Components of Emotional Meaning

Abstract

The present book reports an extensive cross-cultural and cross-linguistic study on the meaning of emotion words adopting a novel methodological approach. Based on the Component Process Model a new instrument was developed to assess the meaning of emotion terms. This instrument, the GRID questionnaire, consists of a grid of 24 emotion terms spanning the emotion domain and 142 emotion features that operationalize five emotion components (Appraisals, Bodily Reactions, Expressions, Action Tendencies, and Feelings). For the operationalization of these five emotion components very different emotion models from the Western and the cultural-comparative emotion literature have been taken into account. The book reports the empirical results obtained with this instrument in 34 samples representing 27 countries and 24 languages. It is demonstrated that the semantic space covered by the emotion terms can be adequately represented by a four-dimensional structure, namely by valence, power, arousal, and novelty. This factor structure can be used as a point of reference to study meaning differences between cultural and linguistic groups. As the GRID instrument integrates very different emotion theories from different scientific disciplines, the instrument lends itself to multidisciplinary exchange and research. In addition to a presentation of the overall emotion meaning structure emerging across the cultural and linguistic groups, contributions from psychological, cultural-comparative, and linguistic perspectives demonstrate how the new instrument can be used to empirically study very different research questions on the meaning of emotion terms. The implications of the results for major theoretical debates on emotion are discussed.

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