| Chapter 2: | Background and Hypothesis |
Dimensional View of Emotion
In media research, emotion has been used as an independent or a dependent variable. Studies using emotion as an independent variable focus on the emotional tone of media messages (A. Lang et al., 1995; A. Lang, Schwartz, Chung, & Lee, 2004; Thorson & Friestad, 1989). They usually manipulate the affective characteristics of media messages and then examine how the difference in the emotional tone affects cognitive and emotional responses in media users. On the other hand, studies using emotion as a dependent variable look at the subjective experience that media users undergo during or after processing media messages (Bolls, Lang, & Potter, 2001; A. Lang et al., 1999, 2005).
Research using LC3MP has traditionally used the dimensional theory of emotion in defining the emotional tone of a message and assessing users’ emotional experience (Bolls et al., 2001; Grabe, Lang, Zhou, & Bolls, 2000; A. Lang, 2000; A. Lang et al., 1995, 1996, 2004). The dimensional theory views emotion as having a couple of fundamental dimensions (Bradley, 2000). It argues that emotional experiences are not independent of one another but are related in a highly systematic fashion. It has identified two or three dimensions in which different types of feelings may be located. The two most commonly cited are arousal and valence (Bradley, 1994, 2000; P. J. Lang et al., 1993). The arousal dimension is defined as a continuous affective response ranging from “energized, excited, and alert” to “calm, drowsy, and peaceful.” The valence dimension is conceptualized as a continuous affective response ranging from pleasant (or positive) to unpleasant (or negative). By dissociating the two dimensions, it becomes possible to examine how each dimension of emotion is related to other indices of emotion such as physiological responses, memory performances, or behavioral outputs (Bradley, 1994; P. J. Lang et al., 1993).