The Complexity of Individual Emotional Lives: A Within-Subject Analysis of Affect Structure

Abstract

Research on personality and emotion has emphasized individual differences in the amounts of various emotions experienced over time. In this study we take a different approach, one that focuses on individual differences in the structure of affective lives. In particular, we assess the structural complexity of daily affect ratings for each of out subjects, and then relate individual differences in affective complexity to aspects of personality. Affective complexity is defined as the number of within-subject factors needed to account for a given amount of variance in each subjects' daily mood ratings. Out study expands on the pioneering work of Wessman and Ricks (1966) by studying both males and females, employing a broader range of personality variables, and using measures of emotional lifestyle that are independent from the data which are used to generate the affect complexity score. We found that men and women did not differ in terms of mean levels of affect complexity. However, gender differences did emerge in the correlates of affect complexity. For men, affect complexity is associated with general unhappiness, introversion, neuroticism, and higher levels of psychosomatic complaints. These correlations were insignificant for women. For both men and women affect complexity is related to emotional stability and lowered emotional reactivity. The concepts of gender stereotypes, gender role stress, and feeling rules are employed to discuss out results.