actdata

This is an R package intended to be a repository for standardized versions of publicly released affect control theory dictionaries and equations. Within affect control theory, a social psychological theory of cultural meaning and interaction, words describing identities and behaviors have meanings on three dimensions of sentiment: evaluation (good vs bad), potency (powerful vs weak), and activity (active vs passive). Affect control theory dictionaries contain these evaluation, potency, and activity (EPA) values for a variety of terms. Equations describe how different terms work together to create meaning in the context of events. For more information about affect control theory, see affectcontroltheory.org and the many academic resources that it links to. The data in this package span nearly 45 years and multiple cultures around the world. These data can be used by affect control theorists to understand the cultural meaning of objects and events, as well as how these meanings vary across time and place.

Many affect control theory datasets have been publicly released by researchers, facilitating new research in the tradition. However, these datasets are stored in several different places and in several different formats. The actdata R package standardizes them and brings them together in one place in order to make them easier to access and make part of a reproducible analysis workflow. Details on standardization procedures for dictionaries and equation sets, instructions for how to access the data in this package, and a worked example using the Tidyverse to manipulate these datasets are provided on its GitHub page.