The bipolarity of momentary affect: Reply to Schimmack

In his commentary on my paper (Yik, 2007 Yik, M. 2007. Culture, gender, and the bipolarity of momentary affect. Cognition and Emotion, 21: 664–680. Taylor & Francis Online], Web of Science ®] , Google Scholar]), Schimmack (2009 Schimmack, U. 2009. Culture, gender, and the bipolarity of momentary affect: A critical re-examination. Cognition and Emotion, 23: 599–604. Taylor & Francis Online], Web of Science ®] , Google Scholar] this issue) reanalysed the published correlations and concluded that dialectical thinking moderates bipolarity in rating momentary affect. In this response, I attempt to integrate our interpretations of the data. Overall, bipolarity prevails in all five language groups. At one point of time, when one is happy, one is not sad. The explanations for the small differences provide avenues for future research.