Affect and interpersonal behaviors: Where do the circumplexes meet?

The study reported in this article examined the relationship between affect and interpersonal behaviors by identifying the intersection between Yik’s (2009b) Chinese Circumplex Model of Affect (CCMA) and Wiggins’ (1995) Interpersonal Circumplex (IPC). Past research on the relationships between circumplexes has relied on zero-order correlations and principal components analysis, but neither method provides a definitive test of the connections between two structural models. In the present study, Michael Browne’s CIRCUM-extension procedure was used to locate each circumplex within the other. The results show that the two circumplexes overlap on one axis: 37° within the CCMA (pleasant feelings with medium arousal) and 76° within the IPC, which is close to where extraversion lies.