Differential roles of neuroticism, extraversion, and event desirability for mood in daily life: an integrative model of top-down and bottom-up influences

Investigating solitude as a tool for downregulation of daily arousal using ecological momentary assessments

OBJECTIVE

This research explored arousal levels as a motivating factor for solitude-seeking. We hypothesized that solitude becomes more desirable when high-arousal emotions were heightened and individual differences in extraversion and neuroticism would moderate this pattern.

METHOD

We tracked individuals' hourly experiences throughout a day. We assessed their high-arousal positive (e.g., excitement) and negative emotions (e.g., tension), whether they were alone or with others, and their preferred situation at the time of the signal. We gathered 4338 surveys from 362 participants, with 103 participants completing all hourly surveys.

RESULTS

Preference for and incidence of solitude changed throughout the day. Contrary to our hypotheses, lagged analyses did not indicate high-arousal emotions predicting reports of being alone an hour later. However, individuals were more likely to express a preference for solitude while experiencing high-arousal negative emotions, and less so while experiencing positive emotions. Younger individuals display stronger preference for solitude during experiences of high-arousal negative emotions. Extraversion and neuroticism did not moderate these patterns.

CONCLUSIONS

The results highlight the distinctive appeal of solitude as a space for young adults to deal with negative emotions. We discussed how these findings are connected to existing literature and implications for future research.

Top-down versus bottom-up processes in the formation of positive and negative retrospective affect

On the basis of two large scale diary studies (n = 2022, n = 762) We study differences in the effects of dispositions and situations in the formation of positive and negative retrospective affect (retrospective-PA and retrospective-NA, respectively), the affect associated with extended (e.g. daily) experiences, as opposed to very short (episodic) experiences. We suggest that the differences between retrospective-PA and retrospective-NA is due to the fact that positive retrospective evaluation (i.e. the evaluation of positive retrospective affect) involves primarily top-down processing, in which people resort to their dispositions in making these evaluations, whereas negative retrospective evaluation (the evaluation of negative retrospective affect) is primarily based on the cumulative affects of individual experiences.

The Effects of Physical Activity on Positive Emotions in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND

Positive emotions help children and adolescents develop good personalities and interpersonal relationships. Evidence shows that participation in physical activity is associated with positive emotions in young people. However, there is still a lack of studies on the effects of physical activity on positive emotions in children and adolescents.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine the effects of physical activity on positive emotions in children and adolescents.

METHODS

Online databases (Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, EBSCOhost, and APA PsycInfo) were searched from inception to August 2022.

RESULT

A total of 24 articles were eventually included representing 3907 participants from 14 different countries. Overall, the effect of physical activity interventions on positive emotions was significant. The studies revealed that positive emotions were statistically better in the physical activity participation group than in the control group without physical activity (SMD = 0.62, 95% CI: (0.24, 1.01), (p < 0.01). Based on subgroup analyses, we found that participation in aerobic exercise for 30-60 min in adolescents aged ≥12 years had a more significant intervention effect on positive emotions.

CONCLUSION

These findings indicate that the moods of children and adolescents who participate in physical activity significantly improved compared with the moods of those who do not participate in physical activity. The age, exercise type, and exercise duration of adolescents are important factors influencing the positive emotions resulting from physical activity interventions.

The Stressful Personality: A Meta-Analytical Review of the Relation Between Personality and Stress

The current study presented the first meta-analytic review on the associations between the Big Five personality traits and stress measured under different conceptualizations (stressor exposure, psychological and physiological stress responses) using a total of 1,575 effect sizes drawn from 298 samples. Overall, neuroticism was found to be positively related to stress, whereas extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness were negatively linked to stress. When stress assessed under different conceptualizations was tested, only neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were related to stressor exposure. All of the Big Five personality traits were significantly associated with psychological stress perception, whereas the five personality traits showed weak to null associations with physiological stress response. Further moderation analyses suggested that the associations between personality traits and stress under different conceptualizations were also contingent upon different characteristics of stress, sample, study design, and measures. The results supported the important role of personality traits in individual differences in stress.

Asymmetrical Effects of Sleep and Emotions in Daily Life

Sleep is an important process that can influence and be influenced by daily events and emotions. We examined the bidirectional relationships between sleep, daily events, and emotions with a daily diary method completed by 181 mothers (M _age = 41.91, SD = 5.06). They answered morning and evening questionnaires for 1 week at three different points in time separated by nine months each, 21 days in total. Measures of sleep quality and emotional experiences each morning were assessed, and they reported on their best and worst experience of the day, peak emotional responses to these events, and affect in the evening. Sleep behavior, including total sleep time and sleep efficiency, was objectively quantified using wrist actigraphy. Multilevel modeling analyses showed that longer sleep duration and better subjective quality predicted greater positive emotions and lower negative emotions upon waking, and lower levels of peak perceived stressfulness, but not peak positivity ratings. Daily experiences did not predict sleep duration. Conversely, negative affect in the evening and greater peak perceived stressfulness during the day predicted worse sleep quality that night, whereas positive affect and positive events were not related to sleep. Although correlational, these findings suggest that good sleep can improve waking affect and help mitigate the impact of stressful experiences but does not amplify responses to the positive events of the day. In turn, daily perceived stress reactivity impairs sleep quality. These novel findings show stronger bidirectional relationships between sleep with daily stress, than sleep with daily positivity.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-022-00112-x.

Personality differences in the occurrence and affective correlates of daily positive events

OBJECTIVE

Previous research shows that Neuroticism predicts exposure and affective reactivity to daily stressors. Zautra and colleagues extended this work to daily positive events. Building on these frameworks, we examined the Big Five personality traits as predictors of the occurrence and affective correlates of daily positive events.

METHOD

Participants in two national U.S. daily diary studies (NSDE 2: N = 1,919 and NSDE Refresher: N = 778; aged 25-84) reported daily positive events, emotions specific to the events, and daily affect for 8 consecutive days.

RESULTS

In parallel analyses in both samples, Extraversion and in the NSDE Refresher sample only Openness (but not Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, or Agreeableness) predicted more frequent positive event occurrence. All Big Five traits were associated with one or more emotional experiences (e.g., calm, proud) during positive events. Neuroticism predicted greater event-related positive affect in the NSDE 2 sample, whereas Agreeableness was related to more event-related negative affect in the NSDE Refresher sample.

CONCLUSIONS

The Big Five personality traits each provided unique information for predicting positive events in daily life. The discussion centers on potential explanations and implications for advancing the understanding of individual differences that contribute to engagement in positive experiences.

Coping Strategies and Stress Related Disorders in Patients with COVID-19

Patients with severe COVID-19 experience high-stress levels and thus are at risk for developing acute stress disorder (ASD) and/or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The present study aims to search for correlations between psychiatric response to stress and coping strategies among individuals with acute vs. remitted COVID-19. Ninety subjects with COVID-19 were included in the study, divided into two samples by disease category. Our focus was analysing the perceived stress intensity according to NSESSS and PCL-C-17 scales, and coping strategies with COPE-60. High NSESSS scores were found in 40% of acute patients, and 15.6% of remitted patients had high PCL-C-17 scores fulfilling the criteria for PTSD. We found a negative correlation between stress level and disease category. Acute patients used significantly more engagement and emotion-focused coping methods, but less disengagement types of coping than patients in the remitted phase. Remitted patients under high stress levels are prone to use disengagement and emotion-focused coping strategies. In conclusion, remitted COVID-19 patients experience lower levels of stress and use less emotion-focused strategies, except among those who developed PTSD post-COVID-19 infection, presenting with high-stress levels and using more disengagement and emotion-focused types of coping strategies.

Reactions to daily events as a function of familiarity with an environment

Undergraduate participants provided measures of their psychological well‐being and described the positive and negative events that occurred each day, once during the first and second semesters of an academic year. For four of the five measures of daily well‐being, reactivity to negative events decreased from the first to second semester, whereas for four of the five measures of well‐being, reactivity to positive events did not change over the year. These results suggest that familiarity with an environment moderates reactivity to negative daily events. As people become more familiar with an environment, negative events may elicit smaller decreases in well‐being. In contrast, increases in well‐being elicited by positive events appear to be unrelated to familiarity with the environment. More broadly, these differences suggest that the reactivity to positive and negative events reflect the operation of different processes. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The effect of state extraversion on four types of affect

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the effect of state extraversion on different types of affect. Ninety six participants were instructed to be extraverted or introverted in a 10‐minute dyadic discussion. State extraversion had a strong effect on positive affect and smaller (but still strong) effects on pleasant and activated affect, with these latter two effects almost equal in magnitude. This pattern of findings appears to increase confidence that the effect of state extraversion is genuine rather than the result of construct overlap, in that extraversion's effect on positive affect is not dominated by its effect on activated affect. No support for reward sensitivity as a potential explanatory mechanism was found. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Neuroticism and extraversion as predictors of negative and positive emotional information processing: comparing Eysenck's, Gray's, and Newman's theories

This study compared how extraversion, neuroticism, and extraversion × neuroticism are related to processing of pleasant and unpleasant emotional information as predicted by Eysenck's, Gray's, and Newman's theories. Initially, the participants' levels of extraversion (as measured by the sociability subscale) and neuroticism were assessed with Eysenck's Personality Inventory. They were then tested individually. After completing a questionnaire of current positive and negative moods, they completed three tasks measuring processing of pleasant, unpleasant, and also neutral information. The results showed that extraversion was associated positively with the processing of pleasant information, while neuroticism was associated positively with the processing of unpleasant information. These findings support predictions from Eysenck's theory. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Social support as a moderator of day‐to‐day relationships between daily negative events and daily psychological well‐being

Every day for 3 weeks, a sample of college students described the events that occurred each day and provided measures of their self‐esteem, depressogenic thinking and mood. They also provided measures of depressive symptoms and the social support they perceived from friends and family members. A series of multilevel random coefficient modelling analyses found that daily well‐being was positively related to the number of positive events that occurred each day and was negatively related to the number of negative events. Relationships between well‐being and positive events were stronger for more than for less depressed participants and relationships between well‐being and negative events were weaker for participants who perceived more support from friends than for those who perceived less support. Depression was unrelated to the strength of relationships between negative events and well‐being, and the social support from friends was unrelated to relationships between positive events and well‐being. Surprisingly, relationships between negative events and well‐being were stronger for participants who perceived more support from family members than for those who perceived less support. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Increases of negative affect following daily hassles are not moderated by neuroticism: An ecological momentary assessment study

The occurrence of daily hassles is associated with increased subsequent levels of negative affect. Neuroticism has been found to exacerbate this effect. So far, most research used single-item measures for the assessment of daily hassles or relied on daily diary studies. This study aimed to examine the interrelations of daily hassles, negative affect reactivity, and neuroticism in daily life employing an extensive inventory of daily hassles. Seventy participants (18-30 years; M = 23.9 years, 59% female) completed a 4-week smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment study reporting the occurrence and perceived strain of daily hassles as well as negative affect at five semi-random signals between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Multilevel analyses revealed significant associations between elevated levels of negative affect and higher cumulative daily hassle strain ratings per signal in concurrent and time-lagged analyses. Contrary to our expectations, there was no moderation by neuroticism on these associations. The results suggest that daily hassles can accumulate in their impact on mood in daily life and exert a prolonged effect on negative affect. The absence of a significant moderation by neuroticism may be interpreted in the light of methodological specifics of this study.

Neuroticism may not reflect emotional variability

Neuroticism is one of the major traits describing human personality, and a predictor of mental and physical disorders with profound public health significance. Individual differences in emotional variability are thought to reflect the core of neuroticism. However, the empirical relation between emotional variability and neuroticism may be partially the result of a measurement artifact reflecting neuroticism's relation with higher mean levels-rather than greater variability-of negative emotion. When emotional intensity is measured using bounded scales, there is a dependency between variability and mean levels: at low (or high) intensity, it is impossible to demonstrate high variability. As neuroticism is positively associated with mean levels of negative emotion, this may account for the relation between neuroticism and emotional variability. In a metaanalysis of 11 studies (N = 1,205 participants; 83,411 observations), we tested whether the association between neuroticism and negative emotional variability was clouded by a dependency between variability and the mean. We found a medium-sized positive association between neuroticism and negative emotional variability, but, when using a relative variability index to correct for mean negative emotion, this association disappeared. This indicated that neuroticism was associated with experiencing more intense, but not more variable, negative emotions. Our findings call into question theory, measurement scales, and data suggesting that emotional variability is central to neuroticism. In doing so, they provide a revisionary perspective for understanding how this individual difference may predispose to mental and physical disorders.

The joint influence of emotional reactivity and social interaction quality on cardiovascular responses to daily social interactions in working adults

OBJECTIVE

Social interaction quality is related to cardiovascular functioning. Trait emotional reactivity may amplify cardiovascular responses to social interactions, but is often examined as a tendency to react to negative events. We took a broader approach by examining the joint effects of positive and negative emotional reactivity and social interaction quality on ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and heart rate (HR) responses to daily social interactions.

METHODS

Participants were part of a larger study on BP and cardiovascular health (N = 805; M_Age = 45.3; 40.1% male). Participants completed a measure of emotional reactivity (BIS/BAS) and 24-hour ABP monitoring accompanied by ecological momentary assessments (EMA) about just-experienced social interactions and their pleasantness. Multilevel models tested the associations of emotional reactivity, average pleasantness, and momentary pleasantness with BP and HR.

RESULTS

Participants who reported more pleasant interactions on average had lower BP (systolic BP: B = -0.51 mmHg; diastolic BP: B = -0.46 mmHg). These effects did not depend on emotional reactivity. The effect of momentary pleasantness depended on BIS/BAS; in less reactive participants, greater pleasantness was associated with lower HR, B = -0.13 bpm; in more reactive participants, greater pleasantness was associated with increased HR, B = 0.16).

CONCLUSIONS

Participants who had more pleasant social interactions throughout the day had lower mean ABP. The acute effect of a given social interaction on HR depended on emotional reactivity: HR increased for participants high in emotional reactivity during pleasant interactions. Thus, emotional reactivity may influence cardiovascular responses to social stimuli.

Decisions to Attend and Drink at Party Events: The Effects of Incentives and Disincentives and Lifetime Alcohol and Antisocial Problems

BACKGROUND

Alcohol use disorders are associated with patterns of impulsive/risky decision making on behavioral economic decision tasks, but little is known about the factors affecting drinking-related decisions.

METHODS

The effects of incentives and disincentives to attend and drink at hypothetical alcohol-related party events as a function of lifetime (LT) alcohol and antisocial problems were examined in a sample of 434 young adults who varied widely in LT alcohol and antisocial problems.

RESULTS

Moderate and high disincentives substantially discouraged decisions to attend the party events and were associated with decisions to drink less at the party events. High versus low party incentives were associated with more attendance decisions. LT antisocial problems were associated with being less deterred from attending by moderate and high disincentives. LT alcohol problems were associated with greater attendance at high party incentive contexts. LT alcohol problems were associated with drinking more at the majority of events; however, the results indicate that young adults with high levels of alcohol problems moderate their drinking in response to moderate and high disincentives. Finally, attendance and drinking decisions on this hypothetical task were significantly related to actual drinking practices.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that antisocial symptoms are associated with a reduced sensitivity to the potential negative consequences of drinking, while alcohol problems are associated with a greater sensitivity to the rewarding aspects of partying. The results also underline the value of directly assessing drinking-related decisions in different hypothetical contexts as well as assessing decisions about attendance at risky drinking events in addition to drinking amount decisions.

Stressor diversity: Introduction and empirical integration into the daily stress model

The present study examined whether and how stressor diversity, the extent to which stressor events are spread across multiple types of stressors, contributes to daily affective well-being through the adult life span. Stressor diversity was examined as a unique predictor of daily affect and as a moderator of stressor exposure and stressor reactivity effects. Analyses span 2 independent studies of daily stress: the National Study of Daily Experiences with N = 2,022 adults, aged 33 to 85 years, assessed over T = 8 days, and the Intraindividual Study of Affect, Health, and Interpersonal Behavior with N = 150 adults, aged 18 to 89 years, assessed over T = 63 days. Across both studies, older age was associated with less stressor diversity. Additionally, multivariate multilevel models indicated higher stressor diversity was linked with better affective well-being. Age, however, was not a consistent moderator of such associations. The combination of low stressor diversity and high stressor exposure is discussed as an operationalization of chronic stressors, and this combination was associated with particularly high negative affect and low positive affect. We believe further work will benefit from including both the frequency and diversity of stressor experiences in analyses in order to better characterize individuals' stressor experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record

Self-Assessments of Health

Factors reflecting current experience—for example, number of medications used, poor function, negative affects, and positive affect—had stronger associations with self-assessments of health (SAH) than factors related to prior events (medical history, prior smoking) in baseline data from 830 elderly retirement-community residents (mean age = 73). Participants appear to have implicit knowledge of the factors affecting their SAH: The rank order of the beta weights relating factors to SAH was correlated with the rank order of participant ratings of the attention given to each factor when making SAH judgments. Relationships of SAH and each of the factors to five year mortality showed that subjectively salient factors such as function and lack of energy predicted five-year mortality, reduced the relationship of SAH to mortality, and accounted for most of the relationship of medical factors to mortality. Affective variables, however, had no relationship to mortality despite their impact on SAH.

Factors contributing to depressive mood states in everyday life: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Although accumulated evidence suggests that fluctuations in depressed mood are common among individuals with depression, and may be associated with onset, duration, and severity of illness, a systematic appraisal of putative predictors of depressed mood is lacking.

METHODS

A systematic search for relevant studies in the literature was conducted using PsycInfo and PubMed databases via EbscoHost in February 2016. The search was limited to articles using the experience sampling method, an approach suitable for capturing in situ fluctuations in mood states.

RESULTS

Forty-two studies met inclusion criteria for the review, from which three key risk factors (poor sleep, stress, and significant life events) and two protective factors (physical activity and quality of social interactions) were identified. The majority of papers supported concurrent and lagged associations between these putative protective/risk factors and depressed mood.

LIMITATIONS

Despite support for each of the proposed protective/risk factors, few studies evaluated multiple factors in the same study. Moreover, the time course for the effects of these predictors on depressed mood remains largely unknown.

CONCLUSIONS

The present review identified several putative risk and protective factors for depressed mood. A review of the literature suggests that poor sleep, negative social interactions, and stressful negative events may temporally precede spikes in depressed mood. In contrast, exercise and positive social interactions have been shown to predict subsequent declines in depressed mood. However, the lack of multivariate models in which the unique contributions of various predictors could be evaluated means that the current state of knowledge prevents firm conclusions about which factors are most predictive of depressed mood. More complex modeling of these effects is necessary in order to provide insights useful for clinical treatment in daily life of the depressed mood component of depressive disorders.

Person-Environment Fit and its Limits: Agreeableness, Neuroticism, and Emotional Reactivity to Interpersonal Conflict

A naturalistic diary study was conducted to investigate the degree to which agreeableness and neuroticism moderate emotional reactions to conflict and nonconflict problems. Healthy community-residing males made diary recordings at the end of each of 8 successive days concerning problem occurrence and daily mood. Consistent with predictions based on person-environment fit, participants who scored higher in agreeableness experienced more subjective distress when they encountered more interpersonal conflicts than did their less agreeable counterparts. Neuroticism was related to a small but consistent reactivity to both conflict and nonconflict problems, contrary to person-environment fit. Reasons for the differences in the affective dynamics of agreeableness and neuroticism are discussed.

Depression as a Moderator of Relationships between Positive Daily Events and Day-to-Day Psychological Adjustment

For 21 days, 123 participants provided measures of their daily depressogenic adjustment, including Beck’s cognitive triad, causal uncertainty, control over the environment, self-esteem, and anxiety, and they described the positive and negative events that occurred. Daily adjustment negatively covaried with the number of negative events occurring each day and, except as measured by anxiety, positively covaried with positive events. The covariance between negative events and adjustment was stronger than the covariance between positive events and adjustment. Participants also provided measures of depressive symptoms. For the self-esteem and cognitive triad measures, adjustment covaried more strongly with negative and positive events for the depressed than they did for the nondepressed.

Daily Well-Being: The Role of Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness

Emotional well-being is most typically studied in trait or trait-like terms, yet a growing literature indicates that daily (within-person) fluctuations in emotional well-being may be equally important. The present research explored the hypothesis that daily variations may be understood in terms of the degree to which three basic needs—autonomy, competence, and relatedness—are satisfied in daily activity. Hierarchical linear models were used to examine this hypothesis across 2 weeks of daily activity and well-being reports controlling for trait-level individual differences. Results strongly supported the hypothesis. The authors also examined the social activities that contribute to satisfaction of relatedness needs. The best predictors were meaningful talk and feeling understood and appreciated by interaction partners. Finally, the authors found systematic day-of-the-week variations in emotional well-being and need satisfaction. These results are discussed in terms of the importance of daily activities and the need to consider both trait and day-level determinants of well-being.

Approach and Avoidance Motivation in the Social Domain

This research put Gable’s (in press) hierarchical model of approach-avoidance social motivation to empirical test using newly developed measures of friendship-approach and avoidance goals. The results from Study 1 supported the psychometric soundness of the new goal measures and showed the anticipated differential predictive patterns for the two goals. The results from Study 2 provided further evidence of the psychometric soundness of the new goal measures and provided support for the full hierarchical model in longitudinal analyses of subjective well-being and physical symptomotology. Implications of the present research for understanding motivation both within and beyond the social domain are discussed.

Day-to-Day Relationships among Self-Concept Clarity, Self-Esteem, Daily Events, and Mood

Twice a week for up to 10 weeks, 103 participants provided measures of their daily self-concept clarity (SCC), mood (negative affect [NA] and positive affect [PA]), and self-esteem (SE), and they described the events that occurred each day. Multilevel random coefficient modeling analyses found that daily SCC covaried with daily positive and negative events, with daily NA, and with daily SE. None of these relationships was moderated by trait levels of SE, SCC, PA, NA, or measures of depressogenic self-concept, anxiety, or depressive symptoms. Analyses that simultaneously included SE, mood, and events suggested that relationships between daily SCC and daily events were mediated by daily NA and daily SE. Such mediation suggests that daily events lead to changes in mood and SE, which in turn lead to changes in SCC. Additional analyses found that temporal variability of SE, PA, NA, and SCC was negatively correlated with trait SCC.

Emotional Reactivity to Everyday Problems, Affective Inertia, and Neuroticism

A naturalistic diary recording study was conducted to assess affective responses to everyday stress. Community-residing male participants made diary recordings regarding problem occurrence and mood several times a day for 8 days. In addition to reporting more frequent daily problems, persons scoring high in neuroticism were more reactive to stressors and were more distressed by recurrent problems than were persons scoring low in neuroticism. New problems affected everyone comparably. There was also evidence of affective inertia, such that bad mood was more likely to carry over to the next assessment. This lag effect tended to be stronger among more neurotic individuals.

Affect- and Self-Based Models of Relationships between Daily Events and Daily Well-Being

The present study examined affect- and self-based explanatory models of relationships between daily events and daily well-being. Twice a week for up to 10 weeks, participants described the events that occurred each day and provided measures of their daily affect, self-esteem, and depressogenic thinking. Participants also provided trait-level measures of affect, depression, and self-esteem. Measures of daily well-being representing each model covaried jointly and independently with daily negative and positive events. Positive events buffered the effects of negative events on daily self-esteem and daily depressogenic thinking, whereas there was no buffering effect for daily affect. More depressed people were more reactive to positive events, and those higher in trait PA were less reactive to negative events. Buffering effects for self-esteem were more pronounced for those with lower trait self-esteem, and buffering effects for daily depressogenic adjustment were more pronounced for those with higher trait negative affect. The results suggest that affect- and self-based models provide complementary perspectives on relationships between psychological well-being and daily events.

Neuroticism as a Moderator of Direct and Mediated Relationships Between Introversion-Extraversion and Well-Being

Among personality traits, extraversion has received major theoretical and empirical attention as predictor of subjective well-being (SWB), whereas the role of emotional stability-neuroticism has been partially neglected. The present study aims to study the role of neuroticism in the relationship between introversion-extraversion and SWB. In particular, we explored if the trait of neuroticism moderates the relationships between introversion-extraversion and SWB dimensions (Satisfaction with life, Mastery, Vigour, Social Cheerfulness), directly and by mediation of self-esteem. Indeed, previous studies have suggested that self-esteem is positively associated with high extraversion and low neuroticism and that it positively mediates the relationship between SWB and personality traits in adolescents. For this purpose, a sample of high school students (N = 1173) completed the Oxford Happiness Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Big Five Questionnaire. In a latent variable model, we examined the interaction effects (direct and indirect) of extraversion and neuroticism on SWB dimensions. Our results showed that the nature of differences between introverts and extraverts on SWB could be related to the level of neuroticism in relation to Satisfaction with life. Moreover, self-esteem mediated the relationship between personality traits and SWB. In particular, mediated moderation effect analysis showed that self-esteem mediates completely the relationship between the interaction term (extraversion x neuroticism) and Mastery, and partially the relationship with Satisfaction with life. Moreover, moderated mediation effect analysis showed that high levels of neuroticism moderate the effect of extraversion on Satisfaction with life and Mastery through the mediation of self-esteem. In conclusion, our results suggest that although extraversion has a cardinal role on SWB dimensions related to Vigour and Social Cheerfulness, neuroticism and the mediating role of self-esteem should more properly considered in relation to Satisfaction with life and Mastery.

The role of personality in equestrian sports: an investigation

Personality has been shown to affect the way individuals think, feel and act, and could impact on the way people behave and perform in a wide variety of activities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that differences in personality exist between equestrians participating in different disciplines and at different levels, but empirical evidence is limited. This study aimed to investigate dispositional tendencies of rider cohorts, in relation to age, nationality, discipline, competitive level, breadth of involvement in different disciplines, and level of risk-seeking behaviour. An online survey was developed, collecting rider demographics relating to nationality, sex, age, competitive level and discipline. A risk scores was assigned to each discipline and an average risk rating was calculated per participant. Personality traits of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and intellect were measured using the Mini-International Personality Item Pool. Kruskal-Wallis analyses determined differences for personality traits between different survey categories. Univariable analysis of all factors considered informed multivariable logistic regression models to establish how factors including personality traits differed between dichotomous variables: high to low risk discipline, age groups, unaffiliated to affiliated riders and amateur to professional riders. Results showed that riders in their late teens and early twenties considered themselves less agreeable, less conscientious, but more neurotic compared to older generations (P<0.001). Competitive riders considered themselves more conscientious and extroverted than non-competitors (P<0.005). Riders participating in higher risk disciplines considered themselves less agreeable and conscientious (P<0.05). Increases in agreeableness, conscientious and decreases in neuroticism in older riders might predispose them towards a role in coaching and providing support for younger riders. Personality differences between riders of different disciplines and at different competitive levels might be used to help individuals in their choice of equestrian sport and level of involvement. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates the value of identifying personality traits across different rider cohorts.

Ideal Affect: Cultural Causes and Behavioral Consequences

Most research focuses on actual affect, or the affective states that people actually feel. In this article, I demonstrate the importance and utility of studying ideal affect, or the affective states that people ideally want to feel. First, I define ideal affect and describe the cultural causes and behavioral consequences of ideal affect. To illustrate these points, I compare American and East Asian cultures, which differ in their valuation of high-arousal positive affective states (e.g., excitement, enthusiasm) and low-arousal positive affective states (e.g., calm, peace-fulness). I then introduce affect valuation theory, which integrates ideal affect with current models of affect and emotion and, in doing so, provides a new framework for understanding how cultural and temperamental factors may shape affect and behavior.

Valence asymmetries in the human amygdala: task relevance modulates amygdala responses to positive more than negative affective cues

Organisms must constantly balance appetitive needs with vigilance for potential threats. Recent research suggests that the amygdala may play an important role in both of these goals. Although the amygdala plays a role in processing motivationally relevant stimuli that are positive or negative, negative information often appears to carry greater weight. From a functional perspective, this may reflect the fact that threatening stimuli generally require action, whereas appetitive stimuli can often be safely ignored. In this study, we examine whether amygdala activation to positive stimuli may be more sensitive to task goals than negative stimuli, which are often related to self-preservation concerns. During fMRI, participants were presented with two images that varied on valence and extremity and were instructed to focus on one of the images. Results indicated that negative stimuli elicited greater amygdala activity regardless of task relevance. In contrast, positive stimuli only led to a relative increase in amygdala activity when they were task relevant. This suggests that the amygdala may be more responsive to negative stimuli regardless of their relevance to immediate goals, whereas positive stimuli may only elicit amygdala activity when they are relevant to the perceivers' goals. This pattern of valence asymmetry in the human amygdala may help balance approach-related goal pursuit with chronic self-preservation goals.

The effect of personality on daily life emotional processes

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.

Prediction of placebo responses: a systematic review of the literature

OBJECTIVE

Predicting who responds to placebo treatment-and under which circumstances-has been a question of interest and investigation for generations. However, the literature is disparate and inconclusive. This review aims to identify publications that provide high quality data on the topic of placebo response (PR) prediction.

METHODS

To identify studies concerned with PR prediction, independent searches were performed in an expert database (for all symptom modalities) and in PubMed (for pain only). Articles were selected when (a) they assessed putative predictors prior to placebo treatment and (b) an adequate control group was included when the associations of predictors and PRs were analyzed.

RESULTS

Twenty studies were identified, most with pain as dependent variable. Most predictors of PRs were psychological constructs related to actions, expected outcomes and the emotional valence attached to these events (goal-seeking, self-efficacy/-esteem, locus of control, optimism). Other predictors involved behavioral control (desire for control, eating restraint), personality variables (fun seeking, sensation seeking, neuroticism), or biological markers (sex, a single nucleotide polymorphism related to dopamine metabolism). Finally, suggestibility and beliefs in expectation biases, body consciousness, and baseline symptom severity were found to be predictive.

CONCLUSIONS

While results are heterogeneous, some congruence of predictors can be identified. PRs mainly appear to be moderated by expectations of how the symptom might change after treatment, or expectations of how symptom repetition can be coped with. It is suggested to include the listed constructs in future research. Furthermore, a closer look at variables moderating symptom change in control groups seems warranted.

Neuroticism developmental courses--implications for depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience; a prospective study from adolescence to young adulthood

BACKGROUND

Neuroticism is frequently discussed as a risk factor for psychopathology. According to the maturity principle, neuroticism decreases over the course of life, but not uniformly across individuals. However, the implications of differences in personality maturation on mental health have not been well studied so far. Hence, we hypothesized that different forms of neuroticism development from adolescence to young adulthood are associated with differences in depression, anxiety and everyday emotional experience at the age of 25.

METHODS

A sample of 266 adolescents from the general population was examined three times over ten years (age at T0: 15, T1: 20 and T2: 25) using questionnaires, interviews and ecological momentary assessment (EMA). At all measurement points, neuroticism was assessed with the NEO inventory. At T2, diagnoses of major depression and anxiety disorders were captured with a structured clinical interview (M-CIDI). Phone-based EMA was used to assess emotional experience and affective instability over a two-week period at T2.

RESULTS

The best fitting model was a latent class growth analysis with two groups of neuroticism development. Most individuals (n = 205) showed moderate values whereas 61 participants were clustered into a group with elevated neuroticism levels. In both groups neuroticism significantly changed during the ten year period with a peak at the age of 20. Individuals with a higher absolute level were at 14-fold increased risk for depression and 7-fold risk for anxiety disorders at the age of 25. In EMA, increased negative affect and arousal as well as decreased positive emotions were found in this high group.

CONCLUSIONS

Other than expected, personality did not mature in our sample. However, there was a significant change of neuroticism values from adolescence to young adulthood. Further, over 20% of our participants showed a neuroticism development which was associated with adverse outcomes such as negatively toned emotional experience and a heightened risk to suffer from depressive and anxiety disorders in young adulthood. These high-risk persons need to be identified early to provide interventions supporting continuous personality maturation.

Personality Dimensions and Subjective Well-Being

This work examines the association between personality dimensions (extraversion and neuroticism) and subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is associated both with extraversion and neuroticism, and currently, neuroticism is generally considered the more important. A total of 368 students from the University of Rovira i Virgili completed the Extraversion and Neuroticism subscales of the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985), the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffin, 1985), and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). Regression analyses revealed the personality variable of neuroticism as one of the most important correlates of subjective well-being. Regression analyses also showed that 44% of the variance of subjective well-being was accounted for by neuroticism, whereas extraversion only explained 8% of the variance.

Does leisure time moderate or mediate the effect of daily stress on positive affect? An examination using eight-day diary data

This study tested the applicability of moderation and mediation models to leisure time as a stress coping resource. Analyzing eight-day diary data (N=2,022), we examined the within-person process of using leisure time to cope with daily stressors. We found that relatively high daily stress frequency, while reducing positive affect, prompted an individual to allocate more time to leisure than usual, which then increased positive affect, thus partially remedying the damage by high daily stress frequency. This within-person process, however, is significantly stronger among those with less leisure time on average than leisure-rich individuals. The findings support a partial counteractive mediation model, demonstrate between-person difference in the within-person coping process, and reveal the importance of positive affect as a coping outcome.

Avoidance Motivation and Conservation of Energy

Compared to approach motivation, avoidance motivation evokes vigilance, attention to detail, systematic information processing, and the recruitment of cognitive resources. From a conservation of energy perspective it follows that people would be reluctant to engage in the kind of effortful cognitive processing evoked by avoidance motivation, unless the benefits of expending this energy outweigh the costs. We put forward three empirically testable propositions concerning approach and avoidance motivation, investment of energy, and the consequences of such investments. Specifically, we propose that compared to approach-motivated people, avoidance-motivated people (a) carefully select situations in which they exert such cognitive effort, (b) only perform well in the absence of distracters that occupy cognitive resources, and (c) become depleted after exerting such cognitive effort.

Positive and negative affect dimensions in chronic knee osteoarthritis: effects on clinical and laboratory pain

OBJECTIVE

This study investigated whether daily and laboratory assessed pain differs as a function of the temporal stability and valence of affect in individuals with chronic knee osteoarthritis (KOA).

METHODS

One hundred fifty-one men and women with KOA completed 14 days of electronic diaries assessing positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), and clinical pain. A subset of participants (n =79) engaged in quantitative sensory testing (QST). State PA and NA were assessed prior to administration of stimuli that induced suprathreshold pain and temporal summation. Multilevel modeling and multiple regression evaluated associations of affect and pain as a function of valence (i.e., positive versus negative) and stability (i.e., stable versus state).

RESULTS

In the diary, stable NA (B = -.63, standard error [SE] = .13, p < .001) was a stronger predictor of clinical KOA pain than stable PA (B = -.18, SE = .11, p = .091), and state PA (B = -.09, p < .001) was a stronger predictor of concurrent daily clinical pain than state NA (B = .04, SE = .02, p = .068). In the laboratory, state PA (B = -.05, SE = .02, p = .042), but not state NA (p = .46), predicted diminished temporal summation of mechanical pain.

CONCLUSIONS

Stable NA is more predictive of clinical pain than stable PA, whereas state PA is more predictive of both clinical and laboratory pain than state NA. The findings suggest that dynamic affect-pain processes in the field may reflect individual differences in central pain facilitation.