The circumplex structure of affect: a Swedish version

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Affective Science

Background:

• The circumplex model is a key framework for organizing conscious emotional experiences.
• Lexical issues in emotion labeling prompted the development of standardized adjective sets.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the applicability of the circumplex model to Swedish affective states.
• To develop a Swedish self-report measure of affect based on dimensional emotion theory.

Main Methods:

• Translation of 48 English affect adjectives into Swedish.
• Analysis of adjective structure using a dimensional model.
• Reanalysis of a subset of adjectives to improve model fit.

Main Results:

• The initial 48 translated adjectives did not perfectly fit the circumplex structure.
• Reanalyzing approximately two-thirds of the adjectives yielded better consistency with the model.
• A composite Swedish measure, with up to four adjectives per state, was developed.

Conclusions:

• A refined set of Swedish adjectives can represent affective states within the circumplex framework.
• The study provides a validated tool for measuring self-reported affect in Swedish.
• This contributes to cross-cultural research on emotion structure.