On the dimensional and hierarchical structure of affect

Green, Goldman, and Salovey (1993) challenged the view that "positive affec t" and "negative affect" are largely uncorrelated dimensions. On the basis of factor analytic studies of happiness and sadness, and of positive and ne gative emotional activation (PA and NA), they claimed that a "largely bipol ar structure of affect" (p. 1029) emerges when random and nonrandom error a re taken into account. A reappraisal of their own findings and confirmatory analysis of additional data do not support this claim. Happiness and sadne ss Sonn a largely unidimensional bipolar structure, but PA and NA are relat ively independent. However exploratory analyses yield a three-level hierarc hy incorporating in one structure a general bipolar Happiness-Versus-unhapp iness dimension, the relatively independent PA and NA dimensions at the lev el below it, and discrete emotions at the base. We emphasize the heuristic value of a hierarchical perspective.