From Fear to Flow

7

Negative affectivity – the emotional dimension

Introduction

The personality dimension most strongly related to emotional information processing is negative affectivity. Anxiety-driven information seeking is often frantic, and triggered by an emotional goal such as finding calm from the worries, intrusive thoughts and concerns that trouble the mind. In the optimal case, knowing more does bring comfort, reassurance, hope or relief. When this is not accomplished, however, new information may stir up additional discomfort. Low-energy states of negative affectivity, such as depression, have the opposite effect: creating indifference, passivity and information avoidance. In work or study contexts negative affectivity may sometimes focus and energize ...