Affect is involved in many psychological phenomena, but a descriptive structure, long sought, has been elusive. Valence and arousal are fundamental, and a key question–the focus of the present study–is the relationship between them. Valence is sometimes thought to be independent of arousal, but, in some studies (representing too few societies in the world) arousal was found to vary with valence. One common finding is that arousal is lowest at neutral valence and increases with both positive and negative valence: a symmetric V-shaped relationship. In the study reported here of self-reported affect during a remembered moment (N = 8,590), we tested the valence-arousal relationship in 33 societies with 25 different languages. The two most common hypotheses in the literature–independence and a symmetric V-shaped relationship–were not supported. With data of all samples pooled, arousal increased with positive but not negative valence. Valence accounted for between 5% (Finland) and 43% (China Beijing) of the variance in arousal. Although there is evidence for a structural relationship between the two, there is also a large amount of variability in this relation.

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The NEO-PI-3 is a fourth-generation instrument that has been shown to improve the psychometrics and readability of its immediate precedent, the NEO-PI-R. We examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese versions of the NEO-PI-R and NEO-PI-3 using three datasets ( Ns = 913, 299, 403) collected using both monolingual and bilingual designs. The Chinese NEO-PI-3 scales displayed a five-factor structure in which the facets had the highest loadings on their intended factors. The structure demonstrated strong invariance across both languages (English vs. Chinese) and gender groups, maintained high test-retest reliability, and attained slightly better internal consistency than the NEO-PI-R. We also examined the affective underpinnings of personality factors and well-being measures using the Chinese Circumplex Model of Affect. Consistent with past findings, Neuroticism and Extraversion were most related to affect, while Satisfaction with Life and Subjective Happiness shared the affective core of pleasant feelings and medium arousal. Based on these results, the Chinese NEO-PI-3 appears to be a sound instrument to measure personality in Chinese communities and to compare personality across cultures.