The dimension of emotion that describes its pleasantness or unpleasantness is called what?

• A. Valence
• B. Arousal
• C. Polygraph
• D. Behavior Feedback

Answer: (A)

Valence is the dimension that describes how pleasant or unpleasant an emotion feels. In emotion theory, valence captures the hedonic value of an experience—from negative (unpleasant) to positive (pleasant). It’s often paired with arousal, which measures how intense the feeling is, to form a two-dimensional view of affect. For example, happiness involves positive valence, while fear involves negative valence. Arousal wouldn’t answer the question because it describes intensity, not how pleasant the emotion is. The other terms don’t fit as a dimension of emotional experience.