PEN Model--Watson & Clark

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 Affectivity Negative Affectivity

Atkinson
1 Approach Motivation / Need for Achievement / Joy of Success Avoidance Motivation / Fear of Failure / Pain of Failure

Barratt

Action Orientation Anxiety

Cloninger

Behavioral Activation / Novelty Seeking Behavioral Inhibition / Harm Avoidance Behavioral Maintenance / Reward Dependence

Davidson

Approach / (Non-) Depression Avoidance / Inhibition / Depression

Depue

Behavioral Facilitation / Mania / Positive Emotionality Behavioral Inhibition

Dollard and Miller
2 Approach Avoidance

Eysenck

Extraversion / Arousal / Positive Affect Neuroticism / Activation / Negative Affect Psychoticism / Anger

Fowles

Behavioral Activation / Impulsivity / Positive Affect Behavioral Inhibition / Aversion Non-Specific Arousal

Gray

Behavioral Approach / Impulsivity / Positive Affect Behavioral Inhibition / Anxiety / Negative Affect Fight vs. Flight / Aggression

Kagan

Behavioral Inhibition

Newman

Impulsivity / Positive Affect Anxiety / Negative Affect

Revelle

Approach / Instigation of Behavior Avoidance / Inhibition of Behavior Aggression

Simonov

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

Tellegen

Positive Affectivity / Positive Affect Negative Affectivity / Negative Affect Constraint Avoidance

Thayer

Energetic Arousal Tense Arousal

Zuckerman

Extraversion / Positive Affect Neuroticism Psychoticism / 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.

Last modified January 1999
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