The Measurement of Emotions

318 Pages·1989·7.921 MB·English

by  Robert Plutchik and Henry Kellerman (Eds.)

EMOTION
Theory, Research, and Experience
EDITED BY
Robert Plutchik Henry Kellerman
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Postgraduate Center for Mental Health
Bronx, New York New York, New York
Volume 1: Theories of Emotion
Volume 2: Emotions in Early Development
Volume 3: Biological Foundations of Emotion
Volume 4: The Measurement of Emotions
Volume 5: Emotion, Psychopathology, and Psychotherapy
In preparation
EMOTION
Theory, Research, and Experience
Volume 4
The Measurement of Emotions
Edited by
Robert Plutchik
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Bronx, New York
Henry Kellerman
Postgraduate Center for Mental Health
New York, New York
ACADEMIC PRESS, INC.
Hareourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers
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Copyright © 1989 by Academic Press, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
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Academic Press, Inc.
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United Kingdom Edition published by
Academic Press Limited
24-28 Oval Road, London NW1 7DX
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Measurement of emotions / edited by Robert Plutchik and Henry
Kellerman.
p. cm. - (Emotion, theory, research, and experience ; v. 4)
Includes bibliographies and indexes.
ISBN 0-12-558704-X (alk. paper)
1. Emotions-Research. 2. Psychometrics. I. Plutchik, Robert.
II. Kellerman, Henry. III. Series
[DNLM: 1. Emotions-physiology. 2. Psychophysiology. Wl EM668
V.4/EL 102M484]
BF561.E48 vol. 4
[BF531]
152.4 s-dc 19
[152.4Ό287]
DNLM/DLC
for Library of Congress 89-174
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
89 90 91 92 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
CONTRIBUTORS
Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors' contributions begin.
NORMAN H. ANDERSON (133), Department of Psychology, University of
California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
DAVID BENTON (261), Department of Psychology, University College of
Swansea, Swansea, Wales SA2 8PP, United Kingdom
HENRY KELLERMAN (187), Postgraduate Center for Mental Health, New York,
New York 10016
ROBERT I. LEVY (205), Department of Anthropology, University of California,
San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093
MAURICE LORR (37), Life Cycle Institute, Catholic University of America,
Washington, D. C. 20064
ROBERT PLUTCHIK (1), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
10461
JAMES A. RUSSELL (83), Department of Psychology, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T 1Y7
KLAUS R. SCHERER (233, 55), Department of Psychology, University of
Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
HARALD G. WALLBOTT (55), Department of Psychology, University of
Giessen, D-6300, Giessen, Federal Republic of Germany
JANE C. WELLENKAMP (205), Department of Anthropology, University of
California, Los Angeles, California 90024
CYNTHIA M. WHISSELL (113), Department of Psychology, Laurentian Univer
sity, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada P3E 2C6
IX
PREFACE
This is the fourth volume in the series entitled Emotion: Theory, Research,
and Experience. In the first volume, Theories of Emotion, the contributors
presented a variety of models and conceptualizations concerning the nature
of emotions. Contemporary theories reflecting the various historical traditions
were represented. These included the Darwinian evolutionary tradition, the
Jamesian psychophysiological tradition, and the dynamic or Freudian tradi
tion. As a consequence of examining these various viewpoints, the beginning
of a synthesis of the field of emotions could be recognized.
In the second volume, Emotions in Early Development, the issue of emotion
in relation to neonatal and infant development was considered. The contributors
examined the question of how inferences are made about emotions in infants
in both humans and lower animals. They examined the connections between
cognitive and emotional development and considered the relations between per
sonality and emotions. The role of parent-child interactions in the appearance
and development of emotions was also of special interest.
It became apparent that there was considerable agreement that emotions in
young organisms serve subtle communication, behavioral, and biological
regulatory functions. In addition, it was pointed out that cognitive development
is generally inferred on the basis of such emotional indicators as smiling, crying,
and attachment behaviors. Emotions emerge as complex, genetically-based
xi
Xll Preface
dispositions that play a major role in the formation of an individual's character
structure.
In the third volume, Biological Foundations of Emotion, the relations among
brain structures, brain functions, and emotions were examined. Some of the
contributors presented general models of brain functioning, while others con
sidered emotions from an evolutionary and comparative-neurological viewpoint.
Contributors also focused their attention on particular emotions, such as
aggression, or particular brain structures, such as the amygdala. The role of
genetics and brain biochemistry was also considered in some detail. The reports
are rich in content, and a wealth of information about brain functioning and
emotions is given.
The present volume, The Measurement of Emotions, examines a key issue
involved in constructing a theory of emotion; namely, how the concept is to
be measured. Some of the contributors examine the issue of mood measure
ment and the complexities that are involved. Some are concerned with the cross-
cultural examination of triggers of emotion and subjective reactions to them,
and some are concerned with the possible dimensions that underlie the language
of affect. Measurement issues in the assessment of affect from vocal indices
are considered as well as how emotions are measured in lower animals. Impor
tant chapters are included that deal with broad theoretical issues in the measure
ment of emotions and their derivatives. The chapters present a rich set of both
broad and deep ideas.
INTRODUCTION
The problem of measurement is a central issue in the psychology of emo
tions. Inherent in any theory are implications for the measurement of the con
cepts involved. If emotions are conceptualized solely as subjective feelings, then
mood checklists are reasonable ways to attempt to measure these states. If emo
tions are special classes of behavior, then behavioral indices are required. If,
however, emotions are conceptualized as more complex multidimensional pro
cesses, then still other approaches to measurement are necessary.
This volume examines these various issues. It looks at the many psychometric
problems associated with mood checklists. It considers problems in the measure
ment of emotional behavior in lower animals as well as the vocalizations that
serve as indirect markers of emotional states. It also looks at the issue of measur
ing some of the concepts which are conceptually connected to the study of
emotions.
In the first chapter Plutchik begins by considering general issues involved
in all measurement and concludes that the measurement of emotional states
is fundamentally similar to the measurement of any other inferred state. He
then presents the basic postulates of his psychoevolutionary theory of emo
tion emphasizing the concept of emotion derivatives. The concept of derivatives
refers to the idea that certain conceptual domains are systematically related
to emotions. These domains include personality, psychiatric diagnoses, ego
defenses, and coping styles. For example, the affective state of anger is seen
as related to the personality trait of irritability. In extreme form, the diagnostic
term "aggressive" might be applied, while the ego defense of displacement could
be used to deal with inhibited aggression. These ideas are systematically
elaborated and their implications for test construction are described. Several
xin
xiv Introduction
new tests of the concepts involved in these derivative domains are described
and their use in a variety of contexts is elaborated. The emphasis of the chapter
is on relating measures of emotions to theories about emotions.
The second chapter by Lorr examines many of the complex issues associated
with the measurement of mood, one of the domains described by Plutchik.
He begins by distinguishing between states and traits and emphasizes the essen
tial ambiguity of the distinction. The concept of overlapping fuzzy categories
appears to be a better description of emotions than does the idea of sharply
discrete categories. Various investigators who have looked at the problem of
defining moods have used factor analytic techniques for the most part and
have arrived at widely divergent conclusions concerning the issue of how many
basic mood states there are. Estimates have varied from 2 to as many as 16.
In contrast to such a dimensional approach to mood, Lorr describes the cir
cular or circumplex model which assumes that emotions show a graded simi
larity structure as well as bipolarities. Some of the differences among researchers
are related to the analytic tools which they use, particularly to the differences
between factor analysis and multidimensional scaling. Another set of variables
that influence the outcome of research are the response sets such as acqui
escence, extreme response style, and social desirability. Lorr concludes that the
concept of bipolar moods is likely to have the richest pay-off for research.
The third chapter by Wallbott and Scherer continues the discussion of the
measurement of subjective mood states. The authors compare questionnaire
techniques for assessing subjective emotional experience to laboratory induc
tion procedures. They emphasize that however theoretical and inferential one
becomes in conceptualizing emotion, most people consider subjective experience
as a key, if not major, aspect of emotions. For them, emotions can be studied
primarily by introspective reports.
Given this perspective, the authors describe a questionnaire study of emo
tions that they have carried out involving thousands of subjects in a dozen
different countries. The questionnaire they developed focused on the emotion-
arousing situation, the characteristics of the subjective experience, the expressive
and physiologic reactions, and the attempts made to regulate or control those
reactions. Considerable information was obtained on the four basic emotions
of joy, sadness, fear, and anger. Open-ended questions were used as well as
precoded categories of response. Of considerable interest is the high degree
of generality found for many of the variables despite different cultures,
languages, and modes of upbringing.
A further attempt to identify generalities in the language of emotions is
presented in the chapter by Russell in which he deals with the implicit rela
tions among emotion words. Rather than think of the language of emotions
as reflecting discrete entities, Russell points out that emotion terms are
systematically related and that the best description of the relations is by means
of a circumplex. He describes the emotion circumplex that he has obtained
Introduction XV
through his research and presents the implications of integrating diverse reports
by recognizing that emotion categories are systematically and highly interrelated.
A number of lines of evidence are consistent with a circumplex organiza
tion of emotions. These are based on direct judgments of the similarity be
tween emotion terms, verbal self-report data, and judgments of facial
expressions of emotion. Russell also points out sources of bias in previous re
search as a result of overlooking context effects in judging emotions. Judgments
of emotion are strongly influenced by the linguistic terms available to the judge.
This effect can be demonstrated in several classic experiments such as the
Schachter-Singer studies. Mood induction typically arouses multiple affects,
all of which need to be assessed. The major point of the chapter is that emo
tion terms are embedded in a cognitive similarity network of beliefs and con
cepts and that all verbal measures of emotion need to be interpreted within
that network.
One way to explicate the network of ideas associated with the language of
emotions is considered in the fifth chapter by Whissell which deals with the
development of a special kind of dictionary of the language of emotion. She
points out that the research literature in this field describes a large variety of
stimulus materials used to produce emotional states and an equally large range
of responses used to measure how subjects feel. In an effort to standardize
this kind of language, Whissell has identified approximately 4000 English words
culled from various sources to define the basic language of affect. Each word
in the list is described in terms of a score along two dimensions: a dimension
of activation or arousal and a dimension of evaluation or pleasantness.
Evidence for test-retest reliability has been obtained, as well as concurrent
validity. It is possible to use the dictionary of affect to score an individual's
self-descriptions as well as to score written or video-taped interactions. Another
value of the dictionary is its capacity to assess emotions in terms of the con
notative rather than the denotative meanings of words. The dictionary pro
mises to be a new tool for affective research.
Considering the various issues that have been raised thus far, Anderson in
the sixth chapter attempts to apply his theory of information integration, first
developed in the area of psychophysics and social attitudes, to the domain of
emotion. The focus is on information flow within an individual and on the
multiple sources of input that influence affective states. In terms of the model
that Anderson presents, nonaffective, cognitive variables, such as proximity
and expectancy, interact with more purely emotional stimuli to produce the
complex reactions and states called emotions.
The theory presents the basic integration rules that determine how multiple
sources of information are combined. Such rules can also be used in reverse
to fractionate out the determinants of observed emotional responses. One of
the implications of the model is that there are both conscious and unconscious
contributors to emotional states. Another is that emotions are forms of
XVI Introduction
goal-oriented adaptive behavior. The theory is applied to such diverse issues
as the validity of conscious reports, rating methodology and scale types, the
state-trait distinction, single subject designs, phobias, mood, pain, cerebral
organization, and the problem of recognizing emotion. The chapter is thus
a deep and thoughtful attempt to deal with a multitude of complex problems
in the psychology of emotions.
One of the methodologies used to deal with specific issues in relation to
the measurement of emotions is considered in Chapter 7 by Kellerman who
focuses on projective measures of emotion with a particular emphasis on the
Rorschach. He demonstrates that a widely recognized distinction between extra-
tensive and introversive profiles, obtained on the basis of Rorschach responses,
can be interpreted within a broader framework. This framework assumes that
personality traits are connected with particular diagnoses in a systematic way
and that Rorschach responses are an additional way in which the connectedness
of these domains and concepts can be expressed. The value of the approach
is that it reveals a unity among emotions, personality traits, and diagnoses that
become visible when expressed through projective responses.
Another area in which deep inferential techniques are necessary is presented
in the chapter by Levy and Wellenkamp who examine important issues in the
measurement of emotions in different cultures, particularly non-Western com
munities. They review the expanding literature in this field which reflects a
renewed interest in emotion in both the social and behavioral sciences. How
ever, as is true in all sciences, anthropology has its own special methods that
are used in investigations, and the rest of the chapter is devoted to an explica
tion of these methods. Anthropologists need to determine the local schemata
used by members of a community for understanding and communicating about
emotions. They need to recognize how cultural forms serve to express, discharge,
and disguise emotions in everyday life. And they need to explore various
approaches to explanation, for example, developmental, adaptational, or
psychodynamic.
These issues are dealt with by various techniques of observation. Most are
naturalistic and some rely upon open or structured interviews, but all depend
heavily on an understanding of the context of the culture as well as on em
pathie understanding. The success of such observations and interviews depends
on long periods of acquaintance with the people involved and the develop
ment of trust, an issue that rarely arises in other types of research. Levy and
Wellenkamp conclude that emotions mediate the integration of individuals into
social groups and that emotion has co-evolved with the capacity for culture.
Another special area of concern in the measurement of emotion sis the assess
ment of emotions in lower animals. Ever since Darwin, it has been taken for
granted that the concept of emotion applies in some sense to lower animals
as well as humans. The chapter by Scherer is an important synthesis of the
literature on vocal expression of affective states in both animals and humans.