There was recently a discussion of Lesswrong’s use of the word “Signaling,” and it seemed to me that upon consideration it was shown that we’re pretty much using it to mean what it means in a broader academic context. See this comment in particular.
With respect to the use of “affect,” I again disagree but there aren’t really any examples I can point to. I think its use in many cases is very similar to “emotion,” but I also think that its use fits pretty perfectly with your stated definition. For example, someone might say, “I have a really strong positive affect towards ponies, so my assessment of this fanfiction’s quality might be biased” (I have almost no idea why that is the example I thought of), and this fits pretty well with ” a subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus.”
With “affect,” I think we might have “good reasons” for using the word, but I concede that its use isn’t really necessary and that its use probably is because people want “to seem Less Wrong-y.”
“I have a really strong positive affect towards ponies[...]
This example supports Warrigal’s claim ‘affect’ as a psychology term is used incorrectly on the site. Vide beoShaffer’s link to the psychology wiki, particularly:
… [A]s a usage note, grammatical convention holds that an individual self-report a “good mood” but never a “good affect.” An outside observer can choose to declare that another individual is in a “good mood” (general colloquial usage) or “displays a high affect” (scientific usage).
The statement with correct usage would then become:
I have been told I display a strong positive affect when discussing or otherwise engaging with pony-related topics, so my assessment of their hygiene may be quite biased. I do in fact myself notice elevated mood upon concluding pony affairs.
Hah, thanks. So one cannot use the word to reference their own “subjective feeling” but can use it to reference others’?
(Sidenote: If you’re right, I guess most of its usage here is incorrect, and perhaps misleading, but it seems like we’d be wrong in an silly, pedantic, “what silly rules for word” sort of way. We’d still be wrong though.)
I think the idea is that affect is the outward appearance of a feeling or emotion or whatever. You could tell what your own affects are, but you’d have to look in a mirror or something.
There was recently a discussion of Lesswrong’s use of the word “Signaling,” and it seemed to me that upon consideration it was shown that we’re pretty much using it to mean what it means in a broader academic context. See this comment in particular.
With respect to the use of “affect,” I again disagree but there aren’t really any examples I can point to. I think its use in many cases is very similar to “emotion,” but I also think that its use fits pretty perfectly with your stated definition. For example, someone might say, “I have a really strong positive affect towards ponies, so my assessment of this fanfiction’s quality might be biased” (I have almost no idea why that is the example I thought of), and this fits pretty well with ” a subjective feeling experienced in response to a thought or other stimulus.”
With “affect,” I think we might have “good reasons” for using the word, but I concede that its use isn’t really necessary and that its use probably is because people want “to seem Less Wrong-y.”
This example supports Warrigal’s claim ‘affect’ as a psychology term is used incorrectly on the site. Vide beoShaffer’s link to the psychology wiki, particularly:
The statement with correct usage would then become:
Hah, thanks. So one cannot use the word to reference their own “subjective feeling” but can use it to reference others’?
(Sidenote: If you’re right, I guess most of its usage here is incorrect, and perhaps misleading, but it seems like we’d be wrong in an silly, pedantic, “what silly rules for word” sort of way. We’d still be wrong though.)
I think the idea is that affect is the outward appearance of a feeling or emotion or whatever. You could tell what your own affects are, but you’d have to look in a mirror or something.
You can feel sad, but affect happiness*, and appear to others as displaying a highly positive affect**.
* non-scientific usage
** scientific usage
You can feel sad, but signal happiness, and appear to others as displaying a highly positive affect.
Ok, so how would one signal happiness?