The Implicit And Explicit Characteristics And Predictive Validity Of Trait Positive Affect

Trait Positive Affect has become a key aspect of happiness, and it is also a powerful predictor of physical and mental health. Trait Positive Affect has a great significance for survival and development of individual, subjective well-being, mental health and interpersonal relationship. Generally speaking, people with higher levels of Trait Positive Affect tend to be higher social activity, having more friends and more acquaintances, participating in more social activities. However, at present few researchers combine explicit trait positive affect with implicit trait positive affect to study. In addition, the researchers have rare discussion for the separation and it’s level of implicit and explicit trait positive affect.In this study, I take freshmen and job hunters as the research objects and use the methods of experiments and longitudinal design, to investigate the implicit and explicit characteristics and predictive validity of Trait Positive Affect. Specifically, in order to explore the implicit and explicit characteristics and predictive validity of Trait Positive Affect, this study first used the Implicit Association Test and Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale(PANAS) to measure the implicit and explicit Trait Positive Affect, respectively; Secondly, the Social Self-Efficacy of College Students Questionnaire was used to measure the freshmen’s Social Self-Efficacy, and Job Search Behavior Questionnaire to investigate job hunter’s job behaviors, as the criterion to explore the predictive validity of implicit and explicit Trait Positive Affect. This study, which discusses Trait Positive Affect and its predictive validity from the implicit and explicit views, is a beneficial supplement for current trait affect theory with the construction of explicit trait positive affect as the main framework, and it also has a high guiding significance for improving the quality of people’s lives, work efficiency, happiness, satisfaction, and maintaining the healthy body.The main results of this study are as follows:Firstly, the Explicit Trait Positive Affect and Implicit Trait Positive Affect of freshmen is separated;Secondly, the Explicit Trait Positive Affect and Implicit Trait Positive Affect of freshmen could significantly predict theirs social self-efficacy;Thirdly, Explicit Trait Positive Affect and Implicit Trait Positive Affect of the freshmen can stably predict theirs social self-efficacy;Fourth, the Explicit Trait Positive Affect and Implicit Trait Positive Affect of job hunters is separated;Fifth, the Implicit Trait Positive Affect of job hunters can significantly predict theirs job search behaviors, and job hunters’ Explicit Trait Positive Affect could not significantly predict the job behaviors;Sixth, the Implicit Trait Positive Affect of job hunters can stably predict theirs job search behaviors, and job hunters’ Explicit Trait Positive Affect could not stably predict the job behaviors.The conclusions of this study are as follows:Firstly, the Explicit Trait Positive Affect and the Implicit Trait Positive Affect are separated;Secondly, compared with the Explicit Trait Positive Affect, Implicit Trait Positive Affect has stronger stability across time and can predict the behavior of the individual more effectively, whose has more stable predictive validity.