engleski

On the relationship between valence and arousal in 33 samples across the globe

Affect is involved in many psychological phenomena, but a descriptive structure, long sought, has been elusive. Valence and arousal are fundamental, and a key question–the focus of the present study–is the relationship between them. Valence is sometimes thought to be independent of arousal, but, in some studies (representing too few societies) arousal was found to vary with valence. One common finding is that arousal increases with both positive and negative valence: a symmetric V-shaped relationship. In a study of self-reported affect (N = 8, 590), we tested the valence-arousal relationship in 33 societies with 25 different languages. The two most common hypotheses in the literature–independence and a symmetric V-shaped relationship–were not supported. With data of all samples pooled, arousal increased with positive but not negative valence. Valence accounted for between 5% (Finland) and 43% (China Beijing) of variance in arousal. Although there is evidence for a structural relationship between the two, there is also a large amount of variability in this relation.

valence ; arousal ; subjective experience ; structure of affect ; culture

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