The positive ideal affect of Chinese people: Trends over the past decades

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2024.00847

Abstract

Abstract:

The world is rapidly changing. Specifically, China has experienced huge social transformation over the past decades, so have Chinese culture and psychology. For the first time, this research examined the change of ideal affect of Chinese people over the past decades, in particular, high arousal positive affect (HAP; i.e., enthusiastic, excited, elated), low arousal positive affect (LAP; i.e., calm, relaxed, peaceful) and positive affect (P; i.e., happy, satisfied, content). By employing diverse methods, three studies were conducted. In Study 1, a total of 84 participants born before 1966 were asked to assess the ideal affect of Chinese people at beginnings of 1980, 2000, 2020. Results showed that the preferences for HAP, LAP and P have been rising among Chinese people since 1980. In Study 2, a total of 1561 college students were asked to assess the ideal affect of people of three generations: their grandparents generation, their parents generation and their own generation. Results showed that the youngest generation manifested higher preferences for HAP, LAP and P than old generations. In Study 3, a large sample of college students from 31 provinces in China were surveyed (N = 26209). Results indicated that students from urban areas reported higher preference for HAP, LAP and P than those from rural areas after controlling basic demographic information and cultural orientations (i.e., individualism and collectivism); moreover, HAP, LAP and P were positively correlated with each other. Taken together, findings from three studies convergently suggest that preferences for HAP, LAP and P have been rising in recent decades. These findings extend the understandings about psychological impacts of societal changes as well as the ideal affect themselves.

Key words: positive ideal affect, culture change, rural-urban difference, individualism, collectivism

ZHANG Mingyang, YANG Ying, BAO Han-Wu-Shuang, CAI Huajian. (2024). The positive ideal affect of Chinese people: Trends over the past decades. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 56(7), 847-858.

Figures/Tables 5

References 64

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Dimension	Items
High-arousal positive (HAP)	Enthusiasm Excited Elated
Positive (P)	Happy Satisfied Content
Low-arousal positive (LAP)	Calm Relaxed Peaceful
High-arousal negative (HAN)	Fearful Hostile Nervous
Negative (N)	Sad Lonely Unhappy
Low-arousal negative (LAN)	Dull Sleepy Sluggish
High arousal (HA)	Aroused Surprised Astonished
Low arousal (LA)	Idle Inactive Passive

Dimension	Items
High-arousal positive (HAP)	Enthusiasm Excited Elated
Positive (P)	Happy Satisfied Content
Low-arousal positive (LAP)	Calm Relaxed Peaceful
High-arousal negative (HAN)	Fearful Hostile Nervous
Negative (N)	Sad Lonely Unhappy
Low-arousal negative (LAN)	Dull Sleepy Sluggish
High arousal (HA)	Aroused Surprised Astonished
Low arousal (LA)	Idle Inactive Passive

Variable	Study 1			Study 2
Variable	1980	2000	2020	Grandparents	Parents	Grandchildren
Overall positive affect (OP)	0.83	0.89	0.88	0.83	0.85	0.87
HAP	0.62	0.67	0.67	0.68	0.70	0.74
LAP	0.59	0.77	0.69	0.64	0.66	0.67
P	0.70	0.84	0.86	0.84	0.85	0.87

Variable	Study 1			Study 2
Variable	1980	2000	2020	Grandparents	Parents	Grandchildren
Overall positive affect (OP)	0.83	0.89	0.88	0.83	0.85	0.87
HAP	0.62	0.67	0.67	0.68	0.70	0.74
LAP	0.59	0.77	0.69	0.64	0.66	0.67
P	0.70	0.84	0.86	0.84	0.85	0.87

Variable	Study 1			Study 2
Variable	1980	2000	2020	Grandparents	Parents	Grandchildren
OP	3.48 (0.62)	3.65 (0.70)	3.76 (0.68)	3.80 (0.61)	3.82 (0.65)	3.95 (0.66)
HAP	3.26 (0.76)	3.43 (0.74)	3.45 (0.79)	3.54 (0.78)	3.66 (0.78)	3.82 (0.83)
LAP	3.38 (0.72)	3.63 (0.80)	3.74 (0.74)	3.63 (0.74)	3.61 (0.78)	3.74 (0.78)
P	3.79 (0.68)	3.90 (0.80)	4.10 (0.76)	4.22 (0.73)	4.20 (0.76)	4.30 (0.75)