Expatriate partners’ personality and its influence on acculturation into a new cultural context: Examining the role of dispositional affectivity

Despite the vital role that trailing partners play for successful expatriation, we still know very little about what actually causes partners to thrive and integrate effectively into the new cultural context. However, as indications have emerged that the personality of partners could be key to a favorable acculturation trajectory, we set out to explore this further. More specifically, we assess the role of expatriate partners’ dispositional affectivity, that is, positive and negative affectivity. We examine this in relation to internal acculturation (in the form of interaction and general adjustment) and external acculturation (in the form of local community embeddedness and intentions to stay or to return home). Drawing on the data of 123 trailing partners, full support was found for three out of four hypotheses regarding the effects of positive affectivity. Further, a marginally significant negative association was identified for the relationship between positive affectivity and repatriation intentions. For negative affectivity, two hypotheses were met. Interestingly, no significant influence of negative affectivity on community embeddedness was found. The association between negative affectivity and interaction adjustment was marginally significant indicating some tentative support. In sum, this study corroborates that dispositional affectivity is an overall important concept to explain trailing partners’ acculturation. However, the role of positive and negative affectivity seems to vary along the different proxies of internal and external acculturation.

Growthy Tones in Personal Narratives

Tone in a personal narrative conveys the narrator’s degrees of satisfaction and positive and negative affectivity in an event. As distinct from theme and structure, narrative tone uniquely conveys how well an event turns out (i.e., hedonic value fulfillment) but not why that event is important or valued (i.e., value orientation, which only theme conveys). A story’s tone can change. Affective changes for the better are called positive affective sequences. Examples include gain, redemption (change from bad to good), recovery (changes for the worse and then back to baseline), and hedonic self-improvement (positive change in self-concept). Importantly, positive affective sequences do not convey growth. Without associated themes of growth, tones convey only hedonic gain, not eudaimonic growth. Hence, positive affective sequences are growthy. That said, growthy tones are key features of a transformative self. The relation between positive affective sequences and well-being depends on the type of event.

Positive and Negative Affective Processes Associated With Firearm Acquisition and Ownership

Introduction: To examine positive and negative affective processes associated with firearm acquisition and firearm ownership. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey assessing firearm ownership, reasons for firearm ownership, intentions to acquire a firearm in the next 12 months, and positive and negative affective states was administered to 6,200 U.S. adults (49.0% male, 51.0% female). Results: Mean negative and positive affect were significantly elevated among protective firearm owners (i.e., those who kept firearms for the primary purpose of self-protection) and participants intending to acquire a firearm. Protective firearm owners intending to acquire another firearm reported significantly higher negative affect than all other subgroups. Within this subgroup, negative affect and positive affect were positively correlated. Among all other subgroups, negative and positive affect were either negatively correlated or uncorrelated. Discussion: The intention to acquire firearms and protective firearm ownership are associated with both positive and negative affectivity. Typical cognitive-affective processes may be disrupted among protective firearm owners intending to acquire another firearm.

PANAS Models of Positive and Negative Affectivity for Adolescent Boys

The measurement of affect is often of central interest in adolescent research. Very few studies have investigated the factor structure underlying adolescent responses to the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, with mixed results. Only two studies reported on the trait version: one in Florida, the other in Chile. This study compared a range of prominent models to capture responses from adolescent boys from grades 7 to 12 in Australia (N = 1431) employing confirmatory factor analyses. Models included two, three, and a recently proposed bifactor model. While most models showed reasonable fit compared to a one-factor solution, cross-loading of the item feeling “strong” enhanced fit to the data. In the end, interpretation and parsimony advocate for the adoption of the uncorrelated two-factor Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) model for representing general positive and negative affectivity in boys.

The Role of Positive and Negative Affectivity in Healthy and Unhealthy Work-Related Behavior and Experiences

Positive affectivity (PA) and negative affectivity (NA) are basic traits that affect work-related perceptions and behaviors and should be considered in any assessment of these variables. A quite common method to assess healthy or unhealthy types of work-related perceptions and behaviors is the questionnaire on Work-Related Coping Behavior and Experience Patterns (WCEP). However, the association of PA and NA with WCEP remained unclear. In a sample of teachers, physiotherapists, and teacher students ( N = 745; Mage = 35.07, SD = 12.49; 78% females), we aimed to identify the relevance of these basic traits. After controlling for age, gender, and type of occupation, we found main effects of PA and NA, with the specific combination of PA and NA being decisive for predicting the assignment to a WCEP type. The results highlight the need to include PA and NA in future assessments with the WCEP questionnaire.