The way humans experience and categorize feelings has been a central topic in psychology. While some theories propose a limited set of “basic” emotions, others suggest that all emotional states are better understood as points on a map. This dimensional approach argues that every feeling can be described using a combination of a few fundamental qualities. Instead of listing distinct emotions, this model uses coordinates to locate any feeling within an affective space, providing a standardized way to measure human emotional experience.
Valence: The Pleasantness Dimension
Valence is the dimension that measures the intrinsic appeal or aversiveness of an emotion, often called the hedonic tone. This quality ranges along a single continuum from highly positive (pleasant) to highly negative (unpleasant). It essentially answers the question of whether a feeling “feels good” or “feels bad.”
A positive valence, such as joy or serenity, encourages an approach motivation toward a stimulus. Conversely, a negative valence, like disgust or sadness, often provokes a withdrawal tendency. Valence helps classify any event, object, or situation based on its inherent desirability.
Arousal: The Intensity Dimension
Arousal measures the physiological and psychological intensity or activation level of a feeling. This dimension ranges from a state of low activation, such as calmness, to a state of high activation, which includes excitement or tension. It relates directly to the body’s readiness for action, often activating the fight-or-flight response.
The level of arousal is independent of the emotion’s pleasantness. For example, intense fear and intense excitement both register as high arousal states, despite being on opposite ends of the valence spectrum. Emotions like contentment or boredom are examples of low arousal.
Combining Dimensions: The Circumplex Model of Emotion
The two dimensions, valence and arousal, combine to create a two-dimensional emotional space known as the Circumplex Model of Emotion. Developed by James Russell, this model maps emotions onto a circular graph where valence forms the horizontal axis and arousal forms the vertical axis. Every specific emotion can be plotted as a single point on this map based on its unique coordinate of pleasantness and intensity. The center of the circle represents a neutral valence and a moderate or low level of arousal.
The visual representation divides the emotional space into four primary quadrants.
High Arousal, Positive Valence
This quadrant contains emotions like excitement, enthusiasm, and elation.
High Arousal, Negative Valence
This quadrant is defined by emotions such as anger, fear, and anxiety. These states are characterized by high energy and unpleasantness.
Low Arousal, Positive Valence
This quadrant encompasses feelings like serenity, relaxation, and contentment. These feelings are pleasant but involve peaceful deactivation.
Low Arousal, Negative Valence
This quadrant represents emotions like sadness, boredom, and lethargy, which are unpleasant and experienced with low energy.
How Valence and Arousal are Used
The two-dimensional model offers a powerful framework with applications extending into psychological research, clinical practice, and commercial strategy. In research, the model helps standardize emotional stimuli, allowing scientists to categorize and compare affective images, sounds, or words based on their average valence and arousal scores. Psychological tools, such as the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM), are often used to quickly measure a person’s subjective ratings on these two dimensions.
In the clinical field, tracking changes in a person’s emotional coordinates can provide insights into mood disorders. For instance, certain forms of depression might be characterized by movement toward the low-arousal, negative-valence quadrant. Commercially, the model is employed to measure advertising effectiveness, helping businesses craft messages that elicit a specific emotional state. High-arousal messages are often better encoded and remembered.