Emotion Words in Spanish: Lexical Selection, Affective Dimensions, Sex and Age Differences

Abstract

This study proposes a method for selection and analysis of words that refer to emotions. A comparison of 380 synonyms corresponding to the six basic emotions in 15 Spanish thesauri resulted in 43 terms. Respondents of an online survey (n = 980) stated whether they recognized and used each word and how often they experienced the designated emotion, which resulted in 23 terms. The correlation matrix for the selected terms frequencies and a multivariate analysis of the data revealed three affective dimensions: anger, fear, and satisfaction. The frequency for the terms was higher for women, who reported more panic and irritation than men. In both, the frequency of the negative emotions of fear and sadness decrease with age, while pleasure, satisfaction, and indignation increase. The results suggest the existence of three affective dimensions (anger/repulsion, fear/sorrow, and satisfaction/admiration), which have been recognized in neurobiological, ecological, ethological, and evolutionary models.