Abstract
This article is an evaluation of Young's affective arousal theory. Young hypothesizes affective processes which are based on the hedonic continuum from pleasure to displeasure. The cental part between pleasure and displeasure of the hedonic continuum is considered to appear indifferent or neutral affect which is experienced much longer than pleasure or displeasure. We would like to criticize this simple line of hedonic continuum because there are many affective states, for example, rapid changes between pleasure and displeasure, mixed states of pleasure and displeasure, and much longer states of unpleasant affect. Secondly we make a distinction between stimulus and sensation, and between sensation and affect. Thirdly we attempt to divide the appearance of the affective process from the affective arousal process. The appearance of the affective process occurs between sensation and affect and the affective arousal process should be limited to the condition between affect and action. We review Yoshida's research, our own data on the affective arousal experiments and Yogo and other's data on imagination research in this attempt to evaluate Young's theory.
