Description

Although many psychometric models have been developed on emotions, affect measurements, which represent the measurement of behavioural, subjective and neuropsychophysiological changes associated with an emotional episode, still remains one of the most debated topics. Emotions are entities with blurred boundaries and with substantial idiosyncrasies that characterize their measurable manifestations. One of the most consolidated theoretical reference models for measuring affect is that of James Russel called the "Affective Core Model". According to this model, emotion arises when the undifferentiated and pre-reflective magma of affect (core affect) is attracted by an external (or internal) object that can be defined as emotigenic, i.e. capable of defining the nature of emotional experience by orienting it along two dimensions principal factors. The most used theoretical model for affect measurement is the one that describes an emotional episode in the light of two distinguishable continuous dimensions: that of hedonic value (identifies the degree of pleasantness of the emotional event), of a subjective nature, and that of arousal or psychophysiological activation. Although this model has been widely corroborated in various disciplines, there is still a lack of a clear description of the process that allows an individual to transition from one emotionally object-oriented state to another.

This project proposes and intends to validate a new modality of three-dimensional psychometric modeling of emotions, based on the intersection between the consolidated two-dimensional model of arousal-valence and a third purely cognitive component definable as mental flexibility, capable of including high-level cognitive processes, intrinsically connected with the emotional sphere, such as emotional intelligence (Emotional Intelligence, EI) and emotional regulation.