Improved agreement about the quality and quantity of affect in psychiatric patients may be provided by videotaping them and averaging the scoring of the affects in the tapes by groups of professionals. Affects are real, observable, and discrete phenomena that are of central importance in psychiatric research and training. A natural reliability of affect reading appears to cross regional and cultural boundaries, when the means of groups are compared. Such means may provide valid and reliable scoring norms for the evaluation of psychopathology and treatment, and for calibration of mental health professionals' ascertainment of patients' affects.