Cited by 242Personality Traits and PsychologyAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesPersonality Disorders and Psychopathology

Personality, Emotions, and the Emotional Disorders

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Watson, David, Naragon-Gainey, Kristin·2014·Clinical Psychological Science

Abstract

We examined symptom-level relations between the emotional disorders and general traits within the five-factor model of personality. Neuroticism correlated strongly with the symptoms of general distress/negative affectivity (depressed mood, anxious mood, worry) that are central to these disorders; more moderately with symptoms of social phobia, affective lability, panic, posttraumatic stress disorder, lassitude, checking, and obsessive intrusions; and more modestly with agoraphobia, specific phobia, and other symptoms of depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Extraversion was negatively correlated with symptoms of social anxiety/social phobia and was positively related to scales that assess expansive positive mood and increased social engagement in bipolar disorder. Conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness showed weaker associations and generally added little to the prediction of these symptoms. It is noteworthy, moreover, that our key findings replicated well across (a) self-rated versus (b) interview-based symptom measures. We conclude by discussing the diagnostic and assessment implications of these data.

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  • Extraversion has clinical relevance for understanding agoraphobia, specific phobia, and social anxiety disorder.

    “Another Big Five personality trait, extraversion - which refers to sociability and the tendency to draw energy from interacting with others - has clinical relevance for understanding certain anxiety disorders, including agoraphobia, specific phobia, and social anxiety disorder 138 .”

    From The clinical characterization of the adult patient with an anxiety or related disorder aimed at personalization of management (2021) · cites this paper as [138]

    The Discussion’s Summary of Findings and the Anxiety Symptoms analyses report a strong negative association between extraversion and social anxiety/social phobia. They do not establish comparable clinical relevance for agoraphobia or specific phobia; the Anxiety Symptoms summary instead links those symptoms to neuroticism. Page numbers are unavailable in our copy. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • Among the Big Five personality traits, neuroticism has shown the most robust association with anxiety.

    “Among the 'classic' traits from the five-factor (Big Five) model of personality, neuroticism - which refers to negative emotionality, or the persistent tendency to readily experience strong negative emotions - has shown the most robust association with anxiety 138 .”
  • Neuroticism has been linked to increased symptoms of general anxiety, OCD, panic disorder, phobias, PTSD, and social anxiety disorder.

    “Neuroticism has been linked to increased symptoms of general anxiety, as well as symptoms of OCD, panic disorder, phobias, PTSD, and social anxiety disorder.”

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. 10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 · DOI · Paper page
  2. Costa P. T., 1992, Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual
  3. 10.1037/0022-3514.73.6.1246 · DOI · Paper page
  4. John O. P., 1999, Handbook of personality, 102
  5. Watson D., 2011, International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 11, 429
  6. Weathers F. W., 1993, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies

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Authors
Watson, D., & Naragon-Gainey, K.
Affiliations
  • University of Notre Dame (US)
  • University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Venue
Clinical Psychological Science
Published
2014-06-30
Volume
2
Issue
4
Pages
422-442
ISSN
  • 2167-7026 (ISSN-L)
  • 2167-7034
OpenAlex
W2319511153
Cited by
242
References
89
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 52 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 5
FWCI
21.85
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Clinical Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH068472)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
Keywords
five-factor model of personality, neuroticism, extraversion, emotional disorders, depression, anxiety, social anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, panic, negative affectivity

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