PAD emotional state model

Representation of PAD model done with cubes
Focus on higher arousal section of the model
Focus on lower valence section of the model

The PAD emotional state model is a psychological model developed by Albert Mehrabian and James A. Russell (1974 and after) to describe and measure emotional states. PAD uses three numerical dimensions, Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance to represent all emotions.[1][2] Its initial use was in a theory of environmental psychology, the core idea being that physical environments influence people through their emotional impact.[3] It was subsequently used by Peter Lang and colleagues to propose a physiological theory of emotion.[4] It was also used by James A. Russell to develop a theory of emotional episodes (relatively brief emotionally charged events).[5][6] The PA part of PAD was developed into a circumplex model of emotion experience, and those two dimensions were termed "core affect". The D part of PAD was re-conceptualized as part of the appraisal process in an emotional episode (a cold cognitive assessment of the situation eliciting the emotion). A more fully developed version of this approach is termed the psychological construction theory of emotion.

The PAD (Pleasure, Arousal, Dominance) model has been used to study nonverbal communication such as body language in psychology.[7] It has also been applied to consumer marketing and the construction of animated characters that express emotions in virtual worlds.[8][9]

  1. ^ Mehrabian, Albert (1980). Basic dimensions for a general psychological theory. pp. 39–53. ISBN 978-0-89946-004-8.
  2. ^ Bales, Robert Freed (2001). Social interaction systems: theory and measurement. pp. 139–140. ISBN 978-0-7658-0872-1.
  3. ^ A. Mehrabian; J. A. Russell (1974). An approach to environmental psychology (1 ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
  4. ^ Lang, P. J. (1990). "Emotion, attention, and the startle reflex". Psychological Review. 97 (3): 377–395. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.97.3.377. PMID 2200076.
  5. ^ Russell, J. A. (1980). "A circumplex model of affect". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 39 (6): 1161–1178. doi:10.1037/h0077714. hdl:10983/22919.
  6. ^ Russell, J. A. (2003). "Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion". Psychological Review. 110 (1): 145–172. doi:10.1037/0033-295x.110.1.145. PMID 12529060.
  7. ^ Mehrabian, Albert (2007). Nonverbal communication. pp. 10–15. ISBN 978-0-202-30966-8.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ratneshwar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Becker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).