Affect is a noun meaning the emotional state of one's face and body. I think that's what you meant though, right? flat affect blunted affect restricted affect confused affect sad affect cheerful affect etc. "Kobe's affect is intense, determined, and focused when he does his under-bite thing."
I think emotion and emotional state do the same work here. I know some - I think in psychology - have a two-part scale for classifying emotions. One is affect and one is intensity. Something like that. I think we're totally agreeing and using differing terminology.
I wasn't trying to differentiate between emotion and emotional state. I understand affect to be how emotions present. An "affect" isn't an emotion. It's a label for how a particular emotion presents. One can experience emotions or emotional state internally, yet have a flat or incongruent affect. Like you mentioned, a psychopath could be experiencing fear internally, yet presenting a flat affect. Another example in a depressed client: "What emotion are you feeling?" "Sadness" Well, your affect is a constricted smile. Like you're trying to convey that you're happy when you're really not."
I honestly think that that use you're suggesting is particular to psychology. It's perfectly legitimate, but there's another perfectly legitimate use of affect where it's not how it presents, as you say (rightly, on the psychological use of the term). Consider dictionary.com: 1. obsolete : feeling, affection [this "obsolete" noun is similar to what I mean, but watch...] 2. : the conscious subjective aspect of an emotion considered apart from bodily changes [this is what I mean]; also : a set of observable manifestations of a subjectively experienced emotion <patients … showed perfectly normal reactions and affects — Oliver Sacks> [This seems to be what you mean.] OED says: The noun affect is restricted almost entirely to psychology (see affect3) Affect3: Psychology Emotion or desire, especially as influencing behavior or action.
Very informative. I never knew of the first part of 2. From a psychological lens, I always broke down these three terms like this: 1. Emotion: the internal subjective experience of a feeling. 2. Feeling: a cognitive label to describe an emotion. 3. Affect: how an emotion presents itself. Does that make any damn sense?
It makes sense, but I bet most people don't see that difference between feeling and emotion. it's a discipline specific thing. It might even be accurate, but it's niche.
