Development and Validation of a Formal Theory of Co-occurring Emotions

许多情况都会引发复杂的情绪。例如，收到生日礼物可能会引起喜悦和感激之情，考试不及格可能会引起愤怒和失望，吃巧克力可能会引起满意和后悔。事实上，大量证据表明，成年人和青少年在日常生活中经常同时经历多种情绪。因此，情绪理论应该解释情绪何时以及如何同时发生。然而，现有的情绪理论无法解释共生情绪研究结果的复杂模式。该项目的目标是开发和验证一种关于共生情绪的综合形式理论。初步证据支持将共同出现的情绪概念化为重叠的网络。根据这一概念，情绪是其情绪成分的因果网络。此外，代表不同情绪的网络共享组件和/或具有彼此相关(积极或消极)的组件。当一种情况激活了代表不同情绪的网络和/或当活动从一个网络传播到另一个网络时，情绪共同发生。为了在这些发现的基础上开发和验证情感共生的正式理论，我将遵循理论建构方法论。首先，我将进一步检验初步证据的稳健性(研究1)。其次，我将编写和测试一个基于代理的模型，实现网络理论的原理，并以多种方式与其他研究人员共享该模型。第三，我将使用模拟来调查基于主体的模型是否解释了关于共生情绪的研究中的复杂发现，而经验抽样研究将有助于调整模型的参数(研究2)。最后，我将通过使用推理到最佳解释的方法和通过实验测试模型的初步版本的附加含义来评估该理论(研究3)。总而言之，该项目承诺通过提出一种综合的形式理论来推进对共生情绪的研究。

Many situations elicit a mix of emotions. For instance, receiving a birthday present may elicit joy and gratitude, failing an exam may elicit anger and disappointment, or eating chocolate may elicit satisfaction and regret. Indeed, abundant evidence indicates that, in their daily life, adults and adolescents often experience multiple emotions simultaneously. Therefore, emotion theories should explain when and how emotions co-occur. However, existing emotion theories cannot explain the complex patterns of results from research on co-occurring emotions. The goal of the project is to develop and validate an integrative formal theory of co-occurring emotions. Preliminary evidence supports a conceptualization of co-occurring emotions as overlapping networks. According to this conceptualization, emotions are causal networks of their emotion components. Moreover, networks representing different emotions share components and/or have components that relate (positively or negatively) to each other. Emotions co-occur, when a situation activates the networks representing different emotions and/or when activity spreads from one network to the other. To develop and validate a formal theory of co-occurring emotions based on these findings, I will follow the Theory Construction Methodology. First, I will further test the robustness of the preliminary evidence (Study 1). Second, I will program and test an agent-based model implementing the principles of the network theory and share the model with other researchers in multiple ways. Third, I will use simulations to investigate whether the agent-based model accounts for the complex findings in research on co-occurring emotions, while an experience sampling study will help tuning parameters of the model (Study 2). Finally, I will evaluate the theory by using the approach of inference to the best explanation and by experimentally testing an additional implication of a preliminary version of the model (Study 3). Collectively, the project promises to advance research on co-occurring emotions by proposing an integrative formal theory.