Co-construction of affect in culture and history

Abstract

Psychological constructivism of affect argues that experienced emotions are constructed through two processes: 1) formation of the core affect on the basis of interoception which is neural representation of bodily signals, 2) categorization of the core affect by using concepts and contextual information. In this article, it is proposed that cultural and historical situations can affect experiences of emotions via revision of concepts and processes of co-construction of affect between individuals. For this purpose, a hierarchical Bayesian computational model of affect is introduced, and the processes of co-construction of affect are examined through computational simulation. Furthermore, importance of culture and history is discussed in the perspective of co-construction of affect.