Some like it hot. Results of the German language version of an instrument aimed at the assessment of the need for affect/need for emotion

Complementary to social psychological needs, such as the need for cognition, Maio and Esses (2001) describe the need for affect as the general motivation of people to approach or avoid situations and activities that are emotion inducing for themselves and others. The need for affect scale includes the subscales approach and avoidance. In two studies with N = 403 and N = 251 participants a German language version was introduced. Reliability and construct validity were satisfactory. As expected, need for affect/need for emotion and the subscale approach, respectively, correlated with watching romantic movies and with the wish to watch a negative-affect movie (experimental within-subjects design, women only). Moreover, the fit between need for affect/need for emotion and the emotional demands of the respondents' occupation predicts job involvement.