Principles of Judging Valence: What Makes Events Positive or Negative?

The positivity or negativity of events is a major parameter for theorizing in diverse areas of psychology––namely, altruism, conflict, attitudes, impression formation, or conditioning. This chapter explores the impact of positivity or negativity of an event on experience and behavior, such as emotional experience or decision behavior. The positivity or negativity acquired in direct connection with some events might also vary little among or within individuals when the valences of these events are extremely positive or extremely negative. Much less attention has been devoted to factors that initially cause an event to be positive or negative, and investigators often regard it as self-evident that the valence (i.e., the positivity or negativity) of an event is fixed, as if it were an inherent property of the event. Several variables have implications for the experienced intensity of emotions––the valence quantity of an event, the importance of high-identity goals, the likelihood of an event, and the representation of an event as the presence versus the absence of a feature.