A Positive Perspective on Attentional Bias: Positive Affectivity and Attentional Bias to Positive Information

In recent years there has been growing interest in determining the attentional basis of positive affectivity. Investigators have sought to evaluate the hypothesis that elevated positive affectivity is characterized by an attentional bias that favours the processing of positive information over neutral information. Unfortunately, in the studies carried out to date, the assessment procedures used by researchers to assess such attentional selectivity have either been methodologically limited or methodologically flawed. Hence, the validity of the hypothesis has remained indeterminate. To overcome the problems associated with attentional assessment procedures used in previous studies, and so shed light on the attentional basis of positive affectivity, we employed an appropriate variant of the attentional probe task. Our findings show that participants high in positive affectivity displayed greater relative attention to positive information compared to neutral information, than was the case for their low positive affectivity counterparts. Thus, the present results support the hypothesis that an attentional bias to positive information, relative to neutral information, is characteristic of elevated positive affectivity.     

Becoming happier takes both a will and a proper way: an experimental longitudinal intervention to boost well-being

An 8-month-long experimental study examined the immediate and longer term effects of regularly practicing two assigned positive activities (expressing optimism and gratitude) on well-being. More important, this intervention allowed us to explore the impact of two metafactors that are likely to influence the success of any positive activity: whether one self-selects into the study knowing that it is about increasing happiness and whether one invests effort into the activity over time. Our results indicate that initial self-selection makes a difference, but only in the two positive activity conditions, not the control, and that continued effort also makes a difference, but, again, only in the treatment conditions. We conclude that happiness interventions are more than just placebos, but that they are most successful when participants know about, endorse, and commit to the intervention.     

Positive and Negative Affectivity and Facet Satisfaction: A Meta-analysis

Although several studies have investigated the dispositional approach to global job satisfaction, less direct attention has been given to the relationship between dispositions and facet satisfaction. The current meta-analysis examined the relationships of trait positive affectivity (PA) and trait negative affectivity (NA) with satisfaction toward the following five job facets: work itself, supervision, co-workers, pay and promotion. In general, results suggested the presence of a dispositional component to facet satisfaction. Moderator analyses examined whether the strength of these relationships depended on the particular scales used to assess dispositions.     

幼儿的坚持性与执行功能和负性情绪的关系

儿童的认知控制和情绪调节可能影响他们面对挑战任务时的坚持性水平,而后者与其学校适应能力密切相关。本研究采用实验法和问卷法对91名6岁幼儿进行研究,主要探讨学前班儿童的坚持性与执行功能和负性情绪之间的关系,试图从认知控制和情绪调节角度,为提高幼儿的任务坚持性提供有效的干预策略。结果表明：（1）幼儿执行功能发展得越完备,其坚持性水平越高;（2）幼儿表露的负性情绪越少,其坚持性水平越高;（3）幼儿执行功能与坚持性的关系受到负性情绪的调节,对于负性情绪水平较低的幼儿,执行功能可以预测坚持性发展水平。     

Supervisor Support in the Work Place: Legitimacy and Positive Affectivity

Abstract

The authors tested 3 hypotheses regarding supervisor support in the work place. The validation hypothesis predicts that when employees are supported by their coworkers and the larger organization, they also receive more support from their supervisors. The positive affectivity hypothesis predicts that employees with positive dispositions receive more supervisor support because they are more socially oriented and likable. The moderation hypothesis predicts a joint multiplicative effect between validation and positive affectivity. An assessment of the hypotheses among a sample of 1,882 hospital employees in Korea provided strong support for the validation and moderation hypotheses.     

Relation Between Negative Affectivity and Positive Affectivity: Effects of Judged Desirability of Scale Items and Respondents' Social Desirability

Two major measures of negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA), developed from the theory of independent affect, are examined. It was found in Study 1 that NA and PA items tended to be judged either very undesirable or desirable when describing people in general. Study 2 revealed that there is a strong positive relation between item desirability and the probability of endorsing the item. Furthermore, the hypothesis that the NA-PA relation varies as a function of respondents' social desirability (SD) is generally supported across measures by means of subgroup comparison and moderated regression analysis. Specifically, there was a moderately strong PA-NA relation only in the group with high SD. The relation is weaker, however, in the group with low SD. Potential reasons why NA and PA are related and unrelated under different conditions are discussed.     

Bridging the Breach: Using Positive Affectivity to Overcome Knowledge Hiding after Contract Breaches

Abstract

With a basis in conservation of resources theory, this study investigates the relationship between employees’ exposure to perceived contract breaches and their job performance, while also considering the mediating role of knowledge hiding and the moderating role of positive affectivity. Multisource, three-wave data from employees and their peers in Pakistani organizations reveal that breaches in the psychological contract hinder job performance, because employees respond with an unwillingness to contribute valuable knowledge to execute their job tasks. This mediating role of knowledge hiding is mitigated if employees can draw from their own positive affectivity trait. This study accordingly identifies a key factor, intentional attempts to conceal knowledge requested by other members, that can backfire and make employees suffer doubly: from unfulfilled organizational promises and from lower performance. It also reveals how this risk might be contained, that is, by encouraging employees’ positive affect.     

Positive Affectivity as a Moderator of the Objective-Task Characteristics/Perceived-Task Characteristics Relationship

Data from a randomized experimental study were used to examine whether the dispositions of negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA) moderated the relationships between task enrichment, task perceptions (job scope), and task satisfaction. Participants performed tasks that were low, moderate, or high in terms of enrichment. Results of regression analyses show that the task-enrichment manipulations explained a greater proportion of variance in job scope and task satisfaction than did the dispositions. Furthermore, PA, but not NA, moderated the relationship between task enrichment and job scope. Consistent with previous theory and research, our findings suggest that dispositions may play a role in individuals' perceptions of situational characteristics, but only when such characteristics are ambiguous.     

On the link between different combinations of Negative Affectivity (NA) and Positive Affectivity (PA) and job performance

Despite the assumed orthogonality of Negative Affectivity (NA) and Positive Affectivity (PA), the effects of the different combinations of NA and PA on work-related outcomes such as job performance have been neglected. The present study among 42 employees of a local social services department in the Netherlands was conducted to fill this gap. The results show that a negative link between NA and job performance (as assessed by the immediate supervisor) exists only when PA is low. This finding elucidates the role of dispositional affect in organizational research and emphasizes that the interaction between both affectivity dimensions should be included when studying how affect relates to job performance and other work-related outcome variables.     

The Influence of Positive and Negative Affectivity on Attitude Change Toward Organizations

This study tests hypothesized differences in pre-post (product-harm) crisis attitude change toward an organization for positively and negatively oriented individuals. Contrary to theoretical predictions, there was not a strong differential attitude change between positively and negatively oriented individuals. The results suggest a possible boundary condition for the influence of positive and negative affectivity on attitude change. Two explanations are offered for these findings: (1) that the vividness of the situation might override affectivity and (2) that affectivity might not be a strong predictor of attitude change for nonpersonalized attitudes.     

Feeling Good Makes Us Stronger: How Team Resilience Mediates the Effect of Positive Emotions on Team Performance

This study investigated the relationship between collective positive emotions at work and team resilience, expanding on the Broaden and Build theory of Fredrickson (Rev Gen Psychol 2:300–319, 1998; Am Psychol 56:218–226, 2001) at the collective (i.e., work teams) level of analysis. Through the aggregate scores of 1,076 employees (61 % men), grouped into 216 teams and belonging to 40 companies, five collective positive emotions were evaluated (i.e., enthusiasm, optimism, satisfaction, comfort, and relaxation) as well as team resilience. Additionally, ratings of the 216 supervisors of the teams were used to assess team performance (i.e., in- and extra-role performance). Structural equation modeling at the team level of analysis indicated that team resilience mediates the relationship between collective positive emotions and team performance, both in- and extra-role. The results highlight the importance of developing collective positive emotions to help teams to foster team resilience and improve their performance. The article concludes with practical strategies aimed at developing collective positive emotions, together with limitations and suggestions for future research.     

If we have the will,there will be a way: regulatory focus as a group identity

Based on social identity theory and regulatory focus theory, we predicted that promotion and prevention strategies can be part of the identity of a group (i.e., collective regulatory focus) which in turn influences the behavior and experienced emotions of individual group members. We conducted two experiments to test this prediction. After assessing participants' personal regulatory focus preference, collective regulatory focus was induced by showing participants group mottos, allegedly chosen by other members of their group, that either voiced a promotion or a prevention strategy preference. Both experiments yielded evidence for our prediction in that the collective regulatory focus shifted the behavior of individual group members on a signal detection task towards promotion‐ (liberal bias) or prevention‐ (conservative bias) consistent behavior and influenced the emotions they experienced. Experiment 2 further substantiated our group identity rationale by showing that these effects were especially strong for high identifiers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Having the will and finding the way: A review and meta-analysis of hope at work

Critics of the field of positive organizational psychology have expressed reservations with validity and utility of positive constructs, such as hope. The purpose of this article is to systematically review the existing research on hope at work and to determine the ‘true’ relationship between hope and work outcomes by meta-analyzing 133 effect sizes across 45 primary studies based on 11,139 employees. As predicted, we found that the overall corrected mean effect sizes between hope and work performance and employee well-being were positive and statistically significant. Gender and study location were significant moderators of these relationships, with women and US-based studies having stronger hope to work outcomes effects. Taken together, results demonstrate that positive psychology constructs, such as hope, play an important role in understanding and predicting employee behavior.     

Looking at the eyes of happiness: Positive emotions mediate the influence of life satisfaction on attention to happy faces

Despite significant advancements in the research of subjective well-being (SWB), little is known about its connection with basic cognitive processes. The present study explores the association between selective attention to emotional stimuli (i.e. emotional faces) and both the emotional and cognitive components of SWB (i.e. emotional well-being and satisfaction in life, respectively). Participants (N?=?83) were asked to freely watch a series of 84 pairs of emotional (happy, angry, or sad) and neutral faces from the Karolinska Directed Emotional Faces database. Eye-tracking methodology measured first fixations, number of fixations, and the time spent looking at emotional faces. Results showed that both the emotional and cognitive components of SWB were related to a general bias to attend to happy faces and avoid sad faces. Yet, bootstrapping analyses showed that positive emotions, rather than life satisfaction, were responsible for the positive information-processing bias. We discuss the potential functionality of these biases and their implications for research on positive emotions.     

Combined Effects of Positive and Negative Affectivity and Job Satisfaction on Job Performance and Turnover Intentions

Capturing data from employee–supervisor dyads (N = 321) from eight organizations in Pakistan, including human service organizations, an electronics assembly plant, a packaging material manufacturing company, and a small food processing plant, we used moderated regression analysis to examine whether the relationships between trait affect (positive affectivity [PA] and negative affectivity [NA]) and two key work outcome variables (job performance and turnover) are contingent upon the level of job satisfaction. We applied the Trait Activation Theory to explain the moderating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between affect and performance and between affect and turnover. Overall, the data supported our hypotheses. Positive and negative affectivity influenced performance and the intention to quit, and job satisfaction moderated these relationships. We discuss in detail the results of these findings and their implications for research and practice.     

The Interactive Effects of Dispositional Affectivity, Sex, and a Positive Mood Induction on Student Evaluations of Teachers

This study was designed to examine the effects of disposition, sex, and a positive mood induction on student evaluations of teachers. In 33 laboratory classes, 339 students filled out measures of negative affectivity (NA) and positive affectivity (PA). Several weeks later, participants filled out a research-based teacher evaluation form. Students in half of the classes received a positive mood induction prior to filling out the evaluation form, whereas participants in the other classes received the positive mood induction after filling out the evaluation form. Results indicated that PA and the positive mood induction both related positively with evaluation measures. Moreover, NA and PA moderated the relationship between the positive mood induction and teacher evaluations for males, but not for females. Implications for organizations and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Positive Affectivity and Collective Efficacy as Moderators of the Relationship Between Perceived Politics and Job Satisfaction

This study explores the moderating potential of positive affectivity (PA) and perceived collective efficacy (PCE) on the relationship between 3 dimensions of politics perceptions and job satisfaction. We hypothesized that high levels of PA and PCE, in unison, would buffer the harmful effects of perceived politics on job satisfaction. Regression analyses for the 3 dimensions (i.e., general politics, go along to get along, and pay and promotion) yielded a significant finding for the PA × PCE × Go Along to Get Along 3-way interaction only. Consistent with our expectations, low PA-low PCE individuals were less satisfied with their jobs when levels of go-along-to-get-along politics increased. Contrary to our hypothesis, however, high PA-high PCE individuals reported a significant inverse relationship between perceived politics and job satisfaction. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are provided.     

Justifying Outcomes Versus Processes: Distributive and Procedural Justice Beliefs as Predictors of Positive and Negative Affectivity

System justifying beliefs can have adaptive consequences for individuals that include enhanced coping and decreased emotional distress. The present study examined whether individual differences in two kinds of system justifying beliefs uniquely predict dispositional affect. Participants from across the United States were recruited via internet to complete dispositional measures of procedural and distributive justice beliefs, and also brief measures of positive and negative affectivity. While belief in fair outcomes (distributive just world beliefs) was generally associated with greater positive affectivity, belief in fair processes (procedural just world beliefs) was modestly associated with decreased negative affectivity. In addition, positive and negative affectivity were predicted by interactions between procedural and distributive just world beliefs, with each accentuating the general emotional benefit provided by the other. Finally, an interactive effect of procedural just world beliefs and social class was obtained for positive affectivity, with greater positive affectivity occurring for disadvantaged (lower income) individuals who had strong procedural just world beliefs. In general, these results suggest the potential for unique and interactive relationships between particular system justifying beliefs and measures of emotion, especially among members of advantaged versus disadvantaged groups.     

Implicit but Not Explicit Affectivity Predicts Circadian and Reactive Cortisol: Using the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test

ABSTRACT Self-report measures assess mental processes or representations that are consciously accessible. In contrast, implicit measures assess automatic processes that often operate outside awareness. Whereas self-report measures have often failed to show expected relationships with endocrine stress responses, little effort has been made to relate implicit measures to endocrine processes. The present work examines whether implicit affectivity as assessed by the Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT) predicts cortisol regulation. In Study 1 , implicit low positive affectivity, but not negative affectivity, significantly predicted circadian cortisol release. In Study 2 , implicit negative affectivity, but not positive affectivity, significantly predicted the cortisol response to acute stress. By contrast, cortisol regulation was not predicted by self-reported affectivity. The findings support the use of implicit affectivity measures in studying individual differences in endocrine stress responses and point to a differential role of positive and negative affectivity in baseline versus stress-contingent cortisol release, respectively.