Abstract
(1) How subjective emotional changes occur in the process of the relief of tension and (2) whether these changes depend on the disposition of the tension-causing events were examined. Tension-causing events were classified into pleasant events and aversive ones. In order to rate emotion which subjects experienced at the tension-causing events, subjects were asked to draw curves on a questionnaire. The results showed that the levels of tension in both categories increased until the start of the event, decreased during the event and still further after the event. In the aversive events, the amplitude of the change was greater than that in the pleasant events. After aversive events were over, shifts toward opposite direction from tension to relaxation and from unpleasantness to pleasantness could be observed, while not in the favorable events. In conclusion, this study suggested that the emotional changes in the process of the relief of tension depend partly on the disposition of tension-causing events. The disposition of events influences to the amplitude and the shifts toward opposite direction of emotional changes.
