Flourishing Life Society
  • Flourishing Life Society
    • Flourishing Favorites
    • Articles by Year Published
    • Privacy Policy
    • About Us
  • Psychology Definitions
  • Psychology of Wellness
    • Psychology of Emotions >
      • Emotional Data Base
    • Psychology Article Archive
  • Personal Development
    • Health and Fitness
    • Personal Development >
      • Personal Development Archive N-Z
  • Flourishing Relationships
Home | Psychology of Wellness | Psychology Definitions | Emotional Valence

Emotional Valence

Emotional Valence:

Emotional Valence is the value associated with a stimulus, typically measured on a continuum from pleasant (positive) to unpleasant (negative) or from attractive to aversive.

Valence is also used to describe the attractiveness of specific emotions. For example, emotions often referred to as "negative", such as anger and fear, have "negative valence". Joy, on the other hand, has "positive valence."

Emotions with positive valence are roused by positive valence events, objects, or situations.

Valence is also used to describe the hedonic tone of certain behaviors; such as, approach and avoidance, goal attainment or nonattainment, and conformity with or violation of norms.

Daniel Goleman, in his best selling book Emotional Intelligence, wrote, "in memory, the amygdala and hippocampus work hand-in-hand; each stores and retrieves its special information independently. While the hippocampus retrieves information, the amygdala determines if that information has any emotional valence" (2007, location 678).

Emotions are understood here as people’s valence (positive or negative) reactions to events. Lisa Feldman Barrett PhD explains that "your affect is always some combination of valence and arousal" (2018). 
​Affect is the general sense of feeling that you experience throughout each day. It is not emotion but a much simpler feeling with two features. The first is how pleasant or unpleasant you feel, which scientists call valence. The pleasantness of the sun on your skin, the deliciousness of your favorite food, and the discomfort of a stomachache or a pinch are all examples of affective valence. The second feature of affect is how calm or agitated you feel, which is called arousal (Barrett, page 72). 
While much of the valence is predetermined by biology, the interpretations we give the events and corresponding feelings can enhance or abate arousal, or, even, transform the affect all together.
Please support Flourishing Life Society with a social media share or by visiting a link:
Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email
T. Franklin Murphy
T. Franklin Murphy
Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
​T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He tirelessly researches scientific findings that contribute to wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.

References:

Barrett, L. F. (2018). How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Mariner Books; Illustrated edition. 

​Goleman, D. (2005). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ.  ‎ Random House Publishing Group; 10th Anniversary edition.

Emotion article database

​Other Flourishing Life Society articles of interest on the topic of emotion:

Feeling: The Experience of Living. A Flourishing Life Society article link
Flourishing Life Society Link: Emotional Intelligence
Anticipatory Joy. A Flourishing Life Society article link
Mindfulness: Space for Unpleasant Emotions. A Flourishing Life Society article link
Achieving the most from the wisdom of emotions requires purposeful effort to integrate emotions into our larger concepts of self.
FLS link-- Emotional Regulation: Emotions energize and push for action. Healthy regulation capitalizes on the richness of emotion and directs the energy towards life objectives.
We are pulled into harmful routines by emotion. We feel and then we react. Unfortunately, our reaction isn't always helpful. We need space to think and then act more appropriately.
Giving meaning to feelings with subjective interpretations
Picture
Flourishing Life Society
  • Human Flourishing
  • Psychology of Wellness
  • Flourishing Relationships
  • Psychology Definitions​
  • Privacy Policy
​Other Links
  • About US
  • Companion Site​
  • Most Popular Articles
  • Psychology Topics A-z
Articles:
  • New Articles​
  • Last year's Publications​
  • External Psychology Links​
​Favorite Topics:
  • Mental Illness Archive
  • Personality Archive
  • Personal Development
  • Psychology of Emotions
News Letter

    New Article Updates

Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Flourishing Life Society
    • Flourishing Favorites
    • Articles by Year Published
    • Privacy Policy
    • About Us
  • Psychology Definitions
  • Psychology of Wellness
    • Psychology of Emotions >
      • Emotional Data Base
    • Psychology Article Archive
  • Personal Development
    • Health and Fitness
    • Personal Development >
      • Personal Development Archive N-Z
  • Flourishing Relationships