The bipolarity of momentary affect: Reply to Schimmack

Abstract

In his commentary on my paper (Yik, 2007), Schimmack (2009 this issue) reanalysed the published correlations and concluded that dialectical thinking moderates bipolarity in rating momentary affect. In this response, I attempt to integrate our interpretations of the data. Overall, bipolarity prevails in all five language groups. At one point of time, when one is happy, one is not sad. The explanations for the small differences provide avenues for future research.

Keywords:

• Bipolarity
• Momentary affect
• Circumplex

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the RGC General Research Fund (Project No. 644508) and the RGC Direct Allocation Grant (DAG05/06.HSS10).

I thank Jim Russell for his advice on certain matters discussed here and Virginia Unkefer for her help in preparing this article.