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Definition
Negative affect generally describes different momentary affective phenomena of unpleasant valence varying in object-relatedness and temporal resolution: from briefly fluctuating emotions after specific events to long-lasting moods without a clear cause. At the same time, people differ reliably and rather stably in their inclination to experience momentary negative affect. This entry examines negative affect from the personality perspective, i.e., as relatively enduring differences between individuals to experience various types of negative affect. Another topic entry in this Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences focuses on positive affect.
Introduction: Trait-State Distinction
The latent state-trait theory (LST theory, Steyer et al. 1999) formalizes the distinction between momentary affective experiences that last seconds to a few minutes or hours (i.e., states) and relatively stable differences between people, usually regarding...
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Wrzus, C., Luong, G. (2020). Negative Affect. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_541
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