Further Evidence for Mixed Emotions

Emotion theorists have long debated whether valence, which ranges from pleasant to unpleasant states, is an irreducible aspect of the experience of emotion or whether positivity and negativity are separable in experience. If valence is irreducible, it follows that people cannot feel happy and sad at...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 2011-06, Vol.100 (6), p.1095-1110
Main Authors: LARSEN, Jeff T, MCGRAW, A. Peter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Affective Valence
Affectivity. Emotion
Ambivalence
Beliefs
Biological and medical sciences
Conflict (Psychology)
Emotional Responses
Emotions
Evidence
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gambling - psychology
Happiness
Human
Humans
Hypotheses
Internet
Judgment
Male
Motivation
Optimism
Personality traits
Personality. Affectivity
Pessimism
Positive affect
Psychological Theory
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Sadness
Social psychology
Studies
Uncertainty
Unpleasant
Young Adult
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Summary:Emotion theorists have long debated whether valence, which ranges from pleasant to unpleasant states, is an irreducible aspect of the experience of emotion or whether positivity and negativity are separable in experience. If valence is irreducible, it follows that people cannot feel happy and sad at the same time. Conversely, if positivity and negativity are separable, people may be able to experience such mixed emotions. The authors tested several alternative interpretations for prior evidence that happiness and sadness can co-occur in bittersweet situations (i.e., those containing both pleasant and unpleasant aspects). One possibility is that subjects who reported mixed emotions merely vacillated between happiness and sadness. The authors tested this hypothesis in Studies 1-3 by asking subjects to complete online continuous measures of happiness and sadness. Subjects reported more simultaneously mixed emotions during a bittersweet film clip than during a control clip. Another possibility is that subjects in earlier studies reported mixed emotions only because they were explicitly asked whether they felt happy and sad. The authors tested this hypothesis in Studies 4-6 with open-ended measures of emotion. Subjects were more likely to report mixed emotions after the bittersweet clip than the control clip. Both patterns occurred even when subjects were told that they were not expected to report mixed emotions (Studies 2 and 5) and among subjects who did not previously believe that people could simultaneously feel happy and sad (Studies 3 and 6). These results provide further evidence that positivity and negativity are separable in experience.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/a0021846