Linear and non-linear relationships among the dimensions representing the cognitive structure of emotion

While dimensional models play a key role in emotion psychology, no consensus has been reached about their number and nature. The current study sheds a new light on this central issue by examining linear and non-linear relationships among the dimensions in the cognitive emotion structure. The meaning of 80 emotion terms was evaluated on 68 features representing appraisals, action tendencies, bodily reactions, expressions, and subjective experiences by 213 English-speaking US, 156 French-speaking Swiss, and 194 Indonesian-speaking Indonesian students. In a two-dimensional valence and arousal representation, neither linear nor non-linear relationships were observed. In a four-dimensional valence, power, arousal, and novelty representation, both linear (e.g. a positive relationship between valence and power) and non-linear (e.g. a strong positive correlation between valence and power found only for positively valenced emotion terms) relationships were observed. Joy- and sadness-related emotion terms where about as well represented by the two- than by the four-dimensional representation. However, especially anger- and surprise-related terms were only adequately represented by the four-dimensional representation. These findings were generalisable across the three languages. Even though a two-dimensional structure fits the data well in general, four dimensions are needed to sufficiently represent the cognitive structure of the whole gamut of human emotions.