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Relationship Between Linguistic Antonyms in Momentary and Retrospective Ratings of Happiness and Sadness

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Liisi Ausmees at University of Tartu
Liisi Ausmees
Anu Realo
Anu Realo
Anu Realo
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Jüri Allik at University of Tartu
Jüri Allik
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Abstract

Momentary ratings of affective states with a pair of strict antonyms (“happy” vs. “sad”) were studied with an experience-sampling method in a group of 110 participants during 14 consecutive days at 7 randomly determined occasions per day. Before and after the experimental session participants also retrospectively rated how happy or sad they had been during the previous 2 weeks. Multilevel analysis showed that, at the level of single measurement trials, the momentary ratings of happiness and sadness were moderately negatively correlated (r = –.32, p < .001). A between-subject correlation of the two antonyms, however, was in a positive direction (r = .13, p = .123). Participants experienced mixed feelings during a considerable number of measurement trials, whereas the tendency to feel mixed emotions was predicted by all Big Five personality traits except Agreeableness. A configural frequency analysis (CFA) demonstrated that, although there was no strict bipolarity between momentary ratings of happiness and sadness, they were nevertheless used in an exclusive manner in many occasions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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L.Köötset al.: Happiness and SadnessJournal of IndividualDifferences2012; Vol. 33(1):43–53© 2012HogrefePublishing
Original Article
Relationship Between Linguistic
Antonyms in Momentary
and Retrospective Ratings
of Happiness and Sadness
Liisi Kööts, Anu Realo, and Jüri Allik
University of Tartu, Department of Psychology, Tartu, Estonia
Abstract. Momentary ratings of affective states with a pair of strict antonyms (“happy” vs. “sad”) were studied with an experience-
sampling method in a group of 110 participants during 14 consecutive days at 7 randomly determined occasions per day. Before and
after the experimental session participants also retrospectively rated how happy or sad they had been during the previous 2 weeks.
Multilevel analysis showed that, at the level of single measurement trials, the momentary ratings of happiness and sadness were
moderately negatively correlated (r= –.32, p< .001). A between-subject correlation of the two antonyms, however, was in a positive
direction (r= .13, p= .123). Participants experienced mixed feelings during a considerable number of measurement trials, whereas the
tendency to feel mixed emotions was predicted by all Big Five personality traits except Agreeableness. A configural frequency analysis
(CFA) demonstrated that, although there was no strict bipolarity between momentary ratings of happiness and sadness, they were
nevertheless used in an exclusive manner in many occasions.
Keywords: happiness, sadness, mixed emotions, personality
Native speakers have strong intuitions about which pairs of
words are good examples of antonyms. Probably all Eng-
lish speakers would agree, for example, that happy is the
opposite of sad, very much like cold is the opposite of hot
(Cruse, 1986). Accordingly, “when you are happy, you are
not sad and when you are sad, you are not happy” (Russell
& Carroll, 1999, p. 25). It was therefore a surprising dis-
covery that individuals tend to characterize their momen-
tary or recent affective experience in two relatively inde-
pendent ways: A person’s degree of happiness does not pre-
dict their degree of sadness, even if both judgments are
made practically at the same time (Diener & Emmons,
1985; Watson & Tellegen, 1985). Very often, retrospective
or momentary measures of affect demonstrate only a weak
negative correlation between positive and negative emo-
tions (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). In Estonian, for
example, linguistic antonyms such as happy (rõõmus) and
sad (kurb) are not true opposites when they are used retro-
spectively to rate recent emotional experience (Allik &
Realo, 1997). This means that people report positive and
negative feelings at the same time, and that these two af-
fective states are not polar opposites. Although paradoxi-
cal, the separability of positive and negative affect has ac-
quired remarkable popularity among researchers. For ex-
ample, a short measure of positive and negative affect –
PANAS (Watson et al., 1988) – has been cited 5,819 times
(Web of Science, May 9, 2011) since its publication 23
years ago.
As expected, such an idea, contradicting as it does lin-
guistic intuition, did not take long to bring about heated
discussion. Green, Goldman, and Salovey (1993) chal-
lenged the idea, claiming that a nonrandom measurement
error can mask bipolarity. They argued that, after adjusting
for random and systematic error in positive and negative
affect, a correlation between the two affects that may be
close to 0 becomes closer to –1, indicating that the relation-
ship between the two variables is mutually exclusive. Al-
though systematic error can attenuate the observed corre-
lation between positive and negative affect, it still does not
explain why measures of positive and negative emotions
behave in many situations as if they were relatively inde-
pendent (Rafaeli & Revelle, 2006; Schimmack, 2001; Tel-
legen, Watson, & Clark, 1999).
Another challenge to the separability of positive and
negative emotions comes from Russell (2003), who char-
acterizes a prototypical emotional episode by two basic di-
mensions: feeling good or bad and energized or lethargic.
These states – called core affect – are supposed to have an
DOI: 10.1027/1614-0001/a000061
© 2012 Hogrefe Publishing Journal of Individual Differences 2012; Vol. 33(1):43–53
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
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... However, studies that have constrained the definition of mixed emotions to include only specific pairs of emotions (e.g. happiness and sadness; Kööts, Realo, & Allik, 2012) or co-occurrences of PA and NA only at moderate-to-high intensities (e.g. Riediger, Schmiedek, Wagner, & Lindenberger, 2009;Riediger, Wrzus, & Wagner, 2014;Schneider & Stone, 2015;Watson & Stanton, 2017) have yielded lower prevalence rates of around 5-15%. ...
... Consider the minimum statistic (MIN), which has been argued to best capture co-occurrences of PA and NA (Larsen et al., 2017;Schimmack, 2001). MIN and binary indices utilising a MIN based cut-off have been used in several daily life studies of mixed emotions (Kööts et al., 2012;Riediger et al., 2009;Riediger et al., 2014;Schneider & Stone, 2015;Scott et al., 2014;Trampe et al., 2015;Watson & Stanton, 2017). This measure is calculated as the intensity value of the lesser of the two co-occurring emotions (e.g. if PA is rated as 5 out of 10 and NA is rated as 3 out of 10, then MIN is also 3). ...
... Verduyn & Brans, 2012;Watson & Tellegen, 1985). Further, Neuroticism has already been associated with more frequent mixed happy and sad emotional experiences in daily life (Kööts et al., 2012) as well as with higher scores on a dispositional measure of the tendency to experience mixed emotions (Barford & Smillie, 2016). In this latter study, we found that the association between Neuroticism and trait mixed emotions was explained by trait negative affectivity-that is, the tendency to experience more frequent NA. ...
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In this study, we examine how daily life fluctuations in positive affect (PA) and negative afect (NA) relate to mixed emotions—that is, simultaneous positive and negative feelings. We utilised three experience sampling studies (total N = 275), in which participants reported their affect 10 times each day for up to 14 days. Because people generally experience fairly stable moderate levels of PA in daily life, we proposed that mixed emotions would typically occur when NA increases and overlaps with, but does not entirely eliminate, PA. Accordingly, within individuals, we found that mixed emotions in daily life were more strongly predicted by changes in NA and the occurrence of negative events than by changes in PA and positive events. At the between‐person level, individuals with more variable NA, more stable PA, and higher trait Neuroticism scores experienced higher average levels of mixed emotions. Further, we found evidence that the average magnitude of NA increases may partially mediate the association between Neuroticism and mixed emotions. We also found that positive predictors of mixed emotions are negative predictors of individuals' within‐person PA/NA correlations—that is, affective synchrony. Our findings elucidate trait predictors and affective dynamics of daily life mixed emotions, which appear closely intertwined with NA variability. © 2020 European Association of Personality Psychology
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... Two recent studies have related individual differences in the experience of mixed emotions to the 'Big Five' trait domains of personality (see John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008), which each hierarchically subsume two narrower trait aspects, as well as six or more trait facets (see DeYoung et al., 2007). In the first study, Kööts, Realo, & Allik (2012) sampled participants' daily-life affective experiences multiple times over a two week period. They found that the Extraversion, Openness/Intellect, and Neuroticism domains were associated with greater incidence of mixed emotions, while Conscientiousness predicted fewer mixed emotional experiences. ...
... First, Pleasing- Upsetting appraisal scores indicated the overlap between ratings of pleasing and upsetting, which were the clearest pair of antonyms among the available valenced appraisals. This was of interest because some approaches to the measurement of mixed experiences have placed importance on the use of ratings that are clear semantic opposites (e.g., Kööts et al., 2012;Russell & Carroll, 1999). Second, the overlap between beautiful and disgusting appraisals was computed. ...
... The observed positive relations between mixed appraisals and Openness/Intellect are consistent with our reasoning that individuals who tend to feel more mixed emotions (Barford & Smillie, 2016;Kööts et al., 2012) will also tend to make more mixed appraisals. This prediction drew on Shuman et al.'s (2013) theory that mixed emotions arise from conflict among micro-valences that arise during the process of evaluating a stimulus. ...
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... Several studies reported that individuals experience mixed emotions in 30 to 50% of occurrences (Scott et al., 2014;Trampe et al., 2015), suggesting a very high prevalence of mixed emotions in everyday life. When considering only specific pairs of emotions such as happy and sad, and occurrences of moderate-to-high emotions, studies found a lower rate of about 5-15% (Kööts et al., 2012;Riediger et al., 2009Riediger et al., , 2014Schneider & Stone, 2015;Watson & Stanton, 2017). Beyond the bare level of co-occurrence, some combinations are more likely than others. ...
... This finding further supports the bivariate hypothesis of emotions (Cacioppo & Berntson, 1994;Larsen & McGraw, 2014;Watson et al., 1999). Third, our results contrast with previous research that showed how relatively infrequent were instances of mixed emotions in daily life (Kööts et al., 2012;Riediger et al., 2009Riediger et al., , 2014Schneider & Stone, 2015;Watson & Stanton, 2017). Our findings showed that a large proportion of individuals experienced mixed future-oriented emotions. ...
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Most future educational and career transitions represent major life events that individuals anticipate to a considerable extent, possibly with multiple emotions at the same time. However, few studies have examined the emotions that individuals experience when they anticipate a future educational or career transition, imagine how it will occur, the consequences it will have for them, and visualize their coping efforts. The aims of the present dissertation are fourfold. First, we explore individuals’ combinations of multiple future-oriented emotions at the prospect of three major educational and career transitions: (a) the transition from high school to higher education, (b) the transition from higher education to the job market, and (c) the transition from unemployment to employment. Due to the rather exploratory nature of our first research question, our second objective pertains to the replication of these combinations and the investigation of similarities between several groups of individuals based on (a) gender, (b) institutional context, and (c) the temporal distance before the transition. Third, we examine several antecedents of individuals’ combinations of future-oriented emotions. These antecedents ranged from career-related constructs such as career decidedness and career adaptability to affective mechanisms such as cognitive appraisals, trait affect, and emotion regulation. Finally, we examine the behavioral effects of future-oriented emotions in terms of anticipated vocational planning and effort. Overall, the present dissertation brings several implications in highlighting the combinations of future-oriented emotions that individuals experience when anticipating important vocational transitions, a research strand that is scarce both in vocational and emotion research. From a practical point of view, the evidence of several combinations—and the differences and similarities among several groups or contexts—carries practical implications for designing and implementing career-related interventions. Finally, examining antecedents and outcomes of future-oriented emotions combinations underlines the importance of taking emotional anticipation processes into account when individuals prepare for and cope with major educational and career transitions.
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... Negative events elicited more mixed emotions than positive events overall, but trait dialectical thinking (i.e., the tendency to balance evaluations and tolerate contradictions) positively predicted mixed emotional responses to positive events. A more recent study (Koots, Realo, & Allik, 2012) explored relations between mixed emotions and the five basic personality domains (the Big Five, see John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008). Extraversion (i.e., sociability and boldness) and Openness/ Intellect (i.e., curiosity and imagination) positively predicted simultaneous positive and negative emotion states in daily-life samples, whereas Conscientiousness (i.e., orderliness and reliability) was a negative predictor. ...
... The sparse individual differences research on mixed emotions is difficult to synthesise, given the focus on somewhat idiosyncratic traits (e.g., dialectical thinking, construal level, etc.), and inconsistent mixed emotions measures (e.g., affective synchrony, etc.). Like Koots et al. (2012), we employed the Big Five personality taxonomy: a comprehensive yet parsimonious organising framework for personality traits (John et al., 2008). Because these broad domains hierarchically subsume narrower personality traits (DeYoung, Quilty, & Peterson, 2007), understanding their relations with trait mixed emotions may help synthesise research associating mixed emotions with narrower traits. ...
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... than in an age-and gender-comparable sample of 55 individuals (mean age 68.2 years; SD = 5.5, 76 % women; mean PA score = 24.5, SD = 6.0) who were recruited for an experience sampling study (Kööts et al. 2011(Kööts et al. , 2012 from two day centers in Tartu (Estonia) that provide activities and lunches for older people. The scores of NA at both T1 (M = 18.7, ...
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