Affective Traits

The Concept of Affective Traits

Trait affect is defined as a tendency to respond to specific classes of stimuli in a predetermined, affect-based manner. Therefore, an affective trait is considered a relatively stable characteristic of personality. There are two general bipolar dimensions of affective responding: trait positive affect (TPA) and trait negative affect (TNA). High TPA is characterized by the tendency to experience positively activated emotions in general, such as excitement, high energy, joy, enthusiasm, and exhilaration. Persons with low TPA have a general tendency to be lethargic, apathetic, and listless, but they do not necessarily experience negative affect. High TNA is defined as the tendency to experience feelings of anger, guilt, fear, annoyance, and nervousness. Low TNA is the other pole of the TNA dimension, characterized by being placid, calm, and contented. The two dimensions, TPA and TNA, are conceptualized as orthogonal or at least separable dimensions, and they show zero to moderate negative correlations with each other. This implies that it is possible to be simultaneously high or low in both TPA and TNA, high in TPA and low in TNA, and vice versa. Combinations between the extremes are possible, too. The term affective traits refers to a person's average level or typical amount of a given emotion, whereas affective states are more temporal, situation-bound experiences of moods and emotions.

Both TPA and TNA can be interpreted as the diagonal coordinates in a circumplex model of affect that is built on the orthogonal dimensions of activation and pleasantness. High TPA in this model is a combination of high activation and high pleasantness, and high TNA is a combination of high activation and high unpleasantness.

Whereas TPA has been shown to be robustly related with extraversion, TNA has been similarly linked with neuroticism, two personality factors from the five-factor model of personality (Big Five), although the fit is not perfect. As an explanation, Timothy A. Judge and Randy J. Larsen have developed a model for integrating affect with personality, referring to these relationships. They present evidence that certain personality traits dispose people to be more or less reactive to hedonic stimuli, and they demonstrate that other personality traits indirectly dispose people to modulate their emotional reactions. Extraversion and neuroticism are considered to represent differential sensitivity to typical TPA and TNA stimuli. High-neuroticism individuals are mainly motivated to avoid punishment (negative stimuli), whereas high-extraversion individuals are mainly motivated to gain rewards (positive stimuli).

Affective traits are genuinely individual-level concepts. In a group work context, individual affective traits may combine into a group-level affective tone that in turn is related to experiences and behaviors in the work group.

Measurement of Affective Traits

Several instruments are available for measuring affective traits. The instrument that is most often used is the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), developed by David Watson and his coworkers. It comprises two 10-item scales, one for assessing positive and one for assessing negative affect. The items refer to the high-activation aspect of negative and positive affectivity, respectively. Because the PANAS scales lack low-activation markers of negative and positive [Page 14]affect, they sample only a limited part of the affect circumplex. The PANAS shows good reliability and high discriminant validity with low intercorrelations between the positive and negative affectivity scales.

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