Table 1.
Implications of Each Psychometric Model That Refer to the Respective Property of Emotions as Posed by Three Classes of Emotion Theories
| Properties of emotions posed by emotion theories | Psychometric model | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Reflective latent variable model | Formative latent variable model | Network model | |
| Distinct emotions (posed by affect- program theories) | Common-cause relation | Interpretational confounding | Constitution |
| • A single cause exists that predicts all components | • Meaning of emotion is a function of the external variable used to identify the model | • Causal relationships constitute emotion | |
| → Contradicted by empirical evidence | → Unreasonable for psychometric model | → Supported by empirical evidence | |
| Separate identifiability | Exhaustive sets of indicators | Exhaustive sets of indicators | |
| • The emotion and its components are separate entities | • All components must be measured | • All components must be measured | |
| → Implausible | → Requires theorizing | → Requires theorizing | |
| Variation between and within persons (posed by constructionist theories) | Local homogeneity assumption | Local homogeneity and heterogeneity | Homogeneity and heterogeneity |
| • Model has the same form between and within persons | • Model can vary between and within persons | • Model can vary between and within persons | |
| → Contradicted by empirical evidence | → Supported by empirical evidence | → Supported by empirical evidence | |
| Causal relationships between components (posed by appraisal theories) | Principle of local independence | External relationships | Causal relationships |
| • Correlated components become independent when controlling for the emotion | • Relationships between components are uninformative for meaning of emotion | • Components have causal effects on each other | |
| → Contradicted by empirical evidence | → Contradicted by empirical evidence | → Supported by empirical evidence | |
| Assumption of exchangeability | |||
| • Components are redundant | |||
| → Contradicted by empirical evidence | |||
Note: In each cell of the table, we summarize which implications of the respective psychometric model are relevant for the respective required properties of emotions mentioned in the row. The key points marked with bullets constitute short descriptions of the implications as applied to emotions. The key points marked with arrows indicate whether these implications are supported for emotions.