Ed Diener Ashgar Iran-Nejad
The Relationship In Experience Between Various Types of Affect
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
1986, Vol. 50, No. 5, 1031-1038
Copyright 1986 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.
0022-3514/86/S00.75
The Relationship In Experience Between Various Types of Affect
Ed Diener
University of Illinois
Ashgar Iran-Nejad
University of Michigan
The co-occurence in experience of various emotions was explored, with the focus on positive versus
negative affect. In Study 1,72 subjects read stories designed to produce varying levels of either positive
or negative affect, and then rated their level of both types of affect. In Study 2, 42 participants rated
their feelings during emotional times in everyday life for a period of 6 weeks. We found that emotions
of the same hedonic valence (e.g., fear and anger) tend to co-occur. We also found that positive and
negative affect do not occur together at high levels of intensity. These two facts about the relation of