Summed affect
| Variable | Measurement | Era | Code | N | Source |
| Positive affect | Selfreport on 8 questions: Did you experience the following feelings during A LOT OF THE DAY yesterday? How about… – enjoyment? – love? Now please think about YESTERDAY, from the morning until the end of the day. Think of where you were, what you were doing and how you felt. – Did you feel well rested yesterday? – Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday? – Did you learn or do something interesting yesterday? – Would you like to have more days just like yesterday? – Were you proud of something you did yesterday? – Were you treated with respect all day yesterday? Rated: 1 yes, 0 no, – no answer, don’t know | 2006-2008 | YesterdayPositiveAffect_2006.08 | 130 | Gallup World Poll |
| Negative affect | Selfreport on 6 questions: Did you experience the following feelings during A LOT OF THE DAY yesterday? How about.. – physical pain – worry – sadness – stress – anger – depression – love Rated: 1 yes, 0 no, – no answer, don’t know | 2006-2008 | YesterdayNegativeAffect_2006.08 | 130 | Gallup World Poll |
| Pleasure Quotient Test | Reported frequency and intensity of 10 pleasure area’s on a 1-5 scale 5 sensory pleasures (gustatory, olfactory, visual, auditory, touch) 2 physiological pleasures (arousal, relaxation) 1 cognitively based pleasure (accomplishment) 2 social pleasures (in group, alone)Reports made on an international website, visited by 229.675 individuals. Averages of nations with 300 responses or more | 2008-2009 | PleasureQuotient_2009 | 30 | Biswas-Diener 2015 |
Specific affect
| Variable | Measurement | Era | variable code | N | Source |
| Anger | Self report on single question: Did you experience feelings of anger A LOT OF THE DAY yesterday? % yes | 2006-2009 | Anger_2006.09 | 142 | GallupWorldPoll |
| Anxiety state | Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) applied in non-clinical samples | 1970-2005 | AnxietyState_1970-2005 | 28 | Fischer & Boer 2011 |
| Anxiety trait | AnxietyTrait_1970-2005 | 24 | |||
| Worry | Self report on single question: Did you experience feelings of worry A LOT OF THE DAY yesterday? % yes | 2006-2009 | Worry_2006.09 | 139 | GallupWorldPoll |
| Sadness | Self report on single question: Did you experience feelings of sadness A LOT OF THE DAY yesterday? % yes | 2006-2009 | Sadness_2006.09 | 139 | GallupWorldPoll |
Notes:
1) These questions do not measure affect of individual persons adequately, since yesterday’s mood does not always correspond with average mood in the last few weeks. Yet this question can be used for measuring hedonic level in agregates, such as nations, since individual variations balance out in big samples.
2) Positive and negative affect separately are no valid measure of happiness. Yet when taken together in an Affect Balance Score (NA is substracted from PA) they provide an acceptable measure of hedonic level of affect and are as such mentioned in topic ‘happiness level’.
Related topics: Happiness level (Affect Balance), Mental health (Depression, Stress), Personality (Emotionality)
Related themes: Subjective well-being
The dataset States of Nations is about characteristics of countries in periods (macro variables). It is part of the World Database of Happiness. Developed for the identification of societal conditions for happiness, this dataset can also be used for other purposes.