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

许多情况下会引发各种情绪。例如，收到生日礼物可能会引起喜悦和感激，考试失败可能会引起愤怒和失望，或者吃巧克力可能会引起满意和遗憾。事实上，大量证据表明，在日常生活中，成年人和青少年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共同出现。然而，现有的情绪理论无法解释复杂的模式，从研究结果的共同发生的情绪。该项目的目标是开发和验证一个综合的正式理论的共同发生的情绪。初步证据支持概念化的共同发生的情绪重叠的网络。根据这种概念化，情绪是其情绪成分的因果网络。此外，表示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时，或者当活动从一个网络传播到另一个网络时，情绪就会同时发生。为了发展和验证基于这些发现的共同发生的情绪的正式理论，我将遵循理论构建方法。首先，我将进一步测试初步证据的稳健性（研究1）。其次，我将编程和测试一个基于代理的模型，实现网络理论的原则，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代理的模型是否解释了共同发生的情绪研究中的复杂发现，而经验抽样研究将有助于调整模型的参数（研究2）。最后，我将通过使用推理的最佳解释的方法和实验测试模型的初步版本的额外含义（研究3）来评估理论。总的来说，该项目承诺通过提出一个综合的形式理论来推进对共同发生的情绪的研究。

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.