[Mutual inhibition between positive and negative emotions].
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between positive and negative emotions. In study 1, 62 emotional items were selected in order to measure subjective emotional experiences. In study 2, comics, photos and poems were randomly presented to 1,220 college students to induce emotion. Subjects were asked to rate their momentary emotional intensity on two set of 5-point scales (general emotional intensity scale and 62 specific emotional intensity scale). In analysis 1, positive correlations were suggested between general emotional intensity scale and some of the specific emotional intensity scales which were activated by stimuli. In analysis 2, 10 positive and 10 negative emotional items were extracted from 62 items by factor analysis. In analysis 3, 4 and 5, it became clear that the distribution of frequency of correlations of 10 positive x 10 negative items changed according to the general emotional intensity scale. That is, from low to moderate levels of GEIS, the two kinds of emotion had no or slightly positive correlation, but at high level they became to be negatively correlated. From the facts described above, it is concluded that positive and negative emotions is not always independent, but show mutual inhibition in case of high intensity level of one of each emotions.
Shimokawa
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Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University.
D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male