Confusing Ideational Construals With Interpersonal Enactments

Martin & Rose (2007: 64):

(1) Are the feelings popularly construed by the culture as positive (good vibes that are enjoyable to experience) or negative ones (bad vibes that are better avoided)? We are not concerned here with the value that a particular psychological framework might place on one or another emotion (cf. It’s probably productive that you’re feeling sad because it’s a sign that...’).

positive affect           the boy was happy

negative affect          the boy was sad

Blogger Comments:

[1] This confuses the appraisal of emotions by a culture with appraisal by reference to emotions (affect).

[2] Neither proposition enacts an appraisal by emotion (affect).  Neither the boy nor the author is making an appraisal.  The author is merely attributing qualities of emotion to the boy.  Genuine examples of positive and negative affect would be:

positive affect           the boy was happy that his teacher had been arrested

negative affect          the boy was sad that the death penalty had been abolished

In each instance the boy appraises a fact by reference to an emotion.