“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.
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?