The Basic Emotional Impact of Environments

Available literature provides ample evidence that there are basic responses which are elicited by stimuli but which are independent of sense-modality distinctions. Everyday observations of intermodality associations, studies of synesthesia and of physiological reactions to different stimuli, and semantic differential studies all showed evidence of such primary responses. Semantic differential studies, in particular, have shown that human judgments of diverse samples of stimuli can be characterized in terms of three dimensions: evaluation, activity, and potency. We have termed the corresponding emotional responses pleasure, arousal, and dominance. Simple self-report measures of these emotional reactions were developed by using questionnaire studies in which Ss described a variety of situations using semantic-differential type scales.