarian cancer.

METHODS

A total of 365 women with suspected ovarian cancer completed psychosocial assessments before surgery and clinical information was obtained from medical records. Study inclusion was confirmed after histological diagnosis. Tumor NE was measured in frozen tissue samples using high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to model eudaimonic well-being, positive affect, and psychological distress, and structural equation modeling was used to examine associations between these factors and tumor NE.

RESULTS

Eudaimonic well-being, positive affect, and psychological distress, modeled as distinct but correlated constructs, best fit the data (ie, compared with unitary or 2-factor models) (root mean square error of approximation, 0.048; comparative fit index, 0.982; and standardized root-mean-squared residual, 0.035). Structural equation modeling analysis that included physical well-being, stage of disease, histology, psychological treatment history, beta-blocker use, and caffeine use as covariates was found to have good model fit (root mean square error of approximation, 0.052; comparative fit index, 0.955; and standardized root-mean-squared residual, 0.036) and demonstrated that eudaimonic well-being was related to lower tumor NE (β = -.24 [P = .045]). In contrast, no effects were found for positive affect or psychological distress.

CONCLUSIONS

Eudaimonic well-being was found to be associated with lower tumor NE, independent of positive affect and psychological distress. Because adrenergic signaling is implicated in tumor progression, increasing eudaimonic well-being may improve both psychological and physiologic resilience in patients with ovarian cancer.

Multitrait-Multimethod Analysis of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in Young Asian American Children

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a widely used psychopathology screening tool that measures children's emotional symptoms, peer problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity/inattention, and prosocial behavior. Previous psychometric studies of the SDQ focused primarily on older children in Western cultures and suffered from several methodological limitations. This study examined the reliability, factor structure, convergent, and discriminant validity of the SDQ by focusing on young Asian American children and using more rigorous methods. The five-factor structure of the SDQ was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. The ω coefficients indicated adequate reliability for all subscales except parent-rated peer problems and conduct problems. The correlated trait-correlated method minus one multitrait-multimethod model provided evidence for convergent validity and discriminant validity of all subscales except for conduct problems relative to hyperactivity/inattention. This study provided new evidence for the psychometric properties of the SDQ in young children and cultural suitability of the SDQ for Asian Americans.