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The predictive power of low-arousal positive affect

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Abstract

Relative to high-arousal positive affect (HAPA), low-arousal positive affect (LAPA) is less likely to be included in research on positive affect and emotion. To gauge the possible cost of omitting LAPA from such research, two studies were conducted assessing the unique contribution of LAPA (e.g., calm, relaxed, content) in predicting variance in measures of well-being and mental health above and beyond HAPA (e.g., alert, excited, enthusiastic). In two studies, multiple regression analyses revealed that LAPA uniquely predicted life satisfaction, depression, feeling good, mindfulness, anxiety, and stress beyond HAPA. Furthermore, the results indicated that when both LAPA and HAPA were in the regression model, LAPA significantly predicted variance in mindfulness, anxiety, and stress whereas HAPA did not. These data indicate that the inclusion of LAPA in research can improve the field’s ability to investigate the causes and effects of positive affectivity. Theoretical perspectives on different types of positive affect and practical implications for researchers are discussed.

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Notes

  1. One word (i.e., enjoyment) was originally included among positive affect items because of its importance to early emotion theory (Tomkins 1962). It was removed from all analysis due to its cross-loading in factor analysis on both HAPA and LAPA, with loadings of 0.76 and 0.81, respectively.

  2. The numbering of the hypotheses has been synchronized across studies. Since H1 from Study 1 was not included as an outcome variable in Study 2, the numbering of the hypotheses in this study starts with H2.

  3. To make sure that the safeness items were not disproportionately responsible for LAPA’s unique predictive power, especially because safe did not load as highly on the LAPA factor as other LAPA items in Study 1, we ran the multiple regression analyses with and without safe and secure included in the measurement of LAPA. The pattern of results and significance levels were the same regardless of whether the safeness items were included.

  4. There is some debate whether the data support contentment and calm as the same type of positive affect. While Richardson et al. (2016) conceptualized calm as an aspect of the soothing subsystem, there is some evidence that they may not belong together. Gilbert et al.’s (2008) factor analysis indicated that there were three factors of positive affect in his dataset: activated, relaxed, and safe/content. Moreover, Gilbert emphasized that contentment may be better characterized by a specific pattern of sympathetic and parasympathetic functioning than by low-arousal. However, our data did not support three factors. Because we did not use the same items as Gilbert, we cannot directly compare the factor structure in our studies to that of Gilbert et al. (2008). In our study an inspection of parallel analysis, scree plot, eigenvalues, and factor loadings all supported a two-factor solution. Even when we forced a three-factor solution, safe and secure loaded together with an eigenvalue less than 1, but content cross-loaded on all three factors.

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Correspondence to Maria D. McManus.

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McManus, M.D., Siegel, J.T. & Nakamura, J. The predictive power of low-arousal positive affect. Motiv Emot 43, 130–144 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9719-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-018-9719-x

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