Running title: AFFECT IS DYNAMIC DURING PREGNANCY Affective Experience in Ecologically Relevant Contexts is Dynamic, and Not Progressively Attenuated During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is thought to diminish a woman’s appraisals of and affective responses to stressors. To examine this assumption, we used an electronic diary and an ecological momentary assessment strategy to record women’s (n=85) experiences of positive and negative affect five times each day over two days within each trimester of pregnancy. Women also completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale each trimester. Multi-level modeling indicated non-linear patterns for both positive and negative affect that differed by level of depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that changes in psychological experience over the course of pregnancy are dynamic and not progressively attenuated.