Measurement of Affect： From Theoretical and Instrumental Perspectives

Affect plays a central role in human experience and is related to different psychological variables, such as memory, coping, personality, and self-esteem. It can be characterized as a state of pleasure or discontentment experienced with some degree of activation. This article aims to analyze from theoretical and instrumental perspectives in the measuring of affect. The affect construct went through some constructing over the decades. For Russell, it can be viewed through his circumplex of bipolar and orthogonal dimensions, called valence (pleasure or displeasure) and perceived activation (high or low). By means of systematic revision, 17 measurement instruments about affect were found, which were based, generally, on the choice of adjectives that corresponded to whatever the individual indicated to be feeling at the moment or in unique scales dedicated to a dimension of the construct. It was observed that the effective field is permeated by several measuring instruments and theoretical concepts, which made the measurement of affective spectrum a challenge in terms of methodology. The lack of a definition both operational and constitutive about the affect concept and its distinctions from mood, emotion and other associated variables compromises the theoretical and instrumental development. A contributing factor for the restriction in this development is the utilization of instruments on account of tradition of use, without identifying the reason for continued use. In utilizing a measuring instrument, researchers must recognize that they are agreeing with its theory and thus understand how their knowledge production can contribute to new studies. Finally, the relationship between affect and other external variables is discussed.