Perron. indirid. Dlfl Vol. 9. No. I. pp. 185-186. 1988 Printed in Great Bntain. All rights reserved

0191-8869 BY 53.00 +O.OO Copyright L 1988 Pergamon Journals Ltd

Affect intensity and components of emotional style

GORDON L. FLETT,CARL BATOR and KIRK R. BLANKSTEIN

Deparrment of Psychology. Erindale College. Unicersity of Toronto, Mississauga. Ontario. Canada LSL IC6

(Received 15 April 1987)

Summary-Recently, Larsen and Diener identified the atfect intensity construct. The present study investigated the association between individual differences in affect intensity and dimensions of emotional style. A sample of 117 subjects (55 males, 62 females) completed the Affect Intensity Measure and the Test of Emotional Styles. The Test of Emotional Styles measures emotional responsiveness. emotional expressiveness, and emotional orientation. Correlational analyses confirmed that dispositional levels of affect intensity are correlated positively with all three dimensions of emotional style, thus attesting to the validity of the affect intensity construct.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, a great deal of research has investigated the association between personality and emotion. One important development is the discovery of identifiable individual differences in dispositional levels of emotional intensity (Diener, Larsen, Levine and Emmons, 1985). Diener er al. (1985) found that certain individuals experience their positive and negative emotions with great intensity whereas other individuals experience the same emotions with less intensity.

The results of several recent studies combine to provide general evidence for the validity and importance of the a&r intensify construct. For instance, subjects differing in intensity of experienced affect have been shown to differ in their cognitive appraisals of emotion (Flett, Boase, McAndrews, Pliner and Blankstein. 1986), their emotional reactions to daily life events (Larsen, Diener and Emmons, 1986). and their psychophysical responses (Larsen and Diener, 1987). In general, these findings demonstrate the need for comprehensive models of emotion which take individual difference variables into account.

‘Ihere are several aspects of the affect intensity construct that need to be examined before it can be incorporated into such a model. At present, existing evidence suggests that affect intensity should be considered as a dimension of temperament rather than a dimension of personality per se because affect intensity is more closely related to the manifestation of emotional behaviours than to the content of emotional behaviours (Larsen and Diener, 1987). This conclusion is based, in part, on research showing that individual differences in affect intensity appear to be present early in life and remain stable across the life span (Larsen, 1986) and that these differences generalize across the conrenf of specific emotional responses.

Although available evidence is consistent with the notion that the affect intensity construct represents a generalized sfyle of emotional expression (Larsen and Diener, 1987). and thus reflects differences in temperament, this conclusion requires further investigation. Consequently, the present study examined the relation between Larsen and Diener’s measure of individual differences, the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM; Larsen, 1984; Larsen and Diener, 1987), and a measure of emotional styles, the Test of Emotional Styles (TES; Allen and Hamsher, 1974). According to earlier formulations (Larsen and Diener, 1987) all three subscales of the TES-namely, emotional responsiveness, emotional expressiveness, and emotional orientation should be correlated positively with the AIM.

METHOD

Participants and procedure The participants were I17 undergraduate students (55 males, 62 females) serving as subjects to obtain credit in an

introductory psychology course at Erindale College, University of Toronto. Each subject completed the AIM and the TES in a random order.

The AIM is a 40-item scale designed to measure the intensity with which individuals typically experience positive and negative emotions. Respondents are asked to make 6-point ratings of the extent of their agreement with such statements as “My happy moods are so strong that I feel like I’m in heaven,” and “Sad movies deeply touch me.” The AIM is comprised of reactions to both positive and negative emotions and several items are reverse-keyed. A number of studies suggest that it is a reliable and valid measure (Diener, Sandvik and Larsen, 1985; Flett ef al., 1986, Larsen and Diener, 1985, 1987).

The TES (Allen and Hamsher, 1974) is a 75-item forced-choice measure. It measures typical reactions to a wide variety of emotions and it consists of three subscales with adequate concurrent and discriminant validity (Allen, 1976: Allen and Hamsher, 1974). The first subscale, responsiveness measures the typical frequency and intensity of emotional experiences. Given that this dimension of emotional style includes several intensity judgments, scores on this subscale should be related to the AIM. Similarly, scores on the second emotional style dimension, expressiveness, should also be related to the AIM since it measures characteristic displays of the frequency and intensity of interpersonal expressions of emotion. Finally, a relation between scores on the AIM and the third dimension of emotional style, orienfafion should also be apparent. The orientation subscale measures the extent to which individuals are comfortable with emotion and seek out emotional experiences (Allen and Hamsher, 1974). An association between scores on this subscale and the AIM should be present since it has been predicted elsewhere that high affect intensity subjects will be more likely to seek emotion-provoking activities (Larsen and Diener. 1987).

I85

186 NOTES ASD SHORTER COMS1L’SKATIOVS

RESCLTS

Pearson product-moment correlations among the various measures Here computed. Examination resealed no signlticant six differences in the magnitudes of the correlations so only the correlations For the total sample are reported. As cupected, the .AIM was correlated significantly with all three measures of emotional st!lc. The strongest association was betussn the AIM and responsiveness, r = 0.68, P < 0.001. The correlation between the AI\1 and expressiveness uas r = 0.55, P < 0.001. and the correlation between the AIM and the orientation measure was r = 0.30. P < 0.01.

Not surprisingly, the measures of emotional style were intercorrelated. Responsiveness and expressiveness scores were most highly correlated, r = 0.74. P < 0.001. Orientation was more highly correlated with responsiveness. r = 0.70. P < 0 001 than with expressiveness, r = 0.48, P < 0.001,

DISCUSSION

In summary, the results of the present study provide further evidence for the hypothesis that affect intensity is a dimension of temperament related to general styles of emotional responding. As expected. higher scores on the AI&l were associated with greater emotional responsiveness and emotional expressiveness, as well as the tendency to approach and seek our

emotional stimuli. Thus, individual differences in affect intensity are related to differences in emotional style. One noteworthy feature is that the two instruments included in the present study do not have the same response format.

The fact that the TES is a forced-choice measure limits the possibility that the current results simply rsflect a consistent tendency on the part of high affect intensity subjects to respond in an extreme fashion. Therefore. although further research is required, the conclusion that affect intensity represents a style of emotional responding appears to be warranted.

Correspondence-Requests for reprints should be addressed to Gordon L. Flett.

REFERENCES

Allen J. G. (1976) Correlates of emotional styles. J. consult. clin. P.rychol. U, 678. Allen J. G. and Hamsher J. H. (1974) The development and validation of a test of emotional styles. J. cor~dr. c/in. P.~~chol.

42, 663-668. Diener E., Larsen R. J., Levine S. and Emmons R. A. (1985) Intensity and frequency: dimensions underlying positive and

negative affect. J. person. sot. Psychol. 48, 1253-1265. Diener E., Sandvik E. and Larsen R. J. (1985) Age and sex effects for affect intensity. Dec. Psychol. 21, 542-546. Flett G. L., Boase P., McAndrews M. P., Pliner P. and Blankstein K. R. (1986) Affect intensity and the appraisal ofemotion.

J. res. Person. 20, 447-459. Larsen R. J. (1984) Theory and measurement of affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic. Disserr. Absrr.

Inr. 84, 22112. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Larsen R. J. (1986) The temporal stability of emotional response intensity: retrospective and prospective studies. Manuscript

submitted for publication. Larsen R. J. and Diener E. (1985) A multitrait-multimethod examination of affect structure: hedonic level and emotional

intensity. Person. indiuid. 01% 6, 631436. Larsen R. J. and Diener E. (1987) Affect intensity as an individual difference characteristic: a review. J. res. Person. 21,

l-39. Larsen R. J., Diener E. and Emmons R. A. (1986) Affect intensity and reactions to daily life events. J. perron. sac. PsJchoi.

51, 803-814.