Abstract

Two surveys were administered to obtain basic data concerning appropriateness of emotion terms and frequency of emotion experiences in everyday life. To collect emotion terms, the following three methods were adopted: (1) We asked 300 college students to fill up the questionnaires with emotion terms they experienced in everyday life. (2) We compiled the terms implying emotions from a Korean dictionary. (3) We collected the emotion terms through reviewing the previous studies published abroad and Korea. Through these investigations, we gathered a list of the 1,515 terms considered to be emotions. Five researchers, including the authors and three graduate students, examined these terms independently whether each term implied emotional connotation or not. Whenever there were disagreements, in-depth discussions were sought to reach out for the best solution. Through this selection process, we were led to a list of the 834 emotion terms. Then in a survey of appropriateness for the emotion terms, 282 college students were asked to rate appropriateness of emotions for the 834 emotion terms. Additionally, in a survey of frequency of emotions in everyday life experience, 698 college students were asked to rate frequency of experiences with the 834 emotion terms. From these investigations the means and the standard deviations of appropriateness and frequency ratings for the 834 emotion terms were calculated. The reliability coefficients of the repeated ratings of appropriateness of emotion terms and frequency of emotional experience were .92 and .91, respectively. Correlation coefficient between the means of appropriateness and those of frequency was .05(n.s.). Finally, limitations of this study and implications for the future studies are discussed.