Traits and emotions: a review of their structure and management

This paper reviews literature on traits and emotions focusing on both structure and management, or 'having' and 'doing'. The cognitive perspective of this paper implies that traits and emotions are viewed as provisions to frame people and their behaviours in situations in meaningful ways. The focus on the structure of traits thus implies considering the now broadly acknowledged Big Five model as a dimensional framework by which traits of people can be meaningfully organized. A similar position is taken with respect to emotions, given the recurrent finding of a two-dimensional model of emotions with Positive Affect and Negative Affect (PA and NA). Maintaining relevant distinctions between traits and emotions, the literature has demonstrated a close link between the two emotion dimensions and two dimensions of the Big Five (Extraversion and Neuroticism). The commonality between those systems becomes apparent by making use of circumplex representations. The focus on management is another way to give meaning to cognition. Traits describe how people are differentially equipped with characteristics that enable them to face a variety of situational demands and fortuitous circumstances. In this paper the strategic meaning of traits and of emotions is put forward using literature with different theoretical angles. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.