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All people (and some other animals) have aesthetic responses to sensory stimulation, responses of emotional pleasure or displeasure. These emotions vary from one person and culture to another, yet they share a common mechanism. To survive, an adaptive animal (as opposed to a tropic animal) needs to become comfortable with normality and to have slight abnormalities draw attention to themselves. Walking through a jungle you need to notice a tiger from a single stripe: if you must wait to see the whole animal, you are unlikely to survive. In Homo sapiens , the brain's adaptive neurochemistry does this naturally, partly because the brain's neuronal networks are structured to react efficiently to fractal structures, structures that shape much of nature. In addition, previous associations may turn a slight variation from normal into feelings of either pleasure or danger. The details of these responses-what is normal and what variations feel like-will depend upon an individual's experience, but the mechanism is the same, no matter whether a person is tasting a wine, seeing a face or landscape, or hearing a song. This article is part of the theme issue 'Sensing and feeling: an integrative approach to sensory processing and emotional experience'.

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It has been suggested that the circumplex model could be a useful conceptual and measurement framework for investigating the effects of exercise on affect. This paper reviews three critical issues pertaining to this model, namely (a) the fit of the circumplex model to self-reported affective data, (b) the notion that postulated separable neural substrates of pleasure and displeasure challenge the principle of a bipolar relationship between these states, and (c) the idea that assessments of perceived activation are problematic. For each criticism, the evidence is reviewed and caveats that must be taken into account in evaluating the data and conceptual arguments are identified. The circumplex model has both considerable strengths and important limitations. For the application of the model in exercise psychology to be fruitful, researchers should recognize both aspects of this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no consensus in the literature on a definition of emotion. The term is taken for granted in itself and, most often, emotion is defined with reference to a list: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. This article expands on a thesis that motivational states can be compared to each other by means of a common currency (Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. 270 (1975) 265–293). I have previously argued that this common currency is pleasure. Such a conclusion is based not on introspective intuition, as with early pre-scientific psychology (), but on experimental methods. As a follow-up to a definition of consciousness (Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev. 20 (1996) 33–40) as a four-dimensional experience (quality, intensity, hedonicity, and duration), I propose here that emotion is any mental experience with high intensity and high hedonic content (pleasure/displeasure). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Suggestions that affective experiences may influence exercise motivation have commonly appeared since the dawn of exercise psychology. However, a measure that captures the nature, the antecedents, and the motivational implications of such experiences has been lacking. We developed the Affective Exercise Experiences (AFFEXX) questionnaire to assess the constructs within a conceptual model, according to which core affective exercise experiences (pleasure-displeasure, energy-tiredness, calmness-tension) are influenced by six antecedent appraisals and, in turn, shape attraction or antipathy towards exercise. We report results from three studies (N = 1799) evaluating internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and factorial, convergent, discriminant, construct, and criterion validity. We show that attraction-antipathy correlates with vigorous (0.55) and moderate-to-vigorous (0.48) self-reported physical activity, and accounts for 11–12% and 6–7% of additional variance, respectively, beyond variance explained by self-efficacy and behavioral intention. Affective exercise experiences warrant further study as possible contributors to motivation. The AFFEXX is available from this link: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/EF76R. • Pleasant and unpleasant exercise experiences may influence exercise motivation. • The absence of a measure of affective exercise experiences has slowed progress. • We developed the 36-item Affective Exercise Experiences (AFFEXX) questionnaire. • We present three studies evaluating the reliability and validity of the AFFEXX. • The AFFEXX accounts for physical activity variance beyond self-efficacy and intentions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]