Emotion structure, emotion meaning and emotion episodes of white Afrikaans–speaking working adults
Year: 2011
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: three-dimensional, the evaluation-pleasantness dimension, the activation-arousal dimension, the power-control dimension, positive emotions, negative emotions, workplace, reliability, cultural relativism, natural contexts Emotion research is an important research topic, thus making the measurement of emotion in the workplace crucial.In attempting to study, understand and measure the role of emotions in the human condition, various researchers have identified different theoretical models to manage the information they have gathered and the observations they have made.In order to study or scientifically investigate any human behaviour, it is essential that such behaviour can be measured, if not quantitatively, then at least qualitatively.However, what one finds with regard to emotion research and measurement are two-dimensional models.The existing affect has been described with a choice of two dimensions and structures, i.e. circumplex, positive and negative affect, tense and energetic arousal, and eight combinations of pleasantness and activation.These two dimensions and structures measure a person's experiences and, thereafter, report them.The question is if these two-dimensional emotion models are sufficient to cover the broad and often complex dynamics of emotions.The start of multiple-emotion dimension models were reported by researchers, who identified a three-dimensional structure in the emotion domain that is suggestive of the Evaluation-Potency-Activation (EPA) dimensions in the connotative or affective meaning of words.However, in recent studies the sufficiency of two-dimension models to comprehensively investigate emotions was questioned.The three-dimensional emotion model was replicated in cross-cultural similarity x sorting studies by other researchers.The similarity sorting studies also indicate the importance of studying emotions in specific cultural contexts.Studying emotion in different cultures is especially relevant in a country such as South Africa that has a variety of cultures and eleven official languages.Researchers followed an approach that studied the meaning of emotion in different cultural groups in the context of 144 emotion features using a componential emotion theory approach.Researchers argue in the groundbreaking research that was published in Psychological Science that emotion meaning has more than only two dimensions.The approach postulated by researchers was tested in a student population of three language groups, namely Dutch-, Englishand French-speaking students.According to researchers this is an empirical and theoretical method to study the meaning of emotions across cultures.However, apart from studying the meaning of emotions in specific cultural groups, research also attempts to determine the meaning of emotion in the natural contexts in which they occur.The relevant natural contexts for the field of Industrial Psychology are the work contexts.It is therefore also important to investigate the categories of emotion episodes in the work environment.The general goal of this study was therefore a) to investigate the emotion lexicon in the white Afrikaans-speaking working adult language group, b) to determine the cognitive emotion structure of this cultural group, c) to investigate the meaning of emotion as comprehensively as possible (multidimensional models of the meaning of emotion), and d) to determine the meaning and content of emotion episodes in the workplace. Research Article 1The research was subsequently presented in two independent phases.Firstly, a free listing of emotion terms was compiled, and secondly the emotion terms were prototypically rated by Afrikaans-speaking people in South Africa.Both of these were then used as measuring instruments.A survey was designed to explore the research objectives utilising availability samples in two studies.The participants in the free-listing (N=70) and in the prototypicality (N=70) study consisted of native Afrikaans-speaking employees.The sample consisted of participants from the white ethnic group speaking Afrikaans within the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, xi Free State, Mpumalanga, North-West and KZN provinces and use was made of an availability sample.After conducting the research, the emotion terms with the highest frequency, as identified during the first study, the free listing task, were to be happy (gelukkig wees), be sad (hartseer wees), love (liefde), anger (kwaad) and hateful (haatlik).The emotion terms with the lowest scores as identified during the free listing were uncomfortable (ongemaklik), painful (seer), be hurt (seergemaak wees), sympathetic (simpatiek) and shout/yell (skreeu).Correspondingly, the five (5) prototypical terms with the highest scores in Afrikaans were nice (lekker), fed-up/had enough (gatvol/"genoeg gehad"), loveable (liefdevol), anger (kwaad) and to be scared (om bang te wees).The five (5) least prototypical terms from the list generated in the free listing task were: unstable (onvas), bashfulness (skugterheid), captivation (geboeidheid), envy (naywer) and delight (opgetoënheid).From the information obtained in this research it was revealed that the emotion terms nice (lekker), fed up/had enough (gatvol/"genoeg gehad") and loveable (liefdevol) are at this stage unique to the white Afrikaans language group.These terms had not been reported in any previously conducted prototypical studies.The results of this study contribute to a cross-cultural understanding of the emotion concepts within the Afrikaans-speaking language groups in South Africa.
Authors: Van der Merwe, Aletta Sophia
Language: English
Topic: Emotion and Mood Recognition
Subfield: Artificial Intelligence
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W764545428