Affective Saturation Index: A Lexical Measure of Affect
Affect plays a major role in the individual’s daily life, driving the sensemaking of experience, psychopathological conditions, social representations of phenomena, and ways of coping with others. The characteristics of affect have been traditionally investigated through physiological, self-report,...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-10-01
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| Series: | Entropy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/11/1421 |
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| author | Alessandro Gennaro Valeria Carola Cristina Ottaviani Chiara Pesca Arianna Palmieri Sergio Salvatore |
| author_facet | Alessandro Gennaro Valeria Carola Cristina Ottaviani Chiara Pesca Arianna Palmieri Sergio Salvatore |
| author_sort | Alessandro Gennaro |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Affect plays a major role in the individual’s daily life, driving the sensemaking of experience, psychopathological conditions, social representations of phenomena, and ways of coping with others. The characteristics of affect have been traditionally investigated through physiological, self-report, and behavioral measures. The present article proposes a text-based measure to detect affect intensity: the Affective Saturation Index (ASI). The ASI rationale and the conceptualization of affect are overviewed, and an initial validation study on the ASI’s convergent and concurrent validity is presented. Forty individuals completed a non-clinical semi-structured interview. For each interview transcript, the ASI was esteemed and compared to the individual’s physiological index of propensity to affective arousal (measured by heart rate variability (HRV)); transcript semantic complexity (measured through the Semantic Entropy Index (SEI)); and lexical syntactic complexity (measured through the Flesch–Vacca Index (FVI)). ANOVAs and bi-variate correlations estimated the size of the relationships between indexes and sample characteristics (age, gender), then a set of multiple linear regressions tested the ASI’s association with HRV, the SEI, and the FVI. Results support the ASI construct and criteria validity. The ASI proved able to detect affective saturation in interview transcripts (SEI and FVI, adjusted R<sup>2</sup> = 0.428 and adjusted R<sup>2</sup> = 0.241, respectively) and the way the text’s affective saturation reflected the intensity of the individual’s affective state (HRV, adjusted R<sup>2</sup> = 0.428). In conclusion, although the specificity of the sample (psychology students) limits the findings’ generalizability, the ASI provides the chance to use written texts to measure affect in accordance with a dynamic approach, independent of the spatio-temporal setting in which they were produced. In doing so, the ASI provides a way to empower the empirical analysis of fields such as psychotherapy and social group dynamics. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:31:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bcf02c872a1b4a27b43cdfd830d6f6c4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1099-4300 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T05:31:46Z |
| publishDate | 2021-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Entropy |
| spelling | doaj.art-bcf02c872a1b4a27b43cdfd830d6f6c42023-11-22T23:14:45ZengMDPI AGEntropy1099-43002021-10-012311142110.3390/e23111421Affective Saturation Index: A Lexical Measure of AffectAlessandro Gennaro0Valeria Carola1Cristina Ottaviani2Chiara Pesca3Arianna Palmieri4Sergio Salvatore5Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, ItalyDepartment of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, ItalyIRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, 00179 Rome, ItalyDepartment of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, ItalyPadua Neuroscience Center, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology, University of Padua, 35122 Padua, ItalyDepartment of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology and Health Studies, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, ItalyAffect plays a major role in the individual’s daily life, driving the sensemaking of experience, psychopathological conditions, social representations of phenomena, and ways of coping with others. The characteristics of affect have been traditionally investigated through physiological, self-report, and behavioral measures. The present article proposes a text-based measure to detect affect intensity: the Affective Saturation Index (ASI). The ASI rationale and the conceptualization of affect are overviewed, and an initial validation study on the ASI’s convergent and concurrent validity is presented. Forty individuals completed a non-clinical semi-structured interview. For each interview transcript, the ASI was esteemed and compared to the individual’s physiological index of propensity to affective arousal (measured by heart rate variability (HRV)); transcript semantic complexity (measured through the Semantic Entropy Index (SEI)); and lexical syntactic complexity (measured through the Flesch–Vacca Index (FVI)). ANOVAs and bi-variate correlations estimated the size of the relationships between indexes and sample characteristics (age, gender), then a set of multiple linear regressions tested the ASI’s association with HRV, the SEI, and the FVI. Results support the ASI construct and criteria validity. The ASI proved able to detect affective saturation in interview transcripts (SEI and FVI, adjusted R<sup>2</sup> = 0.428 and adjusted R<sup>2</sup> = 0.241, respectively) and the way the text’s affective saturation reflected the intensity of the individual’s affective state (HRV, adjusted R<sup>2</sup> = 0.428). In conclusion, although the specificity of the sample (psychology students) limits the findings’ generalizability, the ASI provides the chance to use written texts to measure affect in accordance with a dynamic approach, independent of the spatio-temporal setting in which they were produced. In doing so, the ASI provides a way to empower the empirical analysis of fields such as psychotherapy and social group dynamics.https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/11/1421affectaffective saturation indexmeaningtext analysisphysiologyheart rate variability |
| spellingShingle | Alessandro Gennaro Valeria Carola Cristina Ottaviani Chiara Pesca Arianna Palmieri Sergio Salvatore Affective Saturation Index: A Lexical Measure of Affect Entropy affect affective saturation index meaning text analysis physiology heart rate variability |
| title | Affective Saturation Index: A Lexical Measure of Affect |
| title_full | Affective Saturation Index: A Lexical Measure of Affect |
| title_fullStr | Affective Saturation Index: A Lexical Measure of Affect |
| title_full_unstemmed | Affective Saturation Index: A Lexical Measure of Affect |
| title_short | Affective Saturation Index: A Lexical Measure of Affect |
| title_sort | affective saturation index a lexical measure of affect |
| topic | affect affective saturation index meaning text analysis physiology heart rate variability |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/23/11/1421 |
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