Abstract

GALINHA, Iolanda Costa  and  PAIS-RIBEIRO, Luis. Contribuição para o estudo da versão portuguesa da Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS): I - Abordagem teórica ao conceito de afecto. Aná. Psicológica [online]. 2005, vol.23, n.2, pp.209-218. ISSN 0870-8231.

The study of affect and its correlates has been given great importance by the various domains of Psychology. The study of affect has been shared by several fields of psychology and through multiple perspectives. These are some of the reasons why the concept of affect has became a multifaceted construct, subject of multiple definitions and sometimes difficult to integrate. The article aims to clarify the concept of affect based on the literature revision of the works that developed an integration of the several facets of the concept. This integration was made through the identification and articulation of the several levels of analyse of the construct: the state affect (emotions); the humor (depression and anxiety); and trait affect (personality). The article presents the several models of affect and the discussions: bi-dimensionality versus multidimensionality of the concept of affect; and orthogonality (independence) versus bipolarity (inverse correlation), between positive and negative affect. The discussion about the structure and dimensionality of affect is still open, however, several recent studies pointed out some of the possible causes for the divergence in the scientific results.

Keywords : Positive affect; negative affect; models; structure and dimensions of affect.

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