Although there is debate over how envy is conceptualized, one prominent view is that envy comprises two subtypes—malicious and benign envy—that differ in their emotional and motivational natures. Previous research has shown that people can experience both types regardless of whether their language lexically distinguishes them. However, it remains unclear how, and to what extent, these subtypes are reflected in the lexical and affective structure of emotion words within a single language. We examined the affective structure of Japanese emotion words expressing envy and related emotions, such as jealousy, resentment, and admiration. In two surveys, 22,819 participants rated 3,021 words for valence (positive, negative, or mixed) and classified each word into an emotion category (e.g., anger, sadness), with at least 100 ratings per word. By visualizing the affective space of these words, we analyzed how 11 words referring to envy clustered into two distinct subgroups. Results showed that one subgroup consisted of words perceived predominantly as negative and classified as disgust or anger (e.g., netamashii), whereas the other consisted of words characterized by more ambivalent valence and showing no single dominant emotion category (e.g., urayamashii). These subgroups correspond to theoretical distinctions between malicious and benign envy, respectively. In addition, the word for jealousy clustered with malicious envy, while the words for resentment and admiration formed separate groups. These findings demonstrate that perceived Japanese affective-semantic structure reflects both malicious and benign envy, highlighting nuanced similarities and differences among envy-related emotions and offering a lexical perspective on envy’s dual structure.
Emotion regulation (ER) strategies are often implemented to reduce negative affect and boost positive affect. While research has focused on the relation between negative affect and less effective ER strategy use, more work is needed to investigate how ER strategies modulate positive affect and bolster individuals’ sense of agency. This EMA study examined the temporal effect of savoring on positive affect through increasing perceived controllability of daily stressors. Over a 14-day period, participants (n = 110) reported the most emotional event of the day, its level of perceived controllability, their use of 11 ER strategies (e.g., distraction, rumination), and their positive and negative affect. The use of savoring (i.e., reflect on or intensify positive experiences) emerged as both significantly relating to better affective outcomes, and, in a time-lagged mixed effects model, predicting both higher levels of self-perceived controllability and increased positive affect the day after.
This study integrates achievement goal theory and stress frameworks to advance our understanding of students’ performance and affective experiences in an academic context. A total of 308 first-year college students (Mage = 18.3 years, SDage = 0.62 years) reported their achievement goals (i.e., performance-approach, performance-avoidance, mastery-approach, and mastery-avoidance), stress appraisals (i.e., resources and demands) and post-exam emotions (i.e., happiness, pride, sadness and embarrassment) during exam days in a first-semester college course. Approach goals were associated with better exam scores; avoidance goals were not related to exam performance. Resource appraisals mediated the link between mastery-approach goals and exam scores, whereas the link between performance-approach goals and exam scores was independent of stress appraisals. Exploratory analyses revealed that students’ resource appraisals before an exam were a better predictor of post-exam emotions than demand appraisals and achievement goals. These findings underscore the added value of an integrative approach for both theory and practice, which has the potential to inform the development of more effective and individualized educational interventions.
The present article aims at revisiting the question of the link between valence and epistemic feelings, by showing that the property of being arranged as pairwise polar opposites, far from being restricted to algedonic states, also applies to affective states that are associated with the experience of a form of cognizance. In revisiting the notion of affective valence, I propose a renewed ontology of epistemic feelings, which I envision as consisting, in the final analysis, of a system of bidirectionally organized affective dimensions. After presenting the models of epistemic valence elaborated by Lipps, Avenarius, and Wundt in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, I address the question of polar opposition and valence in current epistemic feeling literature, showing that both issues, while not entirely overlooked, have largely been disregarded. Then, I comment on two articles by Arango-Muñoz (2014) and Loev (2022), which are the only recent publications that address in detail the question of the link between valence and epistemic feelings. I insist that there are actually good reasons to assume the existence of an epistemic valence besides algedonic valence. Finally, I lay out the foundation for a theoretical model in which I systematically address the question of how epistemicity, dimensionality, directionality are interrelated in affective states. I highlight that, in order to be considered as pairs of polar opposites, epistemic feelings should consist of a limited number of well-defined, elementary, and discrete qualitative entities that are organized bidimensionally and likely to vary in intensity.
The transition to parenthood is a period of heightened emotion; while deeply rewarding, it is also a stressful time, marked by an increased risk of mental health problems. Socializing is vital for parents’ mental health and may buffer these risks. However, little is known about how different forms of socializing relate to parents’ emotional well-being, or how individual differences in internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) may modify these associations. The present study examined real-time associations between social activities and mothers’ momentary affect, with a focus on comparing in-person socializing, virtual socializing (e.g., FaceTime, phone calls, instant messaging, text, or email), and social media use (e.g., browsing or posting on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok). Two hundred and fifty mothers (Mean age = 33.2 years, range = 19–45, 51.5
