Variability in negative affect is an important feature of neuroticism above mean negative affect once measurement issues are accounted for

Wenzel, Mario; Rowland, Zarah; Mey, Lara K; Kurth, Karolina; Tüscher, Oliver; Kubiak, Thomas

doi:10.1177/08902070221089139

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Thus, adjusting the associations between neuroticism and variability for confounding by the central tendency (through the RVI or other methods) is sound in principle, although it is still possible to argue about how to best operationalize the variability (e.g., one suggestion was to count the number of episodes of negative emotion, ref. 12 ) and how to best operationalize the central tendency (e.g., one suggestion was to use the mode instead of the mean, ref. 13 ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Emotional (in)stability: Neuroticism is associated with increased variability in negative emotion after all

Mader,

Arslan,

Schmukle

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The personality trait neuroticism is tightly linked to mental health, and neurotic people experience stronger negative emotions in everyday life. But, do their negative emotions also show greater fluctuation? This commonsensical notion was recently questioned by [Kalokerinos et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112, 15838–15843 (2020)], who suggested that the associations found in previous studies were spurious. Less neurotic people often report very low levels of negative emotion, which is usually measured with bounded rating scales. Therefore, they often pick the lowest possible response option, which severely constrains the amount of emotional variability that can be observed in principle. Applying a multistep statistical procedure that is supposed to correct for this dependency, [Kalokerinos et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112, 15838–15843 (2020)] no longer found an association between neuroticism and emotional variability. However, like other common approaches for controlling for undesirable effects due to bounded scales, this method is opaque with respect to the assumed mechanism of data generation and might not result in a successful correction. We thus suggest an alternative approach that a) takes into account that emotional states outside of the scale bounds can occur and b) models associations between neuroticism and both the mean and variability of emotion in a single step with the help of Bayesian censored location-scale models. Simulations supported this model over alternative approaches. We analyzed 13 longitudinal datasets (2,518 individuals and 11,170 measurements in total) and found clear evidence that more neurotic people experience greater variability in negative emotion.

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confidence: 99%

Emotional (in)stability: Neuroticism is associated with increased variability in negative emotion after all

Mader,

Arslan,

Schmukle

et al. 2023

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…However, when estimating reliability using a one-step approach and when modeling reliability of emotional inertia in terms of internal consistency, we found an average reliability of ωfalse¯ = .81, which indicates good reliability. The approach we introduced here to model and account for the reliability of emotion dynamics by computing the measures for each emotion is not limited to emotional inertia but can also be used to estimate and correct for the reliability of other emotion dynamic measures, such as emotional variability (Wenzel et al, 2022) or emotional reactivity (Brose et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing measurement issues in affect dynamic research: Modeling emotional inertia’s reliability to improve its predictive validity of depressive symptoms.

Wenzel

Brose²

2023

Emotion

Self Cite

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Methodical developments facilitated research on the time-dynamic nature of emotions, introducing novel emotion dynamic measures such as emotional inertia that initially showed significant associations with well-being outcomes like depressive symptoms. However, recent research has challenged this notion by demonstrating that negative emotion inertia's explanatory power in predicting depressive symptoms vanished once mean negative emotion was controlled for. Emotional inertia is often modeled by a two-step approach that first derives estimates of emotional inertia and then uses those to predict depressive symptoms. In the present research, we reanalyzed five experience sampling data sets (N = 875 participants) and demonstrate that this two-step approach leads to low reliability of negative emotion inertia, r sb = .52; thereby, attenuating its association with depressive symptoms, as reflected by only 1.3% added explained variance in depressive symptoms above mean negative emotion. As an alternative, we propose a novel one-step approach that adjusts for unreliability of inertia estimates: We introduce a latent inertia factor that is defined by the autocorrelation of various emotion items. Using dynamic structural equation models, this latent factor is simultaneously used to predict depressive symptoms. Here, negative emotion inertia showed good reliability, x = .81, and explained an additional 4.5% of the total variance in depressive symptoms. Thus, our results demonstrate that emotion dynamic measures can be an important feature of individual well-being if their lower reliability compared with mean negative emotion is modeled and corrected for in dynamic structural equation models.

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“…In this sense, it is considered that people with high scores in neuroticism have a higher tendency to experience negative emotions, which leads them to have feelings of anxiety, anger, guilt or worry, which also lead to psychological distress and stress [ 5 ]. Therefore, neuroticism can be translated into high levels of mean negative affect and variability of negative affect [ 7 ] (Wenzel et al, 2022). Some authors such as Muir et al [ 8 ] consider that negative affect is maintained even in advanced adulthood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sci. 2022, 12, 241 2 of 11 negative affect [7] (Wenzel et al, 2022). Some authors such as Muir et al [8] consider that negative affect is maintained even in advanced adulthood.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neuroticism and Emotional Intelligence in Adolescence: A Mediation Model Moderate by Negative Affect and Self-Esteem

Ruíz

Rubio

Ángel

et al. 2022

Behavioral Sciences

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Different studies have revealed that high scores in neuroticism relate to feelings of guilt, flustering, low self-esteem, and insecurity in relationships with others. The main objective of this work is to analyze the relationship between neuroticism and emotional intelligence in the adolescent stage and try to go one step further in the study of that relationship through the formulation of a moderate mediation model in which negative affect participates as a mediating variable and self-esteem as a moderating variable. Method: The total number of adolescents amounted to 742, with a very similar sample in both sexes, 45.1% boys and 51.5% girls. They were between 13 and 19 years old (M = 15.63, SD = 1.244) and lived in the province of Almería, Spain. Results: First, our main results significantly reflected that the neuroticism personality trait increased negative affect as self-esteem decreased. Second, statistical analyzes showed that the effect of neuroticism on attention and emotional repair was mediated by negative affect, the effect being greater when self-esteem was lower. Therefore, negative affect was presented as a mediating variable in the relationship between neuroticism and attention and emotional repair, with self-esteem acting as a moderating variable in the model. Conclusions: These findings have implications for professional practice with adolescents, since they highlight the importance of carrying out interventions that contribute to the development of self-esteem in the prevention of neuroticism since these actions can help moderate the effect exerted by the negative affect on emotional attention and repair, improving the emotional intelligence of the adolescent and, therefore, their psychological health.

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Variability in negative affect is an important feature of neuroticism above mean negative affect once measurement issues are accounted for

Cited by 11 publications

References 49 publications

Emotional (in)stability: Neuroticism is associated with increased variability in negative emotion after all

Emotional (in)stability: Neuroticism is associated with increased variability in negative emotion after all

Addressing measurement issues in affect dynamic research: Modeling emotional inertia’s reliability to improve its predictive validity of depressive symptoms.

Neuroticism and Emotional Intelligence in Adolescence: A Mediation Model Moderate by Negative Affect and Self-Esteem

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