450 v. AFFECTI vE PROCESSES
evidence is clear that trait-level tendencies 
toward positive and negative affect are in -
dependent, and these are typically measured 
using separate subscales (e.g., the Positive 
and Negative Affect Schedule [PANAS]; 
Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988).
Global trait positive and negative affect 
(PA and NA) remain central constructs in 
the study of personality, and the links be -
tween positive and negative emotionality 
and extraversion and neuroticism have been 
well documented. High PA and low NA are 
defining features of “happiness” in Diener’s 
(2000) influential model of psychologi -
cal well-being. Costa and McCrae (1980) 
examined the extent to which variables 
emerging from multiple theories of person -
ality predicted trait PA and NA, concluding 
that PA was best predicted by extraversion 
and NA by neuroticism. The associations 
of extraversion and neuroticism with trait-
level PA and NA are robust as is evident in 
extensive meta-  analysis (DeNeve & Cooper, 
1998). In terms of emotion states, extraver -
sion predicts the intensity of self-  reported 
positive emotional experiences in response 
to experimental mood inductions, whereas 
neuroticism predicts the intensity of self- 
reports of negative emotion, without sig -
nificant crossover effects (e.g., R. Larsen & 
Ketelaar, 1991; Rusting & Larsen, 1997). 
Moreover, instructing participants to be -
have in an extraverted manner leads to an 
increase in the experience of positive emo -
tion, whereas instructing them to behave 
in a more neurotic way leads to increased 
negative emotional experience (McNiel & 
Fleeson, 2006).
Building on the wave of discoveries re -
lating extraversion to positive emotion and 
neuroticism to negative emotion, recent 
research has sought to identify biological 
and behavioral processes driving these as -
sociations. Following Gray (1981), other re -
searchers propose that extraverted individu -
als react to positive events with more intense 
dopaminergic reward circuit activity (e.g., 
Canli et al., 2001; Depue & Collins, 1999), 
such as heightened action in the nucleus ac -
cumbens while performing a gambling task 
in the scanner (e.g., Cohen, Young, Baek, 
Kessler, & Ranganath, 2005). The social ac -
tivity on which extraverts thrive also plays 
an important role in promoting positive emotional experience. Although outgoing 
and self-  contained individuals both enjoy 
social situations, extraverts engage in more 
of them throughout a typical day, which in 
part accounts for their heightened positive 
emotion (e.g., Srivastava, Tamir, McGoni -
gal, John, & Gross, 2009). One’s sense of 
“social contribution”—the feeling of hav -
ing a positive impact on the people around 
you—  appears especially important in fa -
cilitating positive emotion, and contributes 
to the extraversion–  positive emotion asso -
ciation (Smillie, Wilt, Kabbani, Garratt, & 
Revelle, 2015).
A complementary line of studies has begun 
to unpack why high-  neuroticism individuals 
are more likely to experience negative emo -
tion. For example, they tend to use relatively 
ineffective emotion regulation strategies 
such as wishful thinking and withdrawal 
when facing difficult situations (e.g., hoping 
your neighbor just won’t notice the dent you 
made in their car, or avoiding the mail when 
faced with credit card debt) rather than 
strategies such as problem solving and reap -
praisal (Connor-  Smith & Flachsbart, 2007). 
Those high in neuroticism may even deliber -
ately increase their negative mood in perfor -
mance situations, and worrying appears to 
help them succeed (Tamir, 2005).
Since Goldberg’s (1990) groundbreaking 
work identifying the “Big Five” personality 
factors, some studies have reached beyond 
the PA–  extraversion and NA–  neuroticism 
associations to connect other aspects of per -
sonality and emotion. For example, agree -
ableness has been linked to a stronger pro -
pensity for love and compassion (Shiota et 
al., 2006), and lower proneness to anger 
(Kuppens, 2005). Conscientiousness has 
been linked to more effective emotion regu -
lation, consistent with this trait’s emphasis 
on self-  control in general (Jensen-  Campbell, 
Knack, Waldrip, & Campbell, 2007). Open -
ness to experience has been linked to greater 
propensity for mixed emotions—  the simul -
taneous experience of PA and NA (Barford 
& Smillie, 2016). Also, dispositional tenden -
cies to use different emotion regulation strat -
egies have been linked to social well-being 
and memory for emotional events, as well as 
trait positive and negative emotionality (e.g., 
Gross & John, 2003; John & Gross, 2004; 
Srivastava et al., 2009).