affective, a.
(əˈfɛktɪv)
[a. Fr. affectif, -ive, ad. med.L. affectīvus; f. affect- ppl. stem of affic-ĕre: see affect v.2 and -ive.]
† 1. Earnest, zealous. Obs. rare.
| 1549 Compl. Scotl. 148 Throucht ane affectyue loue that there prince hes touart them. |
† 2. Affectionate, loving. Obs. rare.
| 1656 Bp. Hall Breathings of Devout Soul (1851) 158 Cast me off with scorn, for casting any affective glances upon so base a rival. |
† 3. Existing in feeling or disposition, as distinguished from external manifestation. Obs. rare.
| 1633 T. Adams Exp. 2 Pet. ii. 1 (1865) 223 This world God loved, affective before all time, effective in time. |
† 4. Of affectation; artificially assumed. Obs. rare.
| 1641 R. Brathwait Eng. Gent. 4 That which is most native and least affective deserves choisest acceptance. |
† 5. Having the quality of affecting; tending to affect or influence; influential, operative. Obs.
| 1656 Trapp Exp. Matt. vii. 20 (1868) 132/1 Knowledge, not apprehensive only, but affective too. 1678 Lively Oracles viii. §42, 318 Other manner of impressions, more affective and more lasting then bare reading will leave. |
† 6. Having the quality of influencing the emotions: affecting. Obs.
| 1654 Whitlock Manners of Eng. 525 (T.) By affective meditations to view, as re-acted, the tragedy of this day [Good Friday]. 1715 Burnet Hist. own Times 695 He was a judicious preacher, more instructive than affective. |
7. a. Of or pertaining to the affections or emotions; emotional.
| 1623 Bp. Hall Serm. Wks. V. 138 This monosyllable (heart)..comprises all that intellective and affective world, which concerneth man;..when God says, The heart is deceitful, he means the Understanding, Will, Affections are deceitful. 1659 Hardy Serm. xlii. (1865) 266/2 Pride..as well in the intellectual as in the affective faculty. 1865 Lecky Rationalism (1878) I. 391 Act upon and develope the affective or emotional side of human nature. 1876 H. Maudsley Physiol. Mind i. 36 The affective functions of the brain..are the foundations of the emotions, and impulses. |
b. Psychol. Of, pertaining to, or characterized by feelings or affects (see affect n. 1 e).
| 1891 J. M. Baldwin Handbk. Psychol. II. xiii. 313 Affective Nature of All Stimuli to Movement... Stimuli..are all phenomena of feeling. 1897 tr. T. Ribot's Psychol. of Emotions 1 In all affective manifestations there are two elements: the motor states or impulses, which are primary; the agreeable or painful states, which are secondary. Ibid. xi. 153 Others recall the circumstances plus the revived condition of feeling. It is these who have the true ‘affective memory’. 1912 A. A. Brill tr. Freud's Sel. Papers on Hysteria (ed. 2) i. 7 Some important memories..on their return acted with the full affective force of new experiences. 1922 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. (Gen. Sect.) Oct. 121 Love and hate..are built of emotional stuff—they are affective phenomena. 1926 [see affect n. 1 e]. 1950 D. Riesman in Psychiatry XIII. 1/2 His [Freud's] own deep affective involvement in an idea. |
| Comb. 1895 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. VII. 81 Gemüthsvorgang, affective or affective-conative process. 1921 D. H. Lawrence Psychoanalysis i. 22 The great affective-passional functions and emotions. 1925 I. A. Richards Princ. Lit. Crit. xi. 91 The affective-volitional aspect of mental activity. 1947 M. M. Lewis Lang. in Soc. i. 20 British psychologists..have suggested the term ‘orectic’ as an equivalent of ‘affective-conative’. |
c. affective fallacy (see quots.).
| 1948 W. K. Wimsatt & M. C. Beardsley in Poetry Dec. 155 Affective fallacy{ddd}a confusion between the poem and its results (what it is and what it does)... The affective fallacy is coupled with the intentional fallacy.., the former being a confusion between the poem and its results, the latter a confusion between the poem and its origins. Examples of the affective fallacy range from Plato's feeding and watering of the passions, Aristotle's counter-theory of catharsis, and the Longinian ‘transport’ of the audience. 1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 20 Feb. 97/1 The Affective Fallacy, for Mr. Wimsatt..is the fallacy of the frisson, of the excited response to the isolated single line; or, more broadly, of the admirer of Dylan Thomas, say, who says: ‘I don't understand a word of it, but how wonderful!’ |
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Add: [7.] [b.] spec. (of a disorder) having an abnormally depressed or elevated mood as the main symptom. (Further examples.)
| 1937 E. Mapother & A. Lewis in F. W. Price Textbk. Practice of Med. (ed. 5) xxi. 1844 The predisposition to an affective disorder may be latent in persons who have not been subjected to the stresses that would make it manifest. 1941 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 1 Mar. 308/2 A distinction..can..be made between ‘affective disorders’, comprising cases in which either the mental and physical symptoms of anxiety or depression is the main feature, and hysterical reactions. 1965 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. CXI. 1141/2 This simple salt..also has a therapeutic action on affective disorders. 1988 A. Storr Solitude (1989) ix. 142 The writers interviewed had a much greater prevalence of affective illness (i.e. of severe recurrent depression or of manic-depressive illness) than did a marked control group. |