Dispositional affect

Dispositional affect, similar to mood, is a personality trait or overall tendency to respond to situations in stable, predictable ways. This trait is expressed by the tendency to see things in a positive or negative way. People with high positive affectivity tend to perceive things through "pink lens" ("rose-colored glasses") while people with high negative affectivity tend to perceive things through "black lens". The level of dispositional affect affects the sensations and behavior immediately and most of the time in unconscious ways. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispositional_affect

Characteristics

Conceptual distinctions from emotion and mood

Dispositional affect is different from emotion or affect, by being a personality trait while emotion is a general concept for subjective responses of people to certain situations.

Dispositional affect is also different from moods

Though mood is specific, it is not a personality trait.

Dimensions

In general, though emotion researchers disagree about the way that emotions and dispositional affect should be classified, a common classification of emotions assumes that each emotion is a combination of pleasantness (pleasant or unpleasant) (Agreeableness) and activation (energy?) (high or low) (2x2). For example, excitement is a combination of pleasantness and high activation, while calmness is a combination of pleasantness and low activation.

Dispositional Affect is also a combination of pleasantness and activation. According to this classification, the different combinations of high or low pleasantness and high or low activation create four Quarters.

In line with the classification mentioned above, there is a well-known and common model that is being used in organizational psychology research to analyze and classify dispositional affect, which was developed by Watson and Tellegen... These two dimensions of dispositional affect are bipolar, distinct and independent, relating to different emotion groups, so that each person can be classified with a positive affectivity and negative affectivity grade.

• Positive affectivity – describes a person's tendency to be cheerful and energetic, and who experience positive moods, (such as pleasure or well-being), across a variety of situations, perceiving things through a "pink lens". Individuals who have low levels of positive affectivity tend to be low energy and sluggish or melancholy... High level of positive affectivity represents the extent to which an individual feels energetic and excited
• Negative affectivity – describes a person's tendency to be distressed and upset, and have a negative view of self over time and across situations, perceiving things through a "black lens"...low levels of negative affectivity are perceived as positive traits since they represent individuals who are more calm, serene and relaxed.... High levels of negative affectivity represents the extent to which an individual feels anger, irritability, fear or nervousness, while low level of negative affectivity represents the extent to which an individual feels calm and serene ".

Relation to personality traits

There has been some debate over how closely related affect and some of the Big Five Model of personality traits are related. Some maintain that negative affect and positive affect are should be viewed as the same concept as Neuroticism and Extraversion from the Big Five Model, respectively. However, other researchers maintain that these concepts are related but should remain distinctly separate as they have traditionally had weak to moderate correlations

Measurement

Operationalization's for dispositional affect can be measured by questionnaires. In English researchers use the Positive Affect Negative Affect Scale (PANAS).

Physical and mental aspects

Individuals who have high levels of positive affectivity, had longer life span, reported fewer pains and illness symptoms (such as blood pressure), and were less likely to develop a cold when exposed to a virus compared with individuals who have high levels of negative affectivity, while both had the same illness

Lifestyle – Even when it comes to healthy individuals, it seems that there are differences between people's life style, due to their dispositional affect trait. Individuals who have high levels of positive affectivity tend to attend healthier activities such as improved sleep quality, more physical exercise, and more intake of dietary vitamins, and tend to socialize more often and maintain more and higher-quality social ties.

Psychological resilience – Individuals who have high levels of positive affectivity have lower levels of the stress hormones (such as epinephrine, norepinephrine, and cortisol), thus physiology gives one explanation in favor of psychological resilience that provides positive resources to confront stressful life events.

Dispositional Affect and the Workplace - Dispositional affect in the work place can be influential on how a person performs, or even how one is treated based on this affect

Coping

Those with a positive dispositional affect were more successful in using task-oriented coping methods (which involve directly addressing the issue at hand), while those with a negative dispositional affect were more successful in using avoidant coping strategies

Decision making and negotiation

Decision making – In dealing with interesting and important situations, it was found that individuals who have high levels of positive affectivity make a thorough and efficient cognitive processing, and therefore their decision making process is more efficient, flexible, creative and innovative. It was also found that positive affectivity facilitates creativity, cognitive flexibility, novel responses, openness to new information and dealing with mental problems

Negotiation – When individuals negotiate, it was found that high levels of positive affectivity was related to optimistic view of the upcoming results, planning and using cooperation strategies, and better results regarding the agreements that were made,