Abstract :
Within the debate on the structure of affect, a
consensus began emerging in the last decade regarding the
bipolarity of happiness–sadness. We argue that this consensus
is premature. Focusing on the psychometrics of momentary
affect, particularly happiness and sadness, and using a
simulation study, a large-scale data set, and 2 experiments
manipulating affect, we plot a map of affective space that
departs from the consensus. One key departure is the finding
that happiness and sadness are not bipolar opposites. Another
is that nonuniform skewness plays a major role in studies of
affective structure, but can be addressed with appropriate
analyses.
