Affect Is Central to Emotion and Conflict
Many scholars regard affect to be the most basic and irreducible component underlying emotion (Frijda, 1986; Ortony, Clore, & Foss, 1987). Baumeister, Vohs, DeWall, and Zhang (2007) described affect as a conscious or nonconscious automatic response that is “no more than a quick twinge of feeling that something is good or bad, of liking or disliking for something” (p.
169). Thus, as shown in Figure 4.1, affect is rooted in valence or the extent to which a reaction is positive or negative (Winkielman, Knutson, Paulus, & Trujillo, 2007).During conflict situations, affect may translate into a positive or negative orientation toward the partner and the conflict situation. Various scholars have described conflict behavior in terms of how cooperative (or constructive) versus uncooperative (or destructive) people act (e.g., Canary, Cupach, & Messman, 1995; Klein & Johnson, 1997). Such behaviors may reflect an overall orientation toward the conflict situation that is influenced by the affect a person is experiencing. When intense negative affect is present, it may be more difficult to approach conflict in an optimistic, cooperative manner. Indeed, considerable research has confirmed that positive affect is associated with cooperative conflict behavior, whereas negative affect is associated with more competitive conflict behavior (see Bell & Song, 2005, for a review).