What critical commonality defines the spectrum covered by negative affect?
Answer
The negative valence, which is the intrinsic unpleasantness of the feeling.
Regardless of whether the emotion ranges from mild displeasure, such as slight annoyance, to intense distress, like panic during an emergency, the shared feature defining its inclusion under the negative affect umbrella is its valence. Valence refers to the inherent quality of the feeling being aversive or distressing. This common unpleasantness is what groups otherwise disparate emotions like guilt, anger, and sadness together as fundamental aspects of mood processing, even though their intensity and behavioral outcomes may differ significantly.

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