Compare methods

	Affective Events Theory	Psychological Contract Measurement
Field	Organizational Behavior	Organizational Behavior
Family	Process / pipeline	Latent structure
Year of origin	1996	1989
Originator	Howard Weiss & Russell Cropanzano	Denise Rousseau; Sandra Robinson & Elizabeth Morrison
Type	Theoretical framework linking workplace events, affect, and behavior	Employment-exchange belief measurement scale
Seminal source	Weiss, H. M., & Cropanzano, R. (1996). Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 18, 1-74. ISBN: 9781559389389	Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2(2), 121-139.
Aliases	AET, Weiss-Cropanzano Affective Events Framework, Affective Events Framework, Events-Affect-Behavior Model	Psychological Contract Inventory, PCI, Psychological Contract Breach Measure, Rousseau Psychological Contract
Related	3	3
Summary	Affective Events Theory (AET) is the macro framework that reoriented organizational research toward emotions and the events that cause them. Proposed by Howard Weiss and Russell Cropanzano in 1996, it argues that features of the work environment give rise to discrete events — daily hassles and uplifts — that trigger affective reactions, and that these momentary emotions, not just stable attitudes, drive how people behave at work. The theory's central insight is to distinguish affect-driven behaviors, which flow directly from emotional states, from judgment-driven behaviors, which flow from evaluative attitudes like job satisfaction. It also positions dispositions, such as trait affectivity, as shaping how strongly people react to events. Weiss and Beal's 2005 reflection clarified the theory's structure and its methodological demands, especially the need for within-person, over-time data. AET supplied the conceptual rationale for the experience-sampling and diary revolution in organizational behavior.	The psychological contract is an employee's set of beliefs about the reciprocal obligations between themselves and their employer — the unwritten promises that go beyond the formal employment agreement. Denise Rousseau revived and reframed the concept in her 1989 paper, defining it as the individual's perception of mutual exchange terms, and her 1990 study of new hires distinguished transactional obligations (pay for performance, narrow and economic) from relational ones (loyalty and support, broad and open-ended). Measuring the psychological contract means assessing what employees believe each side has promised and whether those promises are kept. Robinson and Morrison's 2000 longitudinal study sharpened the measurement of breach — the perception that the employer has failed to fulfill obligations — and its emotional aftermath, violation. These measures explain why unmet expectations erode trust, satisfaction, citizenship behavior, and retention.