The structure in persons' implicit taxonomy of emotions

Abstract

Persons' classifications of emotions are viewed as based on an implicit taxonomy of emotions. This implicit taxonomy has sometimes been thought of as a bipolar dimensional system within which are located all the various emotion-descriptive categories (fear, anger, happiness, etc.). A dimensional taxonomy of this kind assumes that all emotion categories are interrelated in a systematic way. More often, however, the implicit taxonomy has been thought of as a list of separate emotions. A taxonomy in the form of a list typically presupposes that emotion categories are either synonymous, independent, or mutually exclusive. McNair, Lorr, and Droppleman's Profile of Mood States (San Diego: Educational and Industrial Testing Service, 1971) is one such list of emotion categories and was therefore examined in two studies for the actual interrelationships among its categories. To examine intraindividual relationships, 45 subjects rated the emotional state posed in each of 32 videotape segments. Even at the level of the individual subject, results showed that emotion categories are systematically interrelated and can be accounted for reasonably well by a system of three bipolar dimensions: pleasure-displeasure, arousal-sleepiness, and dominance-submissiveness. Evidence for the same bipolar system was also obtained in a second study, which examined interindividual differences in the self-reported emotional states of 343 subjects.