complexity of the self has been found to be associated with higher levels of
education and intelligence, openness to experience and more reflective and
less avoidant coping strategies (Lyster, 2001). Kang (2002) found that well-
differentiated emotional experience, one of the features defining affect
complexity, was associated with private self-consciousness, openness to ex-
perience, empathic tendencies, cognitive complexity, range of emotions
experienced in everyday life, and interpersonal adaptability. Bacelar (1999)
found openness to experience and meaning-making to be related to adult
cognitive complexity. His finding that life events and person characteristics
were better predictors than age of adult cognitive complexity led him to the
conclusion that more attention should be paid to the increasing differences
within age groups rather than between age groups.
Affect complexity may also be related to sensation-seeking. Cognitive com-
plexity, a concept related to that of affect complexity, and preference for com-
plexity have been found to be highly associated with sensation-seeking tenden-
cies and nonconformity (Coren & Suedfeld, 1995; Zuckerman, Neary, &
Brustman, 1970). Very relatedly, individual differences in need for cognition
(Cacioppo & Petty, 1982) may contribute to explain differences in affect com-
plexity. In its modern conceptualization, need for cognition refers to an indi-
vidual’s tendency to seek, engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors
(Cacioppo, Petty, Feinstein, & Jarvis, 1996). In their extensive review of the lit-
erature on the construct, Cacioppo et al. (1996) described different empirical
findings regarding the association of need for cognition with other variables. In
this sense, people high in need for cognition have been found to be curious and
sensation-seekers and to have active and exploring minds (Olson, Camp, &
Fuller, 1984), to formulate complex attributions (Petty & Jarvis, 1996), to have
intrinsic motivation to engage in effortful cognitive endeavors (Amabile, Hill,
Hennessey, & Tighe, 1994), to be open to actions, ideas, feelings, and values
(Berzonsky & Sullivan, 1992), and to desire new experiences that stimulate
thinking (Venkatraman, Marlino, Kardes, & Sklar, 1990). Although there is
still a lack of studies analyzing the relationships between emotional variables
and need for cognition, initial findings from studies on alexithymia suggest
that need for cognition is associated with a higher capacity to identify and
communicate feelings and to discriminate these feelings from bodily sensations
(Taylor, Bagby, & Parker, 1992). Other studies have found negative associa-
tions between need for cognition and social anxiety, especially in elderly people
(Mueller & Grove, 1991; Mueller & Johnson, 1990) and neuroticism (Dornic,
Ekehammar, & Laaksonen, 1991). Self-esteem seems to be positively related to
need for cognition (Kernis, Grannemann, & Barclay, 1992; Mueller & Grove,
1991).
Creativity and originality or number of divergent thinking responses have
also been found to be related to preference for complexity in the artistic–aes-
thetic field (Rawlings, Twomey, Burns, & Morris, 1998). Analyzing creative
problem solving in high school students, Pufal-Struzik (1996) found demand
258 LABOUVIE-VIEF AND GONZÁLEZ