Positive affect, negative affect, and social interaction.

Abstract

Two studies explored the relations of positive and negative affect (PA and NA) to social interaction. In Study 1, unacquainted dyads were surreptitiously videotaped as they participated in a 6-min interaction. Participants then evaluated the quality of the interaction. Independent observers also rated the videotaped interactions. Trait PA was positively related to both participant and observer evaluations of interaction quality. In Study 2, undergraduates kept diaries of their social interactions for 1 week. PA was again related to interaction quality. Both PA and NA were positively related to the number of interactions in which participants engaged, and the amount of time spent engaged in social contact, although different types of social encounters produced these relations. Psychologists have long been interested in individual differences in people's self-described emotional experience. Research has revealed that some people report experiencing greater amounts of positive emotions than do others and are typically referred to as high-positive-affect (or high-PA) individuals. People who are high in positive affect are, for example, consistently more likely to describe themselves as enthusiastic, confident, and excited than are people who are low in positive affect. On the other hand, some individuals' daily lives are characterized by greater amounts of negative affective states than are others, and they are often referred to as high-negative-affect (or highNA) people. For example, people who are high in NA are more likely to describe themselves as guilty, fearful, and nervous than are low-NA individuals. Although there are fluctuations in the levels of positive or negative affect a given person experiences at different points in time, the stability of self-reports of NA and PA is impressive (e.g., Watson, 1988a, 1988b). In sum, there appear to be trait like interindividual differences in people's typical self-reported levels of NA and PA. These individual differences in trait NA and PA also seem to underlie the personality dimensions of neuroticism and extraversion. In particular, self-report measures of NA and neuroticism have been repeatedly demonstrated to be highly correlated with one another but unrelated to measures of either positive affect or extraversion. Similarly, PA and extraversion are strongly related but are uncorrelated with either NA or neurot