Neuroticism boldly contrasts with the other personality traits in the Five Factor Model for personality (Openness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Contentiousness, and Neuroticism). An individual being high in any of the other four traits could hardly be considered pathological. For example, high levels of agreeableness, within reason, would probably be considered to be a positive and healthy characteristic. However, the discussion regarding neuroticism certainly takes a darker turn. Gunthert, Cohen, and Armeli (1999) in their study, operationally define neuroticism as a predisposition to experience negative affect (negative emotional systems). Lahey (2009) defines it slightly differently, as the tendency to “respond with negative emotions to threat, frustration, or loss.” More generally, the personality trait is characterized by anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, and vulnerability (Cervone & Pervin, 2010). Neuroticism has critical implications outside of personality psychology. Some researchers suggest that neuroticism is significantly correlated with both physical and mental health issues more so than any other personality trait variable. This increased risk is not just for a particular group of pathologies; neuroticism has been linked to Axis I and II disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) across the board (Lahey, 2009). In some occupational performance studies, negative affect was negatively related to job performance (Kaplan, Bradley, Luchman, & Haynes, 2009). This may be extrapolated to individuals high in neuroticism, as it the trait is the predisposition for the experience of negative affect. Research on daily stress and coping showed th... ... middle of paper ... ...itive and negative affectivity in job performance: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(1), 162-176. doi:10.1037/a0013115 Lahey, B. B. (2009). Public health significance of neuroticism. American Psychologist, 64(4), 241-256. doi:10.1037/a0015309 Perkins, A.D., & Corr, P.J. (2005). Cognitive ablilty as a buffer to neuroticism: churchill’s secret weapon? . Personality and Individual Differences, 40(0191-8869), 39-51. Tamir, M., & Robinson, M. D. (2004). Knowing Good From Bad: The Paradox of Neuroticism, Negative Affect, and Evaluative Processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(6), 913-925. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.87.6.913 Watson, D., & Pennebaker, J. W. (1989). Health complaints, stress, and distress: Exploring the central role of negative affectivity. Psychological Review, 96(2), 234-254. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.96.2.234
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, K. W. (2016). Personality Psychology: Understanding Yourself and Others. Boston:
Ms. M’s results suggested that she does not trust her environment. Her mistrust is also directed towards other people because she is uncertain how other people will react to her. Therefore, she exudes a lot of effort towards safeguarding her behavior when around other people. However, the amount of effort she puts forth negatively affects her self-perception, as she has a pessimistic view of herself. The pessimism and mistrust towards her environment also negatively affect her problem solving and decision making
Eysenck gave the name neuroticism to a dimension that range from normal, calm and collected
On the contrary, when dealing with the neurotic dimension, the book and research I conducted were not parallel. The book does not directly deal with possible positive effects of hiring a neurotic employee. The article “Why Your Neurotic Employees Might Also Be Your Most Creative” explains that some companies benefit from having employees with this trait because they generate better
In the field of Psychology, more specifically health-behavioral research, there has been resounding interest in the structure and measurement of, what the psychological community refers to as, affect. Affect refers to how we, as humans, “experience emotion” and can be broken down into two dominant affective state dimensions, positive and negative affect (Hogg, Abrams, & Martin, 2010)(Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). According to Watson, Clark, & Tellegen (1988), positive affect (PA) refers to how enthusiastic and active a person is and negative affect (NA) refers to a general dimension of distress and displeasure. Tellegen (1985) claims that not only do these terms refer to affective state, but also affective trait dimensions, indicating that, “Trait PA and NA roughly correspond to the personality factors of extraversion and neuroticism,” respectively. While many PA and NA scales have been developed, however, these scales were unable to develop items for PA and NA that were statistically independent of each other. In an attempt to operationalize the orthogonal dimensions of positive and negative affect, Watson, Clark & and Tellegen (1988) developed The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (i.e. PANAS). In the following review, I will evaluate and critique the PANAS, as a measure of trait affect, focusing on the reliability and validity of scores, test content, and the manner in which it is used.
P.J. (2004). Personality: Theory and Research. USA: Wiley. SMITH. T. W. and WILLIAMS.
Personality predispositions can determine levels of extraversion, which determine the levels to which one seeks social support, thus determining positive affect. Similarly, personality predispositions can determine levels of neuroticism that may influence one’s style of coping in the face of both positive and negative external factors which can determine negative affect (Diener, 1996). Happiness, a core aspect of positive subjective wellbeing, involves maintaining a superior level of positive affect in comparison to negative effect, based on specific positive or negative emotions linked to the recent experiences in one’s life (Emmons & Diener, 1985). Positive emotions such as joy and pride must trump negative emotions such as frustration and sadness in the recent past or present in order for an individual to feel happy. Life satisfaction builds on this and is a cognitive valuation of the quality of an individual’s experiences as a sum throughout their entire life (Emmons & Diener, 1985). Individual personality traits have been found to influence the different patterns and levels of life satisfaction, positive and negative affects and simply general, overall happiness (McCrae, 1983).
five factor theory is a fairly recent proposal and has its basis in earlier work,
Neuroticism can be describing as a person who has the tendency to experience a negative emotion, fear, sadness, anxiety, guilt and shame. People experience this type of emotion sometimes but others can be more prone to it. This trait has been said to be more of an alarm system because people experience the negative as a sign that something may have went wrong. Someone that scores low is more likely to brush the misfortune off and move on. The score indicates that I can experience a negative emotion and that I would feel any type of sadness, worry, anger and guilt as an average person. I am not reactive or resistance to any stress of
According to the findings of the Five Factor Model of personality, I have a relatively balanced score on a number of the key traits. For example, on the continuum of extroversion versus introversion, I scored moderately high in both categories, indicating that I am comfortable being around other people and also being alone. I also scored moderate on the quality of contentiousness, indicating I am always struggling between being organized and disorganized, which is also true. I scored extremely high on agreeableness, indicating that I am basically a trusting and friendly person. In general, I believe this speaks well of my mental health. But I scored high for the trait of neuroticism, which indicates that I can be emotional and insecure (i.e., I worry a great deal). I also ranked high on the trait of openness, on seeking out new experiences and being open-minded. This indicates that I am open to new ideas and enjoy creative and novel things.
Schultz D. & Schultz S. (2008). Karen Horney: Neurotic Needs and Trends. In D. Schultz & S Schultz (Eds.) Theories of Personality (pp. 158 – 180).
(1997). McRae et al. (1997) attempted to find if the Five-Factor Model was a universal constant in all cultures. They also attempted to see if cultural views would change how the five traits were viewed. The researchers collected data from 6 different translations of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, this inventory looks for universal trait dimensions in a variety of languages. These 6 translations were then compared to the American counterpart. It was found that while some cultures did differ slightly in their view of the five traits found in the Five-Factor Model in comparison to Americans, the traits were still universal. All six translations found the big five traits of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and opens to experience to be
Cognitively, these behaviors may influence how individuals understand the characteristics of their jobs, as is the situation when individuals with optimistic core self-evaluation understand intrinsic job features more completely, even controlling for real job complexity. Affectively, these personalities might stimulate job satisfaction through their outcome on mood or mood at the organization. Lastly, employees who are emotionally steady, extroverted and conscientious may be better-off at work because they are more possible to achieve sustaining results at work. Part of this outcome may operate through job presentation, such that conscientious employees achieve better and are more content with their jobs because of the intrinsic ...
Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2009). Personality traits. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Judge, T. A., Locke, E. A., Durham, C. C., & Kluger, A. N. (1998). Dispositional effects on job and life satisfaction: The role of core evaluations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 17–34.