Abstract
According to Affect Valuation Theory (Tsai et al. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1031–1039), culture influences how people want to feel (ideal affect). Integrating Affect Valuation Theory with the Time-sequential Framework of Subjective Well-being (Kim-Prieto et al. Journal of Happiness Studies, 6, 261–300), we proposed that cultural norms influence the memory, but not the experience, of emotion. The present study examined the role of ideal affect in relation to experience sampling and retrospective reports of emotion. Ideal affect correlated with retrospective reports but not experience sampling reports. Extraversion and neuroticism were more strongly related to experience sampling reports than to ideal levels of emotion. Results suggest that retrospective reports of emotion involve a dynamic process that incorporates cultural information into the reconstruction whereas on-line emotions are more constrained by temperament.
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Notes
Interestingly, the term “actual affect” which Tsai uses implies that one aspect of emotional experience is the “real” emotion while other levels of emotional experience (e.g., memory for emotions) are somehow less valid or veridical. A critical feature of the Time-sequential Model is that on-line, retrospective, and global reports of emotion do not need to vie for the position of “true” emotion. We prefer to use the less value-laden term “on-line emotions” to refer to immediate emotional responses or reactions.
Participants also rated each emotion on three other dimensions (appropriateness, desirability, and functionality or adaptiveness) which were not used in the present analyses. Separate analyses on the other dimensions did not produce consistent results, and a composite of all four dimensions yielded results that were weaker but modestly consistent with our predictions. Given that we have greater theoretical understanding of ideal affect (e.g., Diener et al. 2000; Tsai et al. 2006, 2007) than other norm measures, we chose to report findings with respect to ideal affect only.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the students who volunteered to participate in the study and Christie Lynch and Lincoln Lim for their assistance with data collection. We also thank Drs. Charles Lord, Charles Bond, Jr., Donald Dansereau, and Ed Diener for their comments on earlier versions of this manuscript.
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This manuscript is based in part on a master’s thesis by Amanda Hiles Howard to fulfill the requirements for a Master’s Degree.
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Scollon, C.N., Howard, A.H., Caldwell, A.E. et al. The Role of Ideal Affect in the Experience and Memory of Emotions. J Happiness Stud 10, 257–269 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9079-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9079-9