title: Personality, Emotions, and the Emotional Disorders.
abstract: We examined symptom-level relations between theemotional disordersand general traits within the five-factor model of personality. Neuroticism correlated strongly with the general distress/negative affectivity symptoms (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 assessing 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.
authors: University of Notre Dame.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Watson
authors: University at Buffalo The State University of New York.
authors: Kristin
authors: K
authors: Naragon-Gainey
keywords: bipolar disorder; depression; five-factor model of personality; generalized anxiety disorder; obsessive-compulsive disorder; panic disorder; posttraumatic stress disorder; social phobia