Before the Circumplex: The Hierarchical Structure of Affect

Two-dimensional models of Valence and Arousal dominate the literature on the structure of affect, despite the persistent emergence of a general factor typically treated as a methodological artifact. This study proposes a reinterpretation of this factor as a fundamental dimension of Affective Intensity/Salience, organizing affect into a hierarchical structure. We investigated this proposal in two domains: the semantic structure of affect, by analyzing word embeddings from a vast linguistic corpus, and the psychometric structure of self-report, using data from the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). A robust analytical approach, including Principal Component Analysis, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, was employed. The results consistently confirm the existence of a hierarchical structure. However, a crucial nuance emerged: Salience was the dominant dimension in language, whereas Valence was dominant in self-report. Convergent analysis demonstrated that the Intensity dimension in self-report is primarily driven by the magnitude of Negative Affect. Our findings suggest that, rather than an artifact, the general factor is a substantive dimension whose nature depends on the domain under analysis, challenging purely two-dimensional models and opening new avenues for the explanation and measurement of affect.