The Effect of Personality on Daily Life Emotional Processes

Abstract

Personality features are associated with individual differences in daily emotional life, such as negative and positive affectivity, affect variability and affect reactivity. The existing literature is somewhat mixed and inconclusive about the nature of these associations. The aim of this study was to shed light on what personality features represent in daily life by investigating the effect of the Five Factor traits on different daily emotional processes using an ecologically valid method. The Experience Sampling Method was used to collect repeated reports of daily affect and experiences from 104 healthy university students during one week of their normal lives. Personality traits of the Five Factor model were assessed using NEO Five Factor Inventory. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyze the effect of the personality traits on daily emotional processes. Neuroticism predicted higher negative and lower positive affect, higher affect variability, more negative subjective evaluations of daily incidents, and higher reactivity to stressors. Conscientiousness, by contrast, predicted lower average level, variability, and reactivity of negative affect. Agreeableness was associated with higher positive and lower negative affect, lower variability of sadness, and more positive subjective evaluations of daily incidents. Extraversion predicted higher positive affect and more positive subjective evaluations of daily activities. Openness had no effect on average level of affect, but predicted higher reactivity to daily stressors. The results show that the personality features independently predict different aspects of daily emotional processes. Neuroticism was associated with all of the processes. Identifying these processes can help us to better understand individual differences in daily emotional life.

Acute stress responses after indirect exposure to the MH17 airplane crash

“…Although we expected vicariously exposed individuals to show affective and somatic responses to the MH17 crash, the intensity of these responses might differ between individuals. People with certain personality traits may be more sensitive to stressful events than others (e.g., Jacobs et al ., ; Komulainen et al ., ). Personality is typically defined as the consistent individual differences in what we feel, think, want, and do over time and across context which are commonly organized in five broad trait factors (John, Robins, & Pervin, ): extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness to experience, and conscientiousness.…”

The effect of childhood trauma and Five-Factor Model personality traits on exposure to adult life events in patients with psychotic disorders

“…Childhood trauma was found to be associated with stress-sensitivity in the general population, as well as in people at high risk for developing psychotic disorders (Ehlert, 2013;Hankin et al, 2015;Hulme, 2011;Jang et al, 2007;Javier, 2012;Loewy, 2012;Loewy et al, 2014;Teicher et al, 2003). The personality traits neuroticism (van Os et al, 2001) and openness to experience have been linked to tendencies towards stress-reactivity (Headey & Wearing, 1989;Komulainen et al, 2014). In addition, people who experienced childhood trauma reported higher levels of neuroticism and openness to experiences in adulthood (Allen & Lauterbach, 2007).…”

Dispositional negativity in the wild: Social environment governs momentary emotional experience.

“… 1 (See also Brewer et al, 2007; Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000; Ching et al, 2014; Eddington, Majestic, & Silvia, 2012; Emmons & Diener, 1986; Heiy & Cheavens, 2014; Hepburn & Eysenck, 1989; Kardum, 1999; Komulainen et al, 2014; Kuppens, Oravecz, & Tuerlinckx, 2010; Kuppens, Van Mechelen, Nezlek, Dossche, & Timmermans, 2007; Lay & Hoppmann, 2014; McConville & Cooper, 1999; Ode, Hilmert, Zielke, & Robinson, 2010; Ong, Zautra, & Reid, 2010; Park, Armeli, & Tennen, 2004; Rusting & Larsen, 1998; Schimmack, 2003; Sherry & Hall, 2009; Skalina, Gunthert, Ahrens, & Wenze, 2015; Tennen, Affleck, & Zautra, 2006; Tong et al, 2006; Verduyn & Brans, 2012; Watson, 1988; Williams, 1981, 1990; R. E. Wilson, Thompson, & Vazire, in press ).…”