Tridimensional theory of feeling. New Psychology: Definition, History & Wilhelm Wundt 2022-12-22
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The tridimensional theory of feeling is a psychological model that suggests that human emotions can be understood as a combination of three distinct dimensions: valence, arousal, and dominance. According to this theory, the experience of an emotion is determined by the combination of these three dimensions and the specific values assigned to them.
The first dimension, valence, refers to the positive or negative quality of an emotion. This can be thought of as the "liking" or "disliking" aspect of an emotion. For example, happiness is generally considered a positive emotion, while sadness is generally considered a negative emotion.
The second dimension, arousal, refers to the level of physiological activation or excitement that an emotion elicits. This can be thought of as the "energy" or "intensity" of an emotion. For example, anger is generally considered a high arousal emotion, while sadness is generally considered a low arousal emotion.
The third dimension, dominance, refers to the degree of control or influence an emotion has over an individual's thoughts, behaviors, and actions. This can be thought of as the "strength" or "influence" of an emotion. For example, fear is generally considered a high dominance emotion, as it can greatly impact an individual's behavior and decision making, while happiness is generally considered a low dominance emotion, as it tends to have less of an impact on an individual's behavior and decision making.
According to the tridimensional theory of feeling, the experience of an emotion can be understood as a combination of the values assigned to each of these dimensions. For example, the emotion of joy might be characterized as a high valence, high arousal, and low dominance emotion, while the emotion of boredom might be characterized as a low valence, low arousal, and low dominance emotion.
One of the key strengths of the tridimensional theory of feeling is that it allows for a more nuanced understanding of emotions, as it takes into account the complexity of emotions and their varying qualities and intensities. This model has also been useful in explaining why different people may experience the same emotion differently and why people may experience multiple emotions at the same time.
Overall, the tridimensional theory of feeling offers a useful framework for understanding the complex and varied nature of human emotions. It highlights the importance of considering the different dimensions of an emotion and their values in order to fully understand and accurately describe the emotional experience.
The Tridimensional Theory of Feeling from the Standpoint of Typical Experiences
TlTCHBNER A lecturer who had expounded Wundt's elementary doctrine of feeling in the year of grace 1893 would have called attention to two principal points : the status of feeling in consciousness, and the number and nature of the affective qualities. One of these scholars, Wilhelm Wundt, had a huge impact on both new psychology specifically and psychology as a whole. Suppose, on the contrary, that the curves of excitement and of relaxation' agree with the curve of pleasantness, and the curves of depression and of tension with the curve of unpleasantness : then, since the pleasant- unpleasant dimension is not in dispute, we have a strong indi- cation that that alone is fundamental, and that the other two dimensions are affective only because and in so far as pleasant- ness and unpleasantness are involved in them. The parties to the present controversy do not really 'feel' differently; but they approach the problem with a certain attitude towards affective process, with a certain general view of the status of feelings in consciousness. Of these 45 are given to Tast- und Gemeinempfindungen; the Getnein- empfindungen alone, which I now have principally in mind, receive four, two and a half of which are devoted to pain.
The basic mental activity was designated by Wundt as 'apperception'. Whether it is mate- rially sound is another question, — a question which Stumpf, e. I have, for myself, repeated the test often and again, and have varied it in half a dozen ways: always, while the chord remains a single impression, a sensible fusion out of musical setting and so far as possible freed from musical significance, I get the same meagre affective results. As the author himself points out, the number of experiments was limited, and they were made in two only, not in all three, of the Wundtian dimensions. Even if that method came into our discussion, I could pass it over with the reminder that, not so long ago, I gave a critical review of it from this platform. Its poles are pleasantness and unpleasantness.
New Psychology: Definition, History & Wilhelm Wundt
We encourage people to read and share the Early Journal Content openly and to tell others that this resource exists. And the same un- certainty characterises certain of his observations in detail. If, then, the resultant curves all take the form which is taken by the curves of pleasantness and unpleasantness,-if there is no specific type of curve for excitement-depression and strain-relaxation,-then we have at least an indication that pleasantness and unpleasantness are the only fundamental affective categories. So far from suddenly reversing his attitude to affective processes, he has, in reality, returned to his first systematic position. The other two, e and g, will do the same, — though the affective qualities will be some- what different.
a sense organ Wundt believed that feelings have three dimensions his
It would, I think, be a very strange thing if three sets of stimuli should affect a number of observers by way of excitement-depression or tension-relaxation precisely as they do by way of pleasantness-unpleasantness, — but nobody can prove that such a state of affairs is, on the plural theory, impossible. To prevent a swamping of the partial feelings by the total feeling, — the highest degree of affective fusion, — we take the tones separately in succession, and observe how they 'feel' in isolation. In order to answer this question, it is necessary to estimate the idea which underlay Titchener's study. Wundt had said in 1874: "Gelb. There is no evidence of a dimension of excitement-depression, and none of a number of exciting and depressing qualities. We have now to consider the theory on the basis that re- mains for it: introspection of the simple sense-feelings and qualitative analysis of the emotions.
Full text of "The Tridimensional Theory of Feeling"
American Journal of Psychology, XVII, I906, 208 ff. Wundt also brings evidence of an objective sort, the evidence 6 derived from the method of expression. Storring's observers, on the other hand, report a qualitative difference between Stimmungslust and Empfindungs- lust; but though this is, so to say, a gross difference, the ex- pressions used are singularly disappointing. They are not grave and dignified and happy and cheerful because they have been aesthetically employed, but their gravity and cheerfulness are what enables us to employ them with aesthetic result. Remembering its genesis, its deep rooted and slow growth in Wundt's mind, we need not be greatly surprised. Of course, these results are not 'conclusive.
Historical Roots Imagine that you could jump into a time machine and go back to the 18th century. The qualities themselves appear to the observers to be simple and homogeneous, identical through- out the experiments. What, then, has become of the spatial relations of conscious contents? Binet had developed a scale where specific tasks were directly correlated to different levels of abilities or a mental age. Diese Beziehung nennen wir das sinnliche Geftihl. It is bad, in that it offers a solution, ready made, of problems which in actual fact are ripe only for preliminary and tentative discussion. He lays but slight stress on pulse-correlation in the Grundriss: "es ist unzulassig die Ausdrucks- der Eindrucksmethode in Bezug auf ihren psy- chologischen Werth gleichzuordnen.
For the rest, it is significant that, in his later writings, Wundt has dropped this principle of temporal rela- tion as a means of affective classification. The way in which a perception is taken up into consciousness at large determines feeling. Let me take you, now, to the first edition of the Physiologische Psychologies the edition of 1874. Wundt speaks also of the Befriedigung, the fulfillment, of expectation; but that term brings us perilously near to Beruhigung. If now, in conclusion, I may give, with all due modesty, my own reading of the situation, it is this: that Wundt's tridimen- sional theory of feelings shows, as it were in typical form, the peculiar features that distinguish his psychology at large.
I think, however, that it is formally sound. You may have been sur- prised that when I have had occasion to mention Wundt's category of 'excitement,' I have paired it with 'inhibition' or 'tranquillisation,' rather than with the more usual term 'de- pression. Known as the Early Journal Content, this set of works include research articles, news, letters, and other writings published in more than 200 of the oldest leading academic journals. Perceiving color and painting both involve mental processes, but perception of color is lower in the hierarchy of mental processes than painting is. Wundt has, in an eminent degree, the power of generalisation, and his generalisations cover — as generalisations oftentimes do not — an encyclopaedic range of detailed knowledge.
And while sensa- tions fall into a number of separate systems, there is but one affective system : tone and color, warmth and pressure are disparate, but "alle einfachen Gefiihle bilden eine einzige zusamtnenhangende Mannigfaltigkeit, insofern es kein Geftihl gibt, von dem aus man nicht durch Zwischenstufen und Indif- ferenzzonen zu irgend einem andern Gefiihle gelangen konnte. . At this point, the task of determining a person's mental age was reminiscent of one of the psychophysical methods developed by Wundt to determine the level of a person's sensitivity to faint stimuli or to small physical differences in stimuli. Let me remind you, first, of Wundt's doctrine of the Totalge- fuhl. We have the total feeling of c-e-g; we have three relative total feelings, or 'par- tials of the second order, ' as Wundt calls them, — the feelings of ce, eg, eg; and we have the 'partial feelings of the first order,' the six elementary feelings aroused by c, e and g.
