Watson and Clark

Watson and Clark have introduced two personality dimensions that are 45 degree rotations of Thayer's energetic and tense arousal. Positive affectivity (PA) is the disposition to feel positive affect; negative affectivity (NA) is the disposition to feel negative affect. Contrary to intuition, positive affectivity and negative affectivity are not opposites--they are uncorrelated, or orthogonal, and are graphically depicted as falling at right angles to one another.

The personality dimensions of positive and negative affectivity are related to certain kinds of psychopathology. Anxiety is a state of high negative affectivity. Depression is a state of both high negative affectivity and low positive affectivity (Watson, Clark, & Carey, 1988).

Extraversion

Neuroticism

Psychoticism

Watson and Clark

Positive AffectivityNegative Affectivity
Atkinson
1		Approach Motivation / Need for Achievement / Joy of SuccessAvoidance Motivation / Fear of Failure / Pain of Failure

Barratt

Action OrientationAnxiety

Cloninger

Behavioral Activation / Novelty SeekingBehavioral Inhibition / Harm AvoidanceBehavioral Maintenance / Reward Dependence

Davidson

Approach / (Non-) DepressionAvoidance / Inhibition / Depression

Depue

Behavioral Facilitation / Mania / Positive EmotionalityBehavioral Inhibition
Dollard and Miller
2		ApproachAvoidance

Eysenck

Extraversion / Arousal / Positive AffectNeuroticism / Activation / Negative AffectPsychoticism / Anger

Fowles

Behavioral Activation / Impulsivity / Positive AffectBehavioral Inhibition / AversionNon-Specific Arousal

Gray

Behavioral Approach / Impulsivity / Positive AffectBehavioral Inhibition / Anxiety / Negative AffectFight vs. Flight / Aggression

Kagan

 Behavioral Inhibition

Newman

Impulsivity / Positive AffectAnxiety / Negative Affect

Revelle

Approach / Instigation of BehaviorAvoidance / Inhibition of BehaviorAggression

Simonov

"Strong" Type (Choleric) vs. "Weak" Type (Melancholic)

Tellegen

Positive Affectivity / Positive AffectNegative Affectivity / Negative AffectConstraint Avoidance

Thayer

Energetic ArousalTense Arousal

Zuckerman

Extraversion / Positive AffectNeuroticismPsychoticism / Impulsivity / Sensation Seeking / Aggression-Anger

Extraversion

Neuroticism

Psychoticism

(This table is adapted from Revelle [1997], and Eysenck [1990].)

References

Eysenck, H. J. (1990). Biological dimensions of personality. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 244-276). New York: Guilford.

Revelle, W. (1997, August 12). Three fundamental dimensions of personality [WWW document]. URL http://personality-project.org/perproj/theory/big3.table.html

Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Carey, G. (1988). Positive and negative affect and their relation to anxiety and depressive disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 346-353.

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