The Structure of Current Affect: Controversies and Emerging Consensus
Abstract
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.
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The properties of affect-valence and arousal-are basic features of consciousness and are not unique to instances of emotion.
“the properties of affect—valence and arousal (Barrett and Russell, 1999; Kuppens et al., 2013)—are basic features of consciousness (Damasio, 1999; Dreyfus and Thompson, 2007; Edelman and Tononi, 2000; James, 1890/2007; Searle, 1992, 2004; Wundt, 1897) that, importantly, are not unique to instances of emotion.”
From The theory of constructed emotion: an active inference account of interoception and categorization (2016) · cites this paper as Barrett and Russell, 1999
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- Authors
- Barrett, L. F., & Russell, J. A.
- Affiliations
- Boston College (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Barrett, Lisa Feldman
- Russell, James A.
- Venue
- Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 1999-02
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 10-14
- ISSN
- 0963-7214 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-8721
- OpenAlex
- W2135394513
- Cited by
- 974
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 38 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 81 · 2023: 49 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 90 · 2019: 65 · 2018: 40 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 61 · 2014: 43 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 32
- FWCI
- 14.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Directions in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Emotion and Mood Recognition
- Keywords
- emotional experience, pleasure, activation, circumplex model, affective domain
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