How to feel in order to be satisfied at work? A differentiating view on the Affective Events Theory

Affective Events Theory (AET; Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) states that emotions at work affect job satisfaction. We specified existing research by distinguishing between frequency and intensity of emotional episodes at work and by varying the time frame for which emotions were reported. In a paper-pencil study employed persons (N = 228) reported the frequency and the intensity of positive and negative work-related affective states. The time period, for which emotions were reported, was varied between subjects (last week vs. last month). When predicting job satisfaction, regression analyses indicated that (1) the frequency of emotions is a better predictor than their intensity and that (2) positive emotions are a better predictor than negative emotions when reporting affective states for the last week, whereas this pattern reverses for the time frame of last month. Thus, with an increasing time interval, negative emotions seem to have a comparatively better cognitive representation