1. PERSONALITY AND EMOTION

2. Categories versus Dimensions Dimensional approach supported by Cacioppo et al, (1997) and Russell (2003) and others Is emotion a personality trait? (innate/acquired) Emotional “dispositions” refer to the ways in which individuals differ in their emotional experiences

3. Personality is comprised of those characteristics of an individual that account for consistent behavioural patterns Traits - stable, enduring dispositions States - transitory conditions

4. The “happy” person? Is happiness a disposition to judge life positively or negatively? The angry person?

5. Is emotion is a short, focused alteration in personality? Is personality a fixed and ongoing emotion?

6. The “basic emotions” framework can be viewed as a categorical approach Compare this with the dimensional approach (Watson and Tellegen, 1985; Russell, 2003) which is grounded in the two following dimensions: Unpleasant  ----------  Pleasant Low Arousal  ----------  High Arousal

7. The circumplex model (Russell 2003) –Russell (2003) developed the circumplex model –Excitement would involve a combination of pleasure and arousal –The circumplex model characterises the subjective, experiential aspect of emotion as opposed to the cognitive, behavioural or biological aspects.

8. Core affect refers to the subjective, experiential aspect of emotion identified by the circumplex model Every emotion experienced is a consequence of the interplay of two points on the two dimensions

9. The evaluative space model (Cacioppo et al, 1997) –This model holds that an item/event can be simultaneously good and bad –Therefore, positive and negative emotion are represented by separate subjective experiential dimensions, rather than being polar opposites

10. Goldberg (1990) asked participants to rate themselves on a likert scale for each of 1,700 adjectives (e.g. reckless, happy etc) Words that were synonyms were averaged, creating 75 sets

11. Using factor analysis Goldberg found five factors characterised the similarities and differences in the 75 clusters The factors were Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience

12. This has been carried out in other cultures/languages (Hofstee, Kiers, de Raad and Goldberg, 1997; Benet- Martinez and John, 1998; Trull and Geary, 1997) McCrae and Costa (1991) predicted affect from personality traits

13. Lucas and Fujita (2000) found that between individual differences in extraversion were good predictors of positive affect This has been corroborated by Lucas and Baird (2004) Those who score high for extraversion are more than happier than average, they also react to particular positive events/items with greater surges in positive emotions than those who score lower (Gross, Sutton and Ketelaar, 1998)

14. This has been found to withstand the use of differing research methods leading Costa and McCrae (1990) to suggest that positive emotionality is the core essence of Extraversion Mitte and Kaempfe (2008) identified relationship between extraversion and love and joy, agreeableness and love and neuroticism and contentment.

15. Extraversion and neuroticism found to be good predictors of both positive and negative emotional experiences (Clark and Watson, 1999) Srivastava et al (2008) asked students to maintain a diary of their daily activities and their associated emotions

16. They found that introverts and extraverts reported comparable levels of positive emotionality in their interactions with others, however, extraverts chose to engage more frequently in social interaction and this fostered a greater degree of positive emotion overall

17. Emotion implicated in agreeableness (McCrae and Costa, 1991) Agreeableness associated with more frequent and intense experiences of compassion (Shiota et al, 2006) and lower susceptibility to anger (Kuppens, 2005)

18. Agreeableness has more prefrontal cortex activity Is neuroticism negative emotionality? Negative Emotionality relates to the number and type of stimuli needed to elicit negative emotions Reaction; feels worse in more contexts

19. The Six Facets of Negative Emotionality (adapted from Costa & McCrae, 1992) Six Facets of Negative Emotionality RESILIENT N-REACTIVE N+ WorryRelaxed; calmWorrying; uneasy AngerComposed; slow to angerQuick to feel anger DiscouragementSlowly discouragedEasily discouraged Self-ConsciousnessHard to embarrassMore easily embarrassed ImpulsivenessResists urges easilyEasily tempted VulnerabilityHandles stress easilyDifficulty coping

20. McNeill and Fleeson (2006) saw that role playing neuroticism versus role playing stability led to later self-reports of distress in those participants who had role played neuroticism in their interaction with others Connor-Smith and Flachsbart (2007) suggest this is due to those who score high for neuroticism engaging in greater levels of withdrawal and emotion-focused coping strategies

21. Agreeableness is linked with more intense experiences of love (Shiota, Keltner and John, 2006) and lower readiness to anger (Kuppens, 2005) Shiota et al (2006) saw that those who described themelselves as conscientious also reported higher levels of trait contentment

22. Jensen-Campbell et al (2007) found evidence for conscientious individuals being better able to manage the way that they expressed their emotions

23. Component Process Theory What others believe to be “basic” emotions are simply compounds of more basic appraisals These components relate to different aspects of a situation

24. One or more component may be involved When all of the components are involved, then there is a very clear example of anger or sadness etc. Components may combine with others to create different emotions

25. This means that rather than researching anger per se, it may be possible to research what causes anger Ortony and Turner (1990) and Scherer (1992) discuss points of agreement

26. Points of agreement –Emotions can be described in accordance with two dimensions –The “feeling” aspect is more fundamental than the cognitive aspect –Emotions are not required to have distinct patterns of physiology –What is considered as a “basic” emotion is socially constructed (Barrett, 2003)

27. Scales –Mehrabian (1977) Trait Arousability Scale –Differential Emotions Scale (DES) –Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire –Jackson's Personality Research Form –Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale –Comrey Personality Scale (trait scale) –Profile of Mood States (emotion scale)

28. Big 3 Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (Tellegen, 1982; 1985) –Positive Emotionality Well-being, Social Potency, Achievement, Social closeness –Negative Emotionality Stress Reaction, Alienation, Aggression –Constraint Control, Traditionalism, Harm Avoidance

29. MPQ Positive Emotionality (PEM) 276-item self-report scale Well-being: the tendency to experience positive emotions Social Potency: feeling effective and dominant in social situations Achievement: ambition Social Closeness: warmth and the need for interpersonal intimacy

30. MPQ Negative Emotionality (NEM) –Stress Reaction: experiencing frequent and intense negative emotion –Alienation: feeling victimized –Aggression: argumentative, tending to place fault in other people

31. MPQ Constraint (CON) –Control: tendency to make plans –Harm Avoidance: the tendency to avoid dangerous situations –Traditionalism: holding a conventional mindset

32. How does this relate to other personality models? –MPQ Positive Emotionality to EPQ Extraversion –MPQ Negative Emotionality to EPQ Neuroticism –MPQ Constraint to opposite of EPQ Psychoticism

33. 360 couples reported relationship satisfaction using MPQ (Caspi and Moffitt, 2000) Woman's relationship happiness predicted by partner's low Negative Emotionality, high Positive Emotionality, and high Constraint

34. Man’s relationship happiness predicted by partner's low Negative Emotionality Eisenberg et al - shyness and low sociability and relationship with emotionality Shyness associated with high negative emotionality Low sociability unrelated to negative emotionality

35. Loeber et al (1989) conducted longitudinal studies of offenders and found two higher-level personality factors –high negative emotionality –low constraint

36. Cognitive-Affective Theory of Development (Labouvie-Vief, 2003) states that older individuals try to regulate their emotions more than younger ones Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (Carestensen, 2006): as one gets older, and life to be lived becomes shorter, individuals regulate their emotions more