12.4: Core Affect, Emotion, and Mood

Although the terms affect, emotion, and mood are often used interchangeably by both researchers and the public, each represents distinct, but interrelated, psychological constructs (Ekkekakis, 2012, 2013). Practitioners should understand and appreciate the distinctions between these constructs to avoid mistakenly confusing them and choosing an inappropriate measurement approach. On a related note, achieving clarity and understanding the distinction between these constructs may “also be valuable from a therapeutic perspective” (Beedie et al., 2005, p. 848). In other words, if an exercise practitioner encounters a client with a mood disorder (e.g., depression), the practitioner will be able to recognize that measuring affective responses to acute exercise is unlikely to provide useful information about changes in the mood of this client. On the other hand, if a practitioner uses techniques to measure specific emotions (e.g., anger, pride), then some changes in core affect may not be detected due to the inability of the measurement techniques to capture them (i.e., the absence of a change in anger or another specific emotion does not imply the absence of a change in core affect).

12.4.1. Core Affect

Core affect is a combination of pleasure-displeasure (i.e., affective valence) and how activated, or "worked-up" one feels (Russell, 1980; Russell & Barrett, 1999). Put another way, “core affect is a neurophysiological state that underlies simply feeling good or bad” (Russell, 2009, p. 1259). Core affect is omnipresent, always accessible to consciousness, but nonreflective; this means that one does not need to "think about it" to experience it (Russell, 2009). At any given time, a person experiences some combination of pleasure-displeasure and activation (i.e., feeling worked-up/activated or not). These core affective feelings are universal to all humans and present from birth (Barrett et al., 2007). Core affect forms the basic foundation for what we experience as moods and emotions, and, it is unlikely that humans would experience these higher-order mental processes without it.

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12.4.2. Emotion

In contrast to core affect, emotion requires cognitive appraisal, or, a subjective interpretation of an environmental stimulus (Lazarus, 1982). Emotions have been referred to as “cognitively elaborated affective states” (Clore & Ortony, 2008, p. 629). In contrast to core affect, emotions are always about"something" the individual is experiencing, either directly or indirectly. Emotions are often complex and involve core affective responses (e.g., whether the individual feels pleasure or worked-up), the cognitive appraisal of a situation or stimulus (e.g., “is this feeling or experience good or bad for me?”), bodily changes (e.g., increased heart rate, the feeling of "butterflies in the stomach"), vocal and facial expressions, and action tendencies (i.e., a connection between emotion and behavior, such as experiencing anger and engaging in problem-solving behavior; Davidson, 2003; Ekkekakis, 2012, 2013; Ellsworth, 2009; Lauckner, 2015). Moreover, while core affect is constantly accessible to consciousness, emotions are less frequent and more transient, lasting from seconds to minutes (Ekkekakis, 2013). For example, an unexpected shove from a stranger may cause an angry emotional reaction if the individual being shoved cognitively appraises the situation as a potential risk to their social status or well-being. On the other hand, physical contact between friends may be met with a happy or amused emotional reaction if the friends cognitively appraise the contact as friendly and/or nonthreatening. Examples of emotions include anger, guilt, love, and pride (Ekkekakis, 2013).

12.4.3. Mood

Moods share much of the same complexity as emotions but are longer lasting and their antecedents can be more ambiguous. In contrast to emotion, individuals often cannot identify precisely what led them to their current mood state (Ekman, 1994). Sometimes, a transient emotional experience, such as an angry argument with a spouse or partner, can lead to a general irritable mood state that could last from hours to days. Other times, the antecedents for moods maybe cumulative or diffuse (Morris, 1992, 1999). For instance, people may report feeling depressed because they see little hope for the future after receiving a seemingly unending accumulation of unhappy or disheartening news (i.e., cumulative). On the other hand, others may perceive that the reasons underlying their depressed mood are the collective effects of everything that has happened and is currently happening in their life (i.e., diffuse). Examples of moods include irritation, joyfulness, cheerfulness, and grumpiness (Ekkekakis, 2013).