Emotion classification, the means by which one may distinguish or contrast one emotion from another, is a contested issue in emotion research and in affective science. Researchers have approached the classification of emotions from one of two fundamental viewpoints:[citation needed]
that emotions are discrete and fundamentally different constructs
that emotions can be characterized on a dimensional basis in groupings
Emotions as discrete categories
In discrete emotion theory, all humans are thought to have an innate set of basic emotions that are cross-culturally recognizable. These basic emotions are described as "discrete" because they are believed to be distinguishable by an individual's facial expression and biological processes.[1] Theorists have conducted studies to determine which emotions are basic. A popular example is Paul Ekman and his colleagues' cross-cultural study of 1992, in which they concluded that the six basic emotions are anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise.[2] Ekman explains that there are particular characteristics attached to each of these emotions, allowing them to be expressed in varying degrees in a non-verbal manner.[3][4] Each emotion acts as a discrete category rather than an individual emotional state.[5]
Simplicity debate
Humans' subjective experience is that emotions are clearly recognizable in ourselves and others. This apparent ease of recognition has led to the identification of a number of emotions that are said to be basic, and universal among all people. However, a debate among experts has questioned this understanding of what emotions are. There has been recent discussion of the progression on the different views of emotion over the years.[6]
On "basic emotion" accounts, activation of an emotion, such as anger, sadness, or fear, is "triggered" by the brain's appraisal of a stimulus or event with respect to the perceiver's goals or survival. In particular, the function, expression, and meaning of different emotions are hypothesized to be biologically distinct from one another. A theme common to many basic emotions theories is that there should be functional signatures that distinguish different emotions: we should be able to tell what emotion a person is feeling by looking at his or her brain activity and/or physiology. Furthermore, knowledge of what the person is seeing or the larger context of the eliciting event should not be necessary to deduce what the person is feeling from observing the biological signatures.[5]
On "constructionist" accounts, the emotion a person feels in response to a stimulus or event is "constructed" from more elemental biological and psychological ingredients. Two hypothesized ingredients are "core affect" (characterized by, e.g., hedonicvalence and physiological arousal) and conceptual knowledge (such as the semantic meaning of the emotion labels themselves, e.g., the word "anger"). A theme common to many constructionist theories is that different emotions do not have specific locations in the nervous system or distinct physiological signatures, and that context is central to the emotion a person feels because of the accessibility of different concepts afforded by different contexts.[7]
Dimensional models of emotion
For both theoretical and practical reasons, researchers define emotions according to one or more dimensions. In his philosophical treatise, The Passions of the Soul, Descartes defines and investigates the six primary passions (Wonder, love, hate, desire, joy, and sadness). In 1897, Wilhelm Max Wundt, the father of modern psychology, proposed that emotions can be described by three dimensions: "pleasurable versus unpleasurable", "arousing or subduing", and "strain or relaxation".[8] In 1954, Harold Schlosberg named three dimensions of emotion: "pleasantness–unpleasantness", "attention–rejection" and "level of activation".[9]
Dimensional models of emotion attempt to conceptualize human emotions by defining where they lie in two or three dimensions. Most dimensional models incorporate valence and arousal or intensity dimensions. Dimensional models of emotion suggest that a common and interconnected neurophysiological system is responsible for all affective states.[10] These models contrast theories of basic emotion, which propose that different emotions arise from separate neural systems.[10] Several dimensional models of emotion have been developed, though there are just a few that remain as the dominant models currently accepted by most.[11] The two-dimensional models that are most prominent are the circumplex model, the vector model, and the Positive Activation – Negative Activation (PANA) model.[11]
Circumplex model
Circumplex model of emotion has two axes: Valence and Arousal
The circumplex model of emotion was developed by James Russell.[12] This model suggests that emotions are distributed in a two-dimensional circular space, containing arousal and valence dimensions. Arousal represents the vertical axis and valence represents the horizontal axis, while the center of the circle represents a neutral valence and a medium level of arousal.[11] In this model, emotional states can be represented at any level of valence and arousal, or at a neutral level of one or both of these factors. Circumplex models have been used most commonly to test stimuli of emotion words, emotional facial expressions, and affective states.[13]
Russell and Lisa Feldman Barrett describe their modified circumplex model as representative of core affect, or the most elementary feelings that are not necessarily directed toward anything. Different prototypical emotional episodes, or clear emotions that are evoked or directed by specific objects, can be plotted on the circumplex, according to their levels of arousal and pleasure.[14]
Vector model
The vector model of emotion suggests that emotions are structured in terms of arousal and valence. A positive valence represents appetitive motivation and negative valence represents defensive motivation.
The vector model of emotion appeared in 1992.[16] This two-dimensional model consists of vectors that point in two directions, representing a "boomerang" shape. The model assumes that there is always an underlying arousal dimension, and that valence determines the direction in which a particular emotion lies. For example, a positive valence would shift the emotion up the top vector and a negative valence would shift the emotion down the bottom vector.[11] In this model, high arousal states are differentiated by their valence, whereas low arousal states are more neutral and are represented near the meeting point of the vectors. Vector models have been most widely used in the testing of word and picture stimuli.[13]
Positive activation – negative activation (P.A.N.A.) model
The positive activation – negative activation (P.A.N.A.) or "consensual" model of emotion, originally created by Watson and Tellegen in 1985,[17] suggests that positive affect and negative affect are two separate systems. Similar to the vector model, states of higher arousal tend to be defined by their valence, and states of lower arousal tend to be more neutral in terms of valence.[11] In the P.A.N.A. model, the vertical axis represents low to high positive affect and the horizontal axis represents low to high negative affect. The dimensions of valence and arousal lay at a 45-degree rotation over these axes.[17]
Plutchik's model
Robert Plutchik offers a three-dimensional model that is a hybrid of both basic-complex categories and dimensional theories. It arranges emotions in concentric circles where inner circles are more basic and outer circles more complex. Notably, outer circles are also formed by blending the inner circle emotions. Plutchik's model, as Russell's, emanates from a circumplex representation, where emotional words were plotted based on similarity.[18] There are numerous emotions, which appear in several intensities and can be combined in various ways to form emotional "dyads".[19][20][21][22][23]
The PAD emotional state model is a psychological model developed by Albert Mehrabian and James A. Russell to describe and measure emotional states. PAD uses three numerical dimensions to represent all emotions.[24][25] The PAD dimensions are Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance.
The Pleasure-Displeasure Scale measures how pleasant an emotion may be. For instance, both anger and fear are unpleasant emotions, and score high on the displeasure scale. However, joy is a pleasant emotion.[24]
The Arousal-Nonarousal Scale measures how energized or soporific one feels. It is not the intensity of the emotion—for grief and depression can be low arousal intense feelings. While both anger and rage are unpleasant emotions, rage has a higher intensity or a higher arousal state. However boredom, which is also an unpleasant state, has a low arousal value.[24]
The Dominance-Submissiveness Scale represents the controlling and dominant nature of the emotion. For instance, while both fear and anger are unpleasant emotions, anger is a dominant emotion, while fear is a submissive emotion.[24]
Criticisms
Cultural considerations
Ethnographic and cross-cultural studies of emotions have shown the variety of ways in which emotions differ with cultures. Because of these differences, many cross-cultural psychologists and anthropologists challenge the idea of universal classifications of emotions altogether. Cultural differences have been observed in the way in which emotions are valued, expressed, and regulated. The social norms for emotions, such as the frequency with or circumstances in which they are expressed, also vary drastically.[26][27] For example, the demonstration of anger is encouraged by Kaluli people, but condemned by Utku Inuit.[28]
The largest piece of evidence that disputes the universality of emotions is language. Differences within languages directly correlate to differences in emotion taxonomy. Languages differ in that they categorize emotions based on different components. Some may categorize by event types, whereas others categorize by action readiness. Furthermore, emotion taxonomies vary due to the differing implications emotions have in different languages.[26] That being said, not all English words have equivalents in all other languages and vice versa, indicating that there are words for emotions present in some languages but not in others.[29] Emotions such as the schadenfreude in German and saudade in Portuguese are commonly expressed in emotions in their respective languages, but lack an English equivalent.
Some languages do not differentiate between emotions that are considered to be the basic emotions in English. For instance, certain African languages have one word for both anger and sadness, and others for shame and fear. There is ethnographic evidence that even challenges the universality of the category "emotions" because certain cultures lack a specific word relating to the English word "emotions".[27]
Lists of emotions
Emotions are categorized into various affects, which correspond to the current situation.[30] An affect is the range of feeling experienced.[31] Both positive and negative emotions are needed in our daily lives.[32] Many theories of emotion have been proposed,[33] with contrasting views.[34]
Basic emotions
William James in 1890 proposed four basic emotions: fear, grief, love, and rage, based on bodily involvement.[35]
Paul Ekman identified six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.[36] Wallace V. Friesen and Phoebe C. Ellsworth worked with him on the same basic structure.[37] The emotions can be linked to facial expressions. In the 1990s, Ekman proposed an expanded list of basic emotions, including a range of positive and negative emotions that are not all encoded in facial muscles.[38] The newly included emotions are: amusement, contempt, contentment, embarrassment, excitement, guilt, pride in achievement, relief, satisfaction, sensory pleasure, and shame.[38]
Researchers[41] at University of California, Berkeley identified 27 categories of emotion: admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anger, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathic pain, entrancement, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, relief, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire and surprise.[42] This was based on 2185 short videos intended to elicit a certain emotion. These were then modeled onto a "map" of emotions.[43]
Contrasting basic emotions
A 2009 review[44] of theories of emotion identifies and contrasts fundamental emotions according to three key criteria for mental experiences that:
have a strongly motivating subjective quality like pleasure or pain;
are a response to some event or object that is either real or imagined;
motivate particular kinds of behavior.
The combination of these attributes distinguishes emotions from sensations, feelings and moods.
Researchers distinguish several emotion dynamics, most commonly how intense (mean level), variable (fluctuations), inert (temporal dependency), instable (magnitude of moment-to-moment fluctuations), or differentiated someone's emotions are (the specificity of granularity of emotions), and whether and how an emotion augments or blunts other emotions.[45] Meta-analytic reviews show systematic developmental changes in emotion dynamics throughout childhood and adolescence and substantial between-person differences.[45]
HUMAINE's proposal for EARL
The emotion annotation and representation language (EARL) proposed by the Human-Machine Interaction Network on Emotion (HUMAINE) classifies 48 emotions.[46]
A diagram depicting the primary, secondary, and tertiary dyads
In 1980, Robert Plutchik diagrammed a wheel of eight emotions: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger and anticipation, inspired by his Ten Postulates.[49][50] Plutchik also theorized twenty-four "Primary", "Secondary", and "Tertiary" dyads (feelings composed of two emotions).[51][52][53][54][55][56][57] The wheel emotions can be paired in four groups:
Primary dyad = one petal apart = Love = Joy + Trust
Tertiary dyad = three petals apart = Shame = Fear + Disgust
Opposite emotions = four petals apart = Anticipation ∉ Surprise
There are also triads, emotions formed from 3 primary emotions, though Plutchik never describes in any detail what the triads might be.[58] This leads to a combination of 24 dyads and 32 triads, making 56 emotions at 1 intensity level.[59] Emotions can be mild or intense;[60] for example, distraction is a mild form of surprise, and rage is an intense form of anger. The kinds of relation between each pair of emotions are:
Similar emotions in the wheel are adjacent to each other.[61] Anger, Anticipation, Joy, and Trust are positive in valence, while Fear, Surprise, Sadness, and Disgust are negative in valence. Anger is classified as a "positive" emotion because it involves "moving toward" a goal,[62] while surprise is negative because it is a violation of someone's territory.[63] The emotion dyads each have half-opposites and exact opposites:[64]
Anticipation, Joy, Surprise, Sadness
+
Sadness
Joy
Anticipation
Pessimism
Optimism
Surprise
Disapproval
Delight
Joy, Trust, Sadness, Disgust
+
Disgust
Trust
Joy
Morbidness
Love
Sadness
Remorse
Sentimentality
Trust, Fear, Disgust, Anger
+
Fear
Anger
Trust
Submission
Dominance
Disgust
Shame
Contempt
Fear, Surprise, Anger, Anticipation
+
Surprise
Anticipation
Anger
Outrage
Aggressiveness
Fear
Awe
Anxiety
Trust, Surprise, Disgust, Anticipation
+
Surprise
Anticipation
Trust
Curiosity
Hope
Disgust
Unbelief
Cynicism
Joy, Fear, Sadness, Anger
+
Fear
Anger
Joy
Guilt
Pride
Sadness
Despair
Envy
Six emotion axes
MIT researchers [65] published a paper titled "An Affective Model of Interplay Between Emotions and Learning: Reengineering Educational Pedagogy—Building a Learning Companion" that lists six axes of emotions with different opposite emotions, and different emotions coming from ranges.[65]
Scientists map twenty-one different facial emotions[68][69] expanded from Paul Ekman's six basic emotions of anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise:
Ekman, P. (1972). Universals and cultural differences in facial expression of emotion. In J. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press: pp.207–283.
Ekman, P. (1999). Basic Emotions. In T. Dalgleish and T. Power (Eds.) The Handbook of Cognition and Emotion Pp.45–60. Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Koelsch, S.; Jacobs, AM.; Menninghaus, W.; Liebal, K.; Klann-Delius, G.; von Scheve, C.; Gebauer, G. (2015). "The quartet theory of human emotions: An integrative and neurofunctional model". Phys Life Rev. 13: 1–27. Bibcode:2015PhLRv..13....1K. doi:10.1016/j.plrev.2015.03.001. PMID25891321.
Prinz, J. (2004). Gut Reactions: A Perceptual Theory of Emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195309362
Sugu, Dana; Chaterjee, Amita (2010). "Flashback: Reshuffling Emotions". International Journal on Humanistic Ideology. 3 (1). Archived from the original on 2011-04-30. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
↑ Barrett, Lisa Feldman (2006). "Solving the Emotion Paradox: Categorization and the Experience of Emotion". Personality and Social Psychology Review. 10 (1): 20–46. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr1001_2. PMID16430327. S2CID7750265.
↑ Russell, James (1980). "A circumplex model of affect". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 39 (6): 1161–1178. doi:10.1037/h0077714. hdl:10983/22919.
1 2 Remington, N. A.; Fabrigar, L. R.; Visser, P. S. (2000). "Re-examining the circumplex model of affect". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 79 (2): 286–300. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.79.2.286. PMID10948981.
↑ Russell, James; Feldman Barrett, Lisa (1999). "Core affect, prototypical emotional episodes, and other things called emotion: dissecting the elephant". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 76 (5): 805–819. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.76.5.805. PMID10353204.
↑ Bradley, M. M.; Greenwald, M. K.; Petry, M.C.; Lang, P. J. (1992). "Remembering pictures: Pleasure and arousal in memory". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 18 (2): 379–390. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.18.2.379. PMID1532823.
↑ Plutchik, Robert (16 September 1991). The Emotions. University Press of America. p.110. ISBN9780819182869. Retrieved 16 September 2017– via Google Books.
↑ Eid, Michael; Ed Diener (November 2001). "Norms for experiencing emotions in different cultures: Inter- and intranational differences". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 81 (5): 869–885. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.81.5.869. PMID11708563.(subscription required)
↑ Wierzbicka, Anna (September 1986). "Human Emotions: Universal or Culture-Specific?". American Anthropologist. 88 (3): 584–594. doi:10.1525/aa.1986.88.3.02a00030. JSTOR679478.(subscription required)
↑ Lisa Feldman Barrett (2006). "Solving the Emotion Paradox: Categorization and the Experience of Emotion". Personality and Social Psychology Review. 10 (1): 20–46. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr1001_2. PMID16430327. S2CID7750265.
↑ Shaver, P.; Schwartz, J.; Kirson, D.; O'connor, C. (1987). "Emotion knowledge: further exploration of a prototype approach". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 52 (6): 1061–86. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.6.1061. PMID3598857.
↑ Parrott, W. (2001). Emotions in Social Psychology. Key Readings in Social Psychology. Philadelphia: Psychology Press. ISBN978-0863776830.
↑ Plutchik, Robert (31 December 1991). The Emotions. University Press of America. ISBN9780819182869. Retrieved 31 December 2018– via Google Books.
↑ Izard, Carroll Ellis (31 December 1971). The face of emotion. Appleton-Century-Crofts. ISBN9780390478313. Retrieved 31 December 2018– via Google Books.
↑ Plutchik, Robert (16 September 1991). The Emotions. University Press of America. p.110. ISBN9780819182869. Retrieved 16 September 2017– via Google Books.
Emotions are physical and mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is no scientific consensus on a definition. Emotions are often intertwined with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, or creativity.
Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or animal actively maintains the experience, and is associated with enjoyment, happiness, laughter and pleasure. It is an emotion with positive valence and high physiological arousal.
Robert Plutchik was an American psychologist who was professor emeritus at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and adjunct professor at the University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He authored or coauthored more than 260 articles, 45 chapters and eight books and edited seven books. His research interests included the study of emotions, the study of suicide and violence, and the study of the psychotherapy process.
The two-factor theory of emotion posits when an emotion is felt, a physiological arousal occurs and the person uses the immediate environment to search for emotional cues to label the physiological arousal.
Affective neuroscience is the study of how the brain processes emotions. This field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood. The basis of emotions and what emotions are remains an issue of debate within the field of affective neuroscience.
Affect, in psychology, is the underlying experience of feeling, emotion, attachment, or mood. It encompasses a wide range of emotional states and can be positive or negative. Affect is a fundamental aspect of human experience and plays a central role in many psychological theories and studies. It can be understood as a combination of three components: emotion, mood, and affectivity. In psychology, the term affect is often used interchangeably with several related terms and concepts, though each term may have slightly different nuances. These terms encompass: emotion, feeling, mood, emotional state, sentiment, affective state, emotional response, affective reactivity, disposition. Researchers and psychologists may employ specific terms based on their focus and the context of their work.
Surprise is a rapid, fleeting, mental and physiological state. It is related to the startle response experienced by animals and humans as the result of an unexpected event.
Emotionality is the observable behavioral and physiological component of emotion. It is a measure of a person's emotional reactivity to a stimulus. Most of these responses can be observed by other people, while some emotional responses can only be observed by the person experiencing them. Observable responses to emotion do not have a single meaning. A smile can be used to express happiness or anxiety, while a frown can communicate sadness or anger. Emotionality is often used by experimental psychology researchers to operationalize emotion in research studies.
Neuroticism is a personality trait associated with negative emotions. It is one of the Big Five traits. Individuals with high scores on neuroticism are more likely than average to experience such feelings as anxiety, worry, fear, anger, frustration, envy, jealousy, pessimism, guilt, depressed mood, and loneliness. Such people are thought to respond worse to stressors and are more likely to interpret ordinary situations, such as minor frustrations, as appearing hopelessly difficult. Their behavioral responses may include procrastination, substance use, and other maladaptive behaviors, which may temporarily aid in relieving negative emotions and generating positive ones.
The theory of constructed emotion is a theory in affective science proposed by Lisa Feldman Barrett to explain the experience and perception of emotion. The theory posits that instances of emotion are constructed predictively by the brain in the moment as needed. It draws from social construction, psychological construction, and neuroconstruction.
Emotions are biocultural phenomena, meaning they are shaped by both evolution and culture. Emotions are "internal phenomena that can, but do not always, make themselves observable through expression and behavior". While some emotions are universal and are experienced in similar ways as a reaction to similar events across all cultures, other emotions show considerable cultural differences in their antecedent events, the way they are experienced, the reactions they provoke and the way they are perceived by the surrounding society. According to social constructionist theories, emotions are more deeply culturally influenced. The components of emotions are universal, but the patterns are social constructions. Some also theorize that culture is affected by the emotions of the people.
Discrete emotion theory is the claim that there is a small number of core emotions. For example, Silvan Tomkins concluded that there are nine basic affects which correspond with what we come to know as emotions: interest, enjoyment, surprise, distress, fear, anger, shame, dissmell and disgust. More recently, Carroll Izard at the University of Delaware factor analytically delineated 12 discrete emotions labeled: Interest, Joy, Surprise, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, Contempt, Self-Hostility, Fear, Shame, Shyness, and Guilt.
The broaden-and-build theory in positive psychology suggests that positive emotions broaden one's awareness and encourage novel, exploratory thoughts and actions. Over time, this broadened behavioral repertoire builds useful skills and psychological resources. The theory was developed by Barbara Fredrickson around 1998.
Emotion can have a powerful effect on humans and animals. Numerous studies have shown that the most vivid autobiographical memories tend to be of emotional events, which are likely to be recalled more often and with more clarity and detail than neutral events.
Affect measures are used in the study of human affect, and refer to measures obtained from self-report studies asking participants to quantify their current feelings or average feelings over a longer period of time. Even though some affect measures contain variations that allow assessment of basic predispositions to experience a certain emotion, tests for such stable traits are usually considered to be personality tests.
The PAD emotional state model is a psychological model developed by Albert Mehrabian and James A. Russell to describe and measure emotional states. PAD uses three numerical dimensions, Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance to represent all emotions. Its initial use was in a theory of environmental psychology, the core idea being that physical environments influence people through their emotional impact. It was subsequently used by Peter Lang and colleagues to propose a physiological theory of emotion. It was also used by James A. Russell to develop a theory of emotional episodes. The PA part of PAD was developed into a circumplex model of emotion experience, and those two dimensions were termed "core affect". The D part of PAD was re-conceptualized as part of the appraisal process in an emotional episode. A more fully developed version of this approach is termed the psychological construction theory of emotion.
Emotional granularity is an individual's ability to differentiate between the specificity of their emotions. Similar to how an interior decorator is aware of fine gradations in shades of blue, where others might see a single color, an individual with high emotional granularity would be able to discriminate between their emotions that all fall within the same level of valence and arousal, labeling their experiences with discrete emotion words. Someone with low emotional granularity would report their emotions in global terms, usually of pleasure or displeasure. It is unknown whether these differences of granularity among individuals stem from an inability of some to verbally label the discrete emotions they feel inside, or whether some people are simply unaware of the distinctions between specific emotions.
Emotion perception refers to the capacities and abilities of recognizing and identifying emotions in others, in addition to biological and physiological processes involved. Emotions are typically viewed as having three components: subjective experience, physical changes, and cognitive appraisal; emotion perception is the ability to make accurate decisions about another's subjective experience by interpreting their physical changes through sensory systems responsible for converting these observed changes into mental representations. The ability to perceive emotion is believed to be both innate and subject to environmental influence and is also a critical component in social interactions. How emotion is experienced and interpreted depends on how it is perceived. Likewise, how emotion is perceived is dependent on past experiences and interpretations. Emotion can be accurately perceived in humans. Emotions can be perceived visually, audibly, through smell and also through bodily sensations and this process is believed to be different from the perception of non-emotional material.
A functional account of emotions posits that emotions facilitate adaptive responses to environmental challenges. In other words, emotions are systems that respond to environmental input, such as a social or physical challenge, and produce adaptive output, such as a particular behavior. Under such accounts, emotions can manifest in maladaptive feelings and behaviors, but they are largely beneficial insofar as they inform and prepare individuals to respond to environmental challenges, and play a crucial role in structuring social interactions and relationships.
In cognitive psychology, the affect-as-information hypothesis, or 'approach', is a model of evaluative processing, postulating that affective feelings provide a source of information about objects, tasks, and decision alternatives. A goal of this approach is to understand the extent of influence that affect has on cognitive functioning. It has been proposed that affect has two major dimensions, namely affective valence and affective arousal, and in this way is an embodied source of information. Affect is thought to impact three main cognitive functions: judgement, thought processing and memory. In a variety of scenarios, the influence of affect on these processes is thought to be mediated by its effects on attention. The approach is thought to account for a wide variety of behavioural phenomena in psychology.
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