A semantic analysis of the various ways that the terms "affect," "emotion," and "mood" are used

A survey of authoritative psychiatric texts reveals that the terms "affect," "emotion," and "mood" are employed inconsistently. The authors consider some of the meanings these terms have and suggest that feeling states be defined in terms of their duration, whether they are subjective and/or objective, the role of cognition, and the phenomenological level. The study of the patient's facial expression and vocal acoustics offers empirical support for these distinctions. For example, flat affect can be differentiated from depression, and inappropriate affect appears not related to affects, but rather emotions. It then becomes possible to examine clinically important interactions among these processes.