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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 10, 2026

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood

Published on: February 11, 2017

Approach temperament, anger, and evaluation: resolving a paradox.

Erik Pettersson¹, Eric Turkheimer

¹Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. erik.pettersson@ki.se

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

|June 19, 2013

Summary

This study reveals that the self-reported mood structure is often distorted by evaluation, masking anger's true association with approach temperament. Isolating evaluation clarifies anger's link to approach traits, aligning self-reports with experimental findings.

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Published on: April 18, 2017

Area of Science:

Psychology
Affective Science
Personality Psychology

Background:

Naturalistic mood reports often link anger with avoidance traits (fear, anxiety).
Experimental studies, however, associate anger with approach traits (determined, active).
This discrepancy suggests a potential confound in self-reported mood data.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the discrepancy between naturalistic self-reported mood and experimentally manipulated affect regarding anger's placement in mood structures.
To test the hypothesis that evaluation (endorsing items of similar valence irrespective of semantic content) confounds self-reported mood structure.

Main Methods:

Factor analysis was used to examine the structure of naturalistically observed self-reported mood.
The study isolated the evaluative dimension across four inventories and multiple samples.
This involved analyzing how participants endorsed items based on valence rather than semantic meaning.

Main Results:

The evaluative dimension of self-reported mood combines semantically contradictory items with similar valence, not reflecting actual behavior.
After isolating evaluation, anger was found to cluster with approach temperament markers.
This revised structure aligns more closely with findings from experimental investigations of affect.

Conclusions:

Evaluation acts as a significant confound in the self-reported structure of mood, particularly for anger.
Isolating the evaluative dimension provides a more accurate representation of mood structure, consistent with experimental findings.
This approach enhances the validity of self-report measures in understanding affective science and temperament.