RT Journal Article
T1 Bistability and Affect Shift Dynamics in the Prediction of Psychological Well-Being
A1 Goicoechea, Carmen
A1 Dakos, Vasilis
A1 Sanabria, Daniel
A1 Heshmati, Saida
A1 Westhoff, Marlon
A1 Banos, Oresti
A1 Pomares, Hector
A1 Hofmann, Stefan G.
A1 Perakakis, Pantelis
AB How affective experiences, such as feelings, emotions, and moods, fluctuate over time is relevant for understanding and predicting psychological well-being. Here, we present a novel approach to investigate affect dynamics grounded on the concept of multistability, a common behavior of complex systems, characterized by abrupt shifts between two or more stable states. We analyze self-report measures in two ecological momentary assessment studies from Spain (N = 65) and Germany (N = 56). Participants were asked to rate how they feel on a single bipolar visual analogue scale ranging from very bad to very good, 6 times a day over the course of 29 days in the Spanish study and 5 times a day during 21 days in the German study. We observe bistable behavior in 61.5% of the Spanish and 46% of the German sample. Further, we introduce a range of metrics to quantify the frequency and magnitude of shifts between positive and negative affect and identify the positive to negative affect shift ratio as a robust predictor of psychological well-being. Our results suggest that affective bistability is a prevalent feature of affect dynamics and highlight the potential of positive to negative affect shift ratio as a valuable tool for predicting psychological well-being both in research and clinical settings.
PB American Psychological Association
SN 1528-3542
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/114619
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/114619
LA eng
NO Goicoechea, C., Dakos, V., Sanabria, D., Heshmati, S., Westhoff, M., Banos, O., Pomares, H., Hofmann, S. G., & Perakakis, P. (2024). Bistability and affect shift dynamics in the prediction of psychological well-being. Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001454
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
NO Fundación La Caixa
NO Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (Deutschland)
NO Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
DS Docta Complutense
RD 8 abr 2025