On the Psychometric Principles of Affect

D. Watson and L. A. Clark (1997) announced “two fundamental psychometric principles” (p. 282) of affect: The positive correlation between affects with the same valence tends to be substantial, whereas the negative correlation between affects with opposite valence tends to be weak. These allegedly robust empirical generalizations underlie various conceptual models of affect (such as those that posit an independence between positive and negative affect) and various scales of affect. The authors offer an alternative analysis: The correlation between two affects is a function of the angle between them within a circular ordering. Two data sets were reanalyzed and showed predicted exceptions to Watson and Clark's principles: same-valenced pairs with weak correlations and oppositely valenced pairs with substantial correlations.