title: Self-reported health bias: the role of daily affective valence and arousal.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study addresses gaps in the literature on affect-biased health perceptions by (a) investigating health bias while considering both valence and arousal components of affect; (b) establishing the presence of, and variability in, affective health bias at the daily level; and (c) exploring daily health bias in a non-clinical, community sample of adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 477 adults (aged 33-80 years) who reported daily health events, health satisfaction and affect for up to 56 days. Health bias was present when the effect of a given day's health events on that day's health satisfaction was significantly moderated by that day's affect. Multilevel modelling was used to investigate fixed and random within-day effects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Daily health satisfaction.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant interaction effects indicated the presence of health bias on the daily level: positively valenced affect buffered the negative impact of health events on health satisfaction, whereas negatively valenced affect exacerbated this association; additionally, valence emerged as the most salient characteristic of positive affect, whereas arousal was a differentiating factor for negative affect.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results provide evidence that both valence and arousal components of affect are important to consider when investigating day-level health bias, and that these effects can be detected using a general population of adults.
authors: Department of Psychology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA. Brenda.R.Whitehead.9@nd.edu
authors: Brenda R
authors: BR
authors: Whitehead
authors: Cindy S
authors: CS
authors: Bergeman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D015982:Bias; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D057566:Self Report