TY - JOUR
T1 - Relationship between Valence and Arousal for Subjective Experience in a Real-life Setting for Supportive Housing Residents
T2 - Results from an Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
AU - Nandy, Rajesh
AU - Nandy, Karabi
AU - Walters, Scott T.
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding for this study was provided through a Medicaid 1115 waiver to the state of Texas. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services had no role in the study design; collection, analysis, or interpretation of the data; writing the manuscript; or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
Publisher Copyright:
©Rajesh Nandy, Karabi Nandy, Scott T Walters.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Background: The circumplex model of affect posits that valence and arousal are the principal dimensions of affect. The center of the 2D space represents a neutral state of valence and a medium state of arousal. The role of valence and arousal in human emotion has been studied extensively. However, no consistent relationship between valence and arousal has been established. Most of the prior studies investigating the relationship have been conducted in relatively controlled laboratory settings. Objective: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of affect from participants residing in permanent supportive housing was used to study the relationship between valence and arousal in real-life settings. The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between valence and arousal in a person’s natural environment. Methods: Participants were recruited from housing agencies in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. All participants had a history of chronic homelessness and reported at least one mental health condition. A subset of participants completed daily (morning) EMAs of emotions and other behaviors. The sample comprised 78 women and 77 men, and the average age was 52 (SD 8) years. From the circumplex model of affect, the EMA included 9 questions related to the participant’s current emotional state (happy, frustrated, sad, worried, restless, excited, calm, bored, and sluggish). The responses were used to calculate 2 composite scores for valence and arousal. Results: Statistical models uniformly showed a dominant linear relation between valence and arousal and a significant difference in the slopes among races. None of the other effects were statistically significant. Compared with previous studies, the effects were quite robust. Conclusions: Our findings may provide a window to the fundamental structure of affect. We found a strong positive linear relationship between valence and arousal at the nomothetic level, which may provide insight into a universal structure of affect. However, the study needs to be replicated for different populations to determine whether our findings can be generalized beyond the population studied here.
AB - Background: The circumplex model of affect posits that valence and arousal are the principal dimensions of affect. The center of the 2D space represents a neutral state of valence and a medium state of arousal. The role of valence and arousal in human emotion has been studied extensively. However, no consistent relationship between valence and arousal has been established. Most of the prior studies investigating the relationship have been conducted in relatively controlled laboratory settings. Objective: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) of affect from participants residing in permanent supportive housing was used to study the relationship between valence and arousal in real-life settings. The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between valence and arousal in a person’s natural environment. Methods: Participants were recruited from housing agencies in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. All participants had a history of chronic homelessness and reported at least one mental health condition. A subset of participants completed daily (morning) EMAs of emotions and other behaviors. The sample comprised 78 women and 77 men, and the average age was 52 (SD 8) years. From the circumplex model of affect, the EMA included 9 questions related to the participant’s current emotional state (happy, frustrated, sad, worried, restless, excited, calm, bored, and sluggish). The responses were used to calculate 2 composite scores for valence and arousal. Results: Statistical models uniformly showed a dominant linear relation between valence and arousal and a significant difference in the slopes among races. None of the other effects were statistically significant. Compared with previous studies, the effects were quite robust. Conclusions: Our findings may provide a window to the fundamental structure of affect. We found a strong positive linear relationship between valence and arousal at the nomothetic level, which may provide insight into a universal structure of affect. However, the study needs to be replicated for different populations to determine whether our findings can be generalized beyond the population studied here.
KW - arousal
KW - circumplex model of affect
KW - ecological momentary assessment
KW - emotion
KW - mobile phone
KW - permanent supportive housing
KW - valence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85148995272&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2196/34989
DO - 10.2196/34989
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85148995272
SN - 2561-326X
VL - 7
JO - JMIR Formative Research
JF - JMIR Formative Research
M1 - e34989
ER -