What Is Affect? Psychology And The Expression Of Emotions
Emotions can be powerful expressions of your state of mind. Affect psychology is the study of how emotions and feelings are experienced, expressed, and regulated, and how they influence human behavior and mental processes. You might feel a wide variety of emotions consciously and unconsciously, and emotions might come and go, feeling fleeting or lasting for hours. The experiences that you have in your daily life may also affect your emotions, and your emotions may impact your relationships and interactions with others. Additionally, you might notice that you feel a certain level of control over your feelings at times and struggle to control them at others.
What is affect?
Modern psychology describes three affective domains including:
- Affective
- Behavioral
- Cognitive
These domains are often referred to as the ABCs of psychology.
Are emotions and mood the same thing?
Individuals may use the words emotion and mood interchangeably. In the field of psychology, they have two different meanings.
Emotion
Emotion can be a subjective, affective state that projects a relatively intense physical or mental feeling. Often, emotions occur in response to an external or internal experience. We may experience emotions on a conscious level intentionally. For example, people may consciously choose to partake in behaviors that promote feelings of happiness, sadness, or other emotions.
Mood
Mood refers to a prolonged effective state that may be less intense than emotion. Moods might not surface in response to external or internal stimuli and are not intentional. Unless you're aware and in tune with yourself, you might not consciously recognize your moods. The main difference between the two is that moods last longer than emotions.
Theories of emotion and affect in psychology
Research on the issue of emotions dates back to the 1800s with Charles Darwin's book The Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals. Affect and emotion are often complex areas of psychology, and researchers continue to learn more about them.
Evolutionary theory of emotion and affect
Charles Darwin was an early naturalist who suggested that emotions evolved because they were adaptive. Darwin philosophized that emotions allow humans and animals to survive and reproduce. For example, he felt that love and affection prompted people to look for and be attracted to mates so they could reproduce. He also suggested that fearful feelings caused people to react by fighting a source of danger or fleeing from it.
Darwin's emotional theory of emotion indicated that humans might respond quickly to environmental stimuli to help us improve our chances of success and survival. If we encounter an animal hissing, barking, spitting, and clawing, we might notice that it could attack us, and we may back up or leave the area. The outward signs help us decide to leave the upset animal alone so that we might remain safe.
Cognitive appraisal theory or Lazarus’ theory of emotion in psychology
One of the early pioneers in emotional research was Richard Lazarus. Lazarus theorized that people might have a conscious thought before having an emotional or physiological response. He suggested a sequence of events that consists of a stimulus followed by a thought, which leads to one or more emotions.
For example, imagine it is late at night, and you have gone to bed. You hear a noise that sounds like a door opening, and you suddenly remember that you forgot to check all the doors to ensure they were locked before you went to bed. You might feel afraid that a stranger is entering your home. When you go to check the door, you notice it was your dog. In this scenario, a series of events led you to feel fear and ease after checking the door.
The Cannon-Bird theory of emotion
According to the Cannon-Bird theory of emotion, physiological responses and emotional experiences happen independently of one another simultaneously. For example, if you see a rabid dog running in your direction with teeth bared and a foaming mouth, the Cannon-Bird theory of emotion indicates that you might feel fear while your body goes into the fight or flight response. The emotion occurs separately but at the same time as a physiological reaction.
The James-Lange theory of emotion
The James-Lange theory of emotion may be similar to the Cannon-Bird theory, except that the James-Lange theory promotes the idea that emotions occur as a response to physiological arousal. Using the same example as above, the sight of the rabid dog racing directly towards you would signal immediate physiological arousal causing your heart to race and your breathing to speed up. The James-Lange theory asserts that feelings of fear and trepidation would only appear after the physiological response occurred. This theory may also suggest that different arousal patterns create different feelings.
The Schachter-Singer two-factor theory of emotion
The Schacter-Singer two-factor theory of emotion offers a slightly different thought process that includes emotion and physiological arousal. These researchers surmised that emotions are part physiological and part cognitive. According to this theory, physiological arousal occurs first. Our brains interpret it, and the emotion follows. In keeping with the example of the rabid dog, the sight of the dog might produce a sense of physiological arousal. The brain could interpret arousal as fear and produce the emotion of fear through this theory.
The facial-feedback theory of emotion
The facial-feedback theory of emotion connects facial expressions to emotions, a concept that Charles Darwin and William James pointed to as a possibility. As the theory goes, physiological responses may sometimes impact emotion rather than be a result of the emotion. There is some consideration for the notion that emotions may be tied to changes in our facial muscles.
If you force a smile at a meeting with a stranger, you may feel more inclined to carry on a discussion and get to know the person better. However, if you project a neutral facial expression, you may feel inclined to move along to someone more familiar.
What do we know about various types of emotions?
People can feel many emotions, sometimes on the same day. Our emotions may influence how we live and relate to others. During times of high emotion, we might feel our emotions control us. Our emotions can have a direct impact on how we make decisions and how we react and respond in various situations.
In addition to developing theories about how emotions present, researchers have also studied the different types of emotions people experience and created theories on how to explain them.
A psychologist named Paul Eckman labeled six basic emotions that he believed all human cultures experience universally. He identified the following emotions:
- Happiness
- Sadness
- Disgust
- Fear
- Surprise
- Anger
Later in his work, he revised his list to include pride, shame, embarrassment, and excitement.
Happiness
Of the six basic emotions, happiness is often considered a positive emotion. Throughout history, researchers have taken an interest in the discipline of positive psychology. Society and media may connect a state of happiness with attaining a particular lifestyle or acquiring material things. Regardless of what happiness means to someone, it may have a positive impact on health.
Sadness
Sadness may be considered a transient emotion. Sad feelings may be characterized by disappointment, grief, hopelessness, disinterest, and a dampened mood. People could express their sadness through crying, acting dejected remaining quiet, withdrawing from others, or having a general lack of energy. Prolonged or severe periods of sadness may indicate depressive symptoms.
Fear
Fear is an emotion that may play a role in survival. Fear may invoke a fight, flight, or freeze response which can produce physiological arousal that helps people deal with real or perceived threats of harm. Fear is closely related to anxiety. Anxiety may be common in those who experience anxiety disorders.
Disgust
Disgust might be described as a repulsion to an appalling taste, sight, or smell. Some people may believe that disgust evolved as a reaction to harm. Disgust can be a reaction to a physical trigger such as poor hygiene, infection, or gruesome scenes. People might also experience disgust toward moral issues such as criminal behaviors, distasteful behavior, and immoral acts.
Anger
Anger can be a powerful emotion characterized by hostility, agitation, frustration, or antagonism. Anger, like fear, can be part of a fight or flight reaction. Anger could be positive when it motivates someone to problem-solve but could cause problems if it motivates unhealthy behaviors. Often, psychologists consider anger a secondary emotion.
Surprise
Surprise may be a brief emotion. Feelings of surprise can emerge when a startling physiological response follows an unexpected event. Surprise can be positive, negative, or neutral.
Counseling to work through emotions
Many people experience emotions. Understanding how to control behaviors motivated by emotions can be more complicated than labeling what you're feeling. In these cases, reaching out for support from a psychologist could be beneficial.
Takeaway
Read more below for answers to questions commonly asked about psychological research on affect.
What is affect in psychology?
Within the field of psychology, affect refers to the experience of emotion. This can include both a prevailing pattern of feelings as well as a person’s specific emotional responses to events, sensations, and actions. Some researchers view affect as a distinct mental process from thought, while others consider it one of many different kinds of cognitive processes within the human mind.
In clinical contexts, affect may also be used to describe a person’s style of emotional expression as observed by a mental health treatment provider. Assessing the range and intensity of the emotions a patient displays may give important clues to their mental health status.
Affect and affective style — the typical spectrum of feelings a person experiences and expresses — may be among the most important psychological factors influencing human behavior and well-being. Studies suggest that a person’s affect can have a significant impact on their ability to navigate social situations as well as their propensity for stress, worry, depression, and other unwanted experiences.
Organizational behavior also seems to be deeply linked to affectivity. Contemporary research has identified emotional attachment to an organization’s mission as a crucial motivator of engagement at work or within other cooperative endeavors.
What are the 4 types of affect?
Researchers and treatment professionals may classify affect in many different ways as part of a mental status evaluation. One classification scheme recognizes the following four types of affect:
- Broad affect: The individual appears to experience the typical range of emotions for a healthy person of their age.
- Restricted affect: The individual’s emotional reactions are somewhat muted or limited, though they still experience a fairly wide set of feelings.
- Labile affect: The individual’s feelings appear highly unstable or changeable, rapidly shifting from one emotion to another.
- Flat affect: The individual seems to have little to no emotion, showing little evidence of feeling anything in response to their surroundings.
Many clinicians use a wide range of other affect classifications besides the four categories above. Possible examples include positive and negative affect, which describe pleasurable and aversive emotions. Another is shallow affect, which indicates a level of emotional intensity somewhere between restricted and flat affect.
Some mental health professionals also categorize affective states according to the following three dimensions:
- Valence. How pleasant or unpleasant the feeling is.
- Arousal. The degree to which the emotion activates bodily feelings of excitement, alertness, and tension. This may be assessed based on measures of sympathetic nervous system activity, such as heart rate and respiration.
- Motivational intensity. How strongly the emotion pushes a person toward a particular behavior or course of action.
What are examples of affects?
Almost any type of emotion you can imagine could be considered a type of affect. Here are a few examples:
- Happiness
- Sadness
- Anger
- Disgust
- Hope
- Anticipation
- Frustration
- Shame
- Eagerness
- Embarrassment
- Calmness
- Anxiety
What is affect vs. mood?
Although both “affect” and “mood” can be used to describe how a person is feeling, most researchers draw an important distinction between the two. Mood typically refers to someone’s ongoing emotional outlook, while affect is more often used for more short-term emotional states.
A person could be in a positive mood while still experiencing some negative emotions. For example, they might feel sad when remembering the loss of a family member but continue to feel optimistic and confident most of the time. The opposite could also be true — someone might have an anxious mood but still be able to laugh at jokes or feel happy when watching an upbeat movie.
That said, a person’s mood is likely to impact their affective state to some extent. Someone who’s feeling depressed might experience less joy than usual when performing a favorite activity, for instance.
Is affect a type of emotion?
In general, “affect” does not refer to a specific type of emotion. Instead, it can be thought of as a synonym for “feeling” or “emotional state”. Just about any emotion could be considered a kind of affect.
What is a normal affect?
Most psychological professionals find it unhelpful to call certain types of affect “normal” or “abnormal”. It’s more common to talk about appropriate or inappropriate affect.
There can be many different types of inappropriate affect. A person’s emotional expressions may seem to be out of touch with their situation — for example, if someone is smiling and making loud jokes after learning that a beloved relative has died. It’s also possible for someone’s affect to be incongruent with their own statements — for instance, someone who claims to be very happy while shaking in terror.
Another way that affect can be inappropriate is if it seems exaggerated or diminished. An expansive affect, in which a person displays over-the-top friendliness, boldness, generosity, and self-confidence, can be a sign of bipolar disorder. If someone hardly shows any emotion at all, it could be symptomatic of schizophrenia. These disordered affective states may indicate difficulties with emotional regulation.
What is blunted affect?
“Blunted affect” is another way of describing someone’s reduced or dulled emotionality. A person with blunted affect may show some indicators of emotion, but they’re often much less intense than would normally be expected.
Someone might also be said to have a blunted affect if they say they’re experiencing strong feelings but their tone, body language, and facial expressions don’t reflect the strength of those emotions. This could be an important indicator in the diagnosis of conditions like depression.
What is flat affect in psychology?
In psychological terms, “flat affect” indicates an even more extreme reduction of emotional expression than blunted or restricted affect. It generally means that the person is showing virtually no signs of feeling any emotions whatsoever.
Several different mental health conditions can be associated with flattened affect. In developmental psychology, the observation of a flat affect relative to peers of the same age may be considered an indicator of autism spectrum disorder. People with schizophrenia or post-traumatic stress disorder might also display flattened emotional responses.
What is positive affect in psychology?
Positive affect is a broad term psychologists use to describe emotions that are generally pleasant. This can include things like happiness, contentment, calmness, optimism, pride, and enjoyment.
Positive affect is contrasted with negative affect. Examples of negative affective states include unpleasant or aversive feelings of any kind, such as sadness, anger, disgust, anxiety, or dissatisfaction. Psychologists frequently assess a patient’s emotional state with a tool called the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS).
Though it can be easy to think of these two types of affective states as opposites, many experts believe that positive and negative affect function independently within an individual’s mind. In other words, having strong positive affect may not necessarily indicate that someone has little negative affect, and vice versa.
What is a lack of affect in psychology?
Lack of affect is generally another way of describing a “flat” or “blunted” affect. It indicates a person who shows no visible indication of appropriate emotion. An apparent absence of affect can be a symptom of several very different types of mental disorders. By itself, though, it’s not always an indicator that someone is psychologically unwell.
Many researchers have also noted that a lack of visible affect may not indicate that a person isn’t experiencing emotions. Even people with severe mental illness may still have strong feelings but be unable to express them in ways others recognize.
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