Affect/Affective Processes

(pronounced af-ekt). Affect refers to the experience and expression of emotions, including moods, feelings, and emotional responses to stimuli. It can be positive (e.g., joy, excitement) or negative (e.g., sadness, anger). Affective processes are psychological mechanisms that involve emotions, moods, and feelings. These processes include emotion regulation, emotional perception, motivation, and mood states. Along with cognitive and conative processes, affective processes are one of the components of the classic tripartite categorization of psychological processes (categorization of psychological processes into three categories – cognitive, conative, and affective processes).