Neurotic People Research Articles

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

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.

“Neurotic people tend to eat less when disinhibited”: The mediating role of food-related cognitive flexibility in restrained eaters

ObjectivesThis study aims to reveal the individual differences in Neuroticism and cognitive flexibility among successful restrained eaters (SREs), unsuccessful restrained eaters (UREs), and non-restrained eaters (NREs). Moreover, this study is dedicated to investigating whether certain personality traits and cognitive flexibility could concurrently influence disinhibited eating behaviors among restrained eaters and reveal the pathways through which they interact. MethodsFemale participants aged 17 and 24 years (NREs = 23; SREs = 24; UREs = 23) were assessed with body mass index (BMI) and appetite state measurement, the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI), and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. To measure behavioral and neural responses related to cognitive flexibility, participants were required to complete a food-related switching task, and their brain activities were recorded through the technique of electroencephalography (EEG). Here we analyzed two widely investigated components—the N2 and P3 components that separately relate to conflict monitoring and response inhibition. ResultsThe behavioral performance of food-related task switching did not show significant between-group differences. However, in comparison to NREs and SREs, UREs elicited larger N2 and lower P3 amplitudes during task switching. In addition, UREs exhibited a lower level of Neuroticism than SREs and NREs. Furthermore, food-related task switching induced N2 amplitude fully mediated the association between Neuroticism and disinhibited eating behavior in restrained eaters controlled for BMI and negative affect. Importantly, when a parallel mediation model with N2 and P3 was built concurrently, N2 was still able to fully mediate the association. ConclusionAccording to behavioral and neural evidence, increased N2 amplitude induced by food-related task switching totally mediated the negative association between Neuroticism and disinhibited eating in restrained eaters.

Effectiveness of Life Skills Training in Reducing Neurosis Symptoms in Women

Background: Neurotic people have intense and continuous emotional sensitivity to others and avoid expressing their feelings. Because of the low level of ego power, they are easily overcome by their emotions and are unable to adapt their behavior to various situations. Training the life skills improves psycho-social abilities which can empower individuals to deal with conflicts and contradictions of life.
 Methods: This study determined the effectiveness of training programs of life skills to reduce the symptoms of neurosis in married women living in deprived areas of Isfahan, in 2017. To achieve this end, a clinical trial was conducted using pretest-posttest and control group. Among all married women living in deprived areas of Isfahan, 40 individuals who acquired the highest scores in assessment of neurosis by NEO Five-Factor Personality Inventory-short Form were selected and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (20 people per group). Life skill training was performed for experimental group for 8 sessions, one session per week, each session lasting 2 hours. Data were analyzed with SPSS using descriptive statistics (Mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (ANOVA, Analysis of covariance).
 Results: The results of analysis of covariance showed that life skill training program significantly reduced the symptoms of neurosis among women (P<0.005). Such a change was not seen in women in the control group.
 Conclusions: Findings of the study reflect the efficacy of life skills training on diminishing neurosis symptoms in women.

A Model for Predicting Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder due to Exposure to Chronic Political Violence: Big Five Personality Traits, Ego-Resiliency, and Coping.

Research on psychological effects of exposure to political violence has focused mainly on the effect of environmental factors whereas the effect of individual differences is understudied. The present study offers an integrative model of the contribution of personality traits, ego-resiliency, and coping styles to post-traumatic stress (PTS) symptomatology of civilians exposed to chronic political violence. Three-hundred and thirty-two Israeli citizens living in the south region of Israel were asked to report their experience with different types of political violence incidents, their coping strategies, and PTS symptoms. The participants were also asked to complete the Big Five personality Inventory and Ego-Resiliency Scale. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis indicated that ego-resiliency and emotion-focused coping mediate the relationship between big five personality traits and levels of stress symptoms. It is suggested that neurotic people are more vulnerable to PTS due to low levels of ego-resiliency and a preference to use emotion-focused coping strategies.

The relationship of smartphone addiction with chronotype and personality structures in university students

ABSTRACT The present study aims to reveal whether gender, age, personality traits, chronotypes, and smartphone screen-time predict smartphone addiction. This study used the composite scale of morningness, big five inventory, and smartphone addiction scale for collecting data. Females showed higher levels of smartphone addiction than males. Furthermore, age was not a significant predictor of smartphone addiction. We revealed that conscientiousness and neuroticism were significant predictors of smartphone addiction while extraversion, agreeableness, and openness to experience were not. We also found that neurotic people had higher levels of smartphone addiction. We revealed in this study that people with evening chronotypes had higher levels of smartphone addiction. In conclusion, female, neurotic, eveningness chronotypes, and students who use smartphones at high levels were more addicted to smartphones.

Neuroticism predicts increased sensitivity in identifying negative facial affect in young adults

Our personalities color how we interpret others’ emotions. Some people have an increased tendency to identify others’ facial affect as negative or threatening, which may lead to the misinterpretation of social cues, poor responses in social settings, and could exacerbate feelings of stress or anxiety in social situations. Yet, studies linking personality traits on the Big Five Inventory (BFI), specifically neuroticism, to emotion recognition are mixed (Cunningham, 1977; Matsumoto et al., 2000). This study investigated the effect of neuroticism on people’s discriminability and speed when identifying others’ facial emotions. Participants (n = 37) judged the emotion of faces that were morphed along two emotion spectra: happiness to fear and happiness to anger. Responses determined participants’ negativity threshold, or the point on the spectrum where their judgment switched from happy to angry or fearful. We tested the hypothesis that people who scored high on the neuroticism scale of the BFI would detect negative emotions more readily than people scoring low on neuroticism. We also measured the influence of personality traits on response time. As expected, we observed that high neurotic people were more sensitive to negative facial affect than low neurotic people. This extends on the research finding that individuals high in neuroticism have high emotional reactivity to negative stimuli to include ambiguous facial expressions. However, contrary to our hypothesis, response time was not associated with neuroticism level. Together, our findings suggest that people high in neuroticism have an increased sensitivity to detect negative facial emotions. Future studies should test whether the misinterpretation of social cues leads to impoverished social connections.

Prediction of Generalized Anxiety in Neurotic People Based on Resilience

Prediction of Generalized Anxiety in Neurotic People Based on Resilience

The role of cognitive flexibility in the generalized anxiety of people with neuroticism

Introduction: The anxiety is a main aspect of neuroticism that may be related to variables such as cognitive flexibility. Aim: The aim of present research was to explain generalized anxiety in neurotic people based on cognitive flexibility. Method: This research was a correlational design study. The research population consisted of students of Arak University in 2019, from which a sample of 300 people was selected by convenience sampling method. At first, the Neuroticism Scale of NEO-FFI, Brief Scale of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI) were administered. Then, 70 participants who had high scores in neuroticism based on the Neuroticism Scale (score of 24 and above) were studied. The data were analyzed using simultaneous multiple regression method, by SPSS software, version 21. Results: The results showed that component of cognitive flexibility predicted approximately 18% of variance in generalized anxiety in people with neuroticism (F=7.141, p<0.001), that perceive the controllability (with a Beta coefficient of -0.417) had a significant role in this prediction, while the cognitive alternatives did not have a significant role. Conclusion: It can be said that perceive the controllability is an important variable in predicting the generalized anxiety of neurotic people that should be seriously considered to moderate their anxiety.

Effectiveness of Identity-based Psychodrama Educational-therapeutic Program on Identity Styles and Neuroticism

Background: Neuroticism is one of the serious mental health problems of people. No study has been conducted on the impact of identity issues in the treatment of neurotic people. Objectives: This study aims to formulate, design, and investigate the effect of identity-based psychodrama educational program on identity styles and neuroticism. Materials & Methods: This research was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test design using a control group. The study participants were 40 people aged 15-30 years referred to Pendare Nik Counseling Center in Najafabad City, Isfahan Province, Iran, in 2020. They were selected using a convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into the intervention (n=20) and control (n=20) groups. The data collection instruments were Berzonsky Identity Style Inventory (1992) and McCrae and Costa 5-factor inventory (1992). A Researcher-made Identity-Based Psychodrama Program (2020) was used for the intervention. The collected data were analyzed using ANCOVA in SPSS v. 23. Results: The educational-therapeutic program significantly affected identity styles and neuroticism (P<0.001). It significantly reduced the neuroticism level of people in the intervention group (F=200.71, η2=0.84). Conclusion: The identity-based psychodrama program reduced diffuse-avoidant, normative, and informational identity styles and neuroticism and promoted the achieved identity style.

Frequency and Motives of Sharing Dreams: Personality Correlates

Sharing dreams is a common practice and several motives like emotional relief, entertainment, understanding the dream for doing so have been identified. However, little is known about factors associated with these motives. The present online survey (N = 1585) investigated the associations of the Big5 personality factors with motives for sharing a specific dream. Findings indicate that neurotic people tend to share dreams for the purpose of emotional relief, extraverted people for entertainment and self-expression, persons with high openness to experience are interested in the meaning of the dream and what other people think about it. In addition, the emotional tone of the shared dream showed a strong effect: positive dreams are shared for entertainment purposes and to appear more interesting and negative dreams more often for emotional relief. Longitudinal diary studies would be desirable to analyze dream sharing situations in a more detailed way, e.g., the interaction with the person the dream is shared with.

Neuroticism and Fear of COVID-19. The Interplay Between Boredom, Fantasy Engagement, and Perceived Control Over Time.

The Italian government adopted measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) infection from March 9, 2020, to May 4, 2020 and imposed a phase of social distancing and self-isolation to all adult citizens. Although justified and necessary, psychologists question the impact of this process of COVID-19 isolation on the mental health of the population. Hence, this paper investigated the relationship between neuroticism, boredom, fantasy engagement, perceived control over time, and the fear of COVID-19. Specifically, we performed a cross-sectional study aimed at testing an integrative moderated mediation model. Our model assigned the boredom to the mediation role and both the fantasy engagement and perceived control of time to the role of moderators in the relationship between neuroticism and the fear of COVID-19. A sample of 301 subjects, mainly women (68.8%), aged between 18 and 57 years (Mage = 22.12 years; SD = 6.29), participated in a survey conducted in the 1st-week lockdown phase 2 in Italy from May 7 to 18, 2020. Results suggested that neuroticism is crucial in coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, in line with literature showing high neurotic people having greater emotional reactivity and scarce resources to manage stress. We also found that people with high neuroticism tend to feel bored, and the relationship between neuroticism and boredom seems enhanced if one is involved in negative fantasies. Therefore, this result could also explain the positive effect between boredom and fear of COVID-19 we found in the current study. However, our data show that perceived control over time moderates the association between boredom and fear toward COVID-19. Having a high perceived control over time allows people to reduce boredom’s effect on fear of COVID-19. In conclusion, we retain that psychological treatment programs could improve the individuals’ perceived control over time to modulate anxiety toward the fear of COVID-19 and promote psychological well-being.

Neuroticism in the digital age: A meta-analysis

The pervasiveness of the Internet has raised concern about its (problematic) use and the potentially negative impact on people's health. Neuroticism has been identified as one potential risk factor of Internet and other online addictions. To obtain a comprehensive quantitative synthesis of the association of neuroticism and both overall and problematic Internet activities, a meta-analysis was conducted according to the PRISMA guidelines. A comprehensive search was carried out in nine academic databases. After a stepwise screening procedure, 159 studies were eventually included: 104 studies in the meta-analysis on neuroticism and Internet activities and 64 studies in the meta-analysis on neuroticism and problematic Internet activities, comprising Internet, social media, Facebook, smartphone, and online gaming addiction (9 studies considered both aspects). When it comes to overall Internet activities, effect sizes were generally small and frequently non-significant, with some exceptions (e.g., expression of real me). For problematic Internet activities, a completely different picture emerged: high levels of neuroticism significantly correlated with all measures of problematic Internet activities, with medium size correlations. The differential results for Internet activities in general and problematic Internet activities can be related to problems in the conceptualization and assessment of the latter. More research is needed to overcome current conceptual and methodological issues and investigate the real nature of problematic Internet activities and to be eventually able to evaluate if neurotic people are really an at-risk population.

Automated vehicle acceptance in China: Social influence and initial trust are key determinants

Although automated vehicles (AVs) could offer a potentially effective solution to improving road safety, the benefit associated with AVs can be realized only when the public intend to use them. While some efforts have been made to understand why people would use AVs, few of them have investigated the role of social and personal factors in AV acceptance. The present study aimed to fill in this research gap. An AV acceptance model was proposed by extending the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with social and personal factors, i.e., initial trust, social influence, and the Big Five personality and sensation seeking traits. The validity of the proposed model was confirmed with a questionnaire survey administrated to 647 drivers in China. Results revealed that at the very beginning of AV commercialization, perception factors (i.e., perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness) from the original TAM showed significant influence on users’ intention to use AVs. But more importantly, it was social influence and initial trust that contributed most to explain whether users would accept AVs or not. Some personality traits also played certain roles in AV usage intention. In particular, sensation seekers and those with a higher openness to experience were more likely to trust AVs and had a higher intention to adopt them. In contrast, neurotic people showed a lower level of trust and were less likely to accept AVs. Practically, these findings suggest that promotion of AVs to influential individuals that could help form good social opinions would have significant downstream effects on AV acceptance at the early state of its marketization.

Taking social policy personally: How does neuroticism affect welfare state attitudes?

AbstractThe role of the “Big Five” personality traits in driving welfare state attitudes has received scant attention in social policy research. Yet neuroticism in particular—a disposition to stress, worry, and get nervous easily—is theoretically likely to be an important driver of welfare attitudes precisely because welfare states deliver social “security” and “safety” nets. Using cross‐sectional data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel, we study three distinct attitude types (dissatisfaction with the social security system, feelings of personal financial insecurity, and preferences for state provision) and multiple social need contexts (including unemployment, ill health, old age, and nursing care). Controlling for established explanations such as self‐interest, partisanship, and socialization, neuroticism does not systematically affect support for state provision. But it robustly increases general dissatisfaction with social security, as well as financial insecurity across various need contexts. Neurotic people are thus less happy with welfare state programmes across the board, yet they also appear to need these programmes more. This trait may be an important deeper layer driving other social attitudes.

Tell me who you are and I will tell you which SNS you use: SNSs participation

Purpose Social networking sites (SNSs) have become an essential part of our lives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how demographic variables, SNS importance, social and informational usage, and personality traits (extroversion/introversion, openness, neuroticism, internal and external locus of control) can explain participation frequency of the four biggest SNSs in Israel: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Twitter. Design/methodology/approach The research was conducted in Israel during the Fall semester of the 2017–2018 academic year and encompassed 244 students. Researchers used six questionnaires to gather data: a demographic questionnaire, a participation frequency questionnaire on four different SNSs, four SNSs importance questionnaire, social and informational usage on four different SNSs questionnaire, personality questionnaire (extroversion, openness and neuroticism) and the locus of control questionnaire. Findings The findings revealed that different social network sites play distinct roles for various individuals. WhatsApp, the most frequently used platform, is used more by women and people with internal locus of control. Facebook is more frequently used by open people and Instagram is more frequently used by women, younger adults and neurotic people. Twitter is more frequently used by men. In addition, for all SNSs, the higher the social and informational usage is, the more important the SNSs are to the users, which significantly explains participation frequency. Originality/value The differences between social networks can be evidence that each social network serves a different group and does not compete with other SNSs. This may well explain why many people make use of several social networks and have a tendency to move from one to another.

Understanding the Psycho-Sociological Facets of Homophily in Social Network Communities

Community in social networks is a nebulous concept. A community is generally assumed to be formed by people who possess similar attributes or characteristics, also known as homophily. Although there has been a lot of research on community detection based on network topology, the semantic interpretation of communities is rarely studied. The present work aims to understand the behavioral similarity of users present in their personal neighborhood communities formed by friends, relatives, or colleagues, and addresses two fundamental questions: (i) Are communities formed by users who possess similar behavioral traits? If so, does this apply to all those sub-networks, i.e., friends, relatives, and colleagues? (ii) Does adding behavioral node-specific attributes/features to the nodes in a network lead to better community detection? To better understand the psycho-sociological homophilic nature of personal networks, the personalities and values of Twitter users were analyzed using the well-established Big-5 personality model and Schwartz sociological behavior model. Empirical results based on the psychosociological behavior show that friends networks exhibit homophily, whereas relatives and colleagues networks do not exhibit such homophilic behavior. It can also be observed that neurotic people tend to behave heterogeneously with people of various personality traits. In addition, it is shown that such empirical evidence can be used as features for the tasks of community detection and link prediction.

A Moist Crevice for Word Aversion: In Semantics Not Sounds.

Why do people self-report an aversion to words like “moist”? The present studies represent an initial scientific exploration into the phenomenon of word aversion by investigating its prevalence and cause. Results of five experiments indicate that about 10–20% of the population is averse to the word “moist.” This population often speculates that phonological properties of the word are the cause of their displeasure. However, data from the current studies point to semantic features of the word–namely, associations with disgusting bodily functions–as a more prominent source of peoples’ unpleasant experience. “Moist,” for averse participants, was notable for its valence and personal use, rather than imagery or arousal–a finding that was confirmed by an experiment designed to induce an aversion to the word. Analyses of individual difference measures suggest that word aversion is more prevalent among younger, more educated, and more neurotic people, and is more commonly reported by females than males.

The role of personality in shaping social networks and mediating behavioral change

In this paper, we exploit different facets of the Friends and Family study to deal with two personality-related tasks of paramount importance for the user modeling and ubiquitous computing fields. First, we propose and validate an approach for automatic classification of personality traits based on the ego-networks' structural characteristics. Our classification results show that (i) mobile phones-based behavioral data can be superior to survey ones for the purposes of personality classification from structural network properties and (ii) particular feature set/network type combinations promise to perform better with given personality traits. Then, we investigate the mediating role played by personality in the context of inducing behavioral change, specifically increasing daily physical activity using social strategies (social comparison and peer pressure). Our results confirm the role played by Extraversion and Neuroticism. Extroverts exposed to a social comparison strategy are positively associated with an increase in physical activity level, while they tend to decrease physical activity level if they are exposed to a peer pressure intervention strategy. Regarding Neuroticism dimension, neurotic people tend to increase their physical daily activity level if they are exposed to a social comparison strategy. Our findings may have implications in designing personality-based behavioral change strategies and suggest to incorporate users' personality models in the implementation of persuasive systems.

Erratum to “Correlation not Causation: The Relationship between Personality Traits and Political Ideologies” American Journal of Political Science 56 (1), 34–51

Erratum to “Correlation not Causation: The Relationship between Personality Traits and Political Ideologies” <i>American Journal of Political Science 56</i> (1), 34–51

Public Opinion on Automated Driving: Results of an International Questionnaire Among 5,000 Respondents

This study investigated user acceptance, worries, and willingness to buy partially, highly, and fully automated vehicles. By means of a 63-question Internet-based survey, we collected 5,000 responses from 109 countries (40 countries with at least 25 respondents). We determined cross-national differences, and assessed correlations with personal variables, such as age, gender, and personality traits as measured with a short version of the Big Five Inventory. Results showed that respondents, on average, found manual driving the most enjoyable mode of driving. Responses were diverse: 22% of the respondents did not want to pay more than $0 for a fully automated driving system, whereas 5% indicated they would be willing to pay more than $30,000 for it, and 33% indicated that fully automated driving would be highly enjoyable. 69% of respondents estimated that fully automated driving will reach a 50% market share between now and 2050. Respondents were found to be most concerned about software hacking/misuse, and were also concerned about legal issues and safety. More neurotic people were slightly less comfortable about data transmitting, whereas agreeable persons were slightly more comfortable with that. The more developed countries (in terms of accident statistics, education, and income) were less comfortable with their vehicle transmitting data, with cross-national correlations between ρ= -0.80 and ρ= -0.90. The present results indicate the major areas of promise and concern among the international public, and could be useful for vehicle developers and other stakeholders.