Neuroticism and Valence of Negative Emotional Concepts

This study explored the relationships of neuroticism with subjective assessments of 10 discrete negative emotions. One hundred eighty seven university students from 19 to 34 years (males = 85, females = 102) completed the Eysenck Personality Scales. Further, they evaluated the valence of 10 given negative emotions - disgust, anger, sadness, fear, contempt, hate, disappointment, jealousy, envy and guilt. Highly neurotic individuals evaluated negative emotions as more unpleasant than lowly neurotic individuals. Furthermore, males generally evaluated negative emotions more positively than females. There are a few possible interpretations. First, highly neurotic individuals may experience negative emotions more intensively than lowly neurotic individuals. This interpretation supports the Eysenck's model, where high levels of neuroticism are supposed to be related to the lower thresholds for activation of the limbic system which is responsible for most negative emotions. Second, highly neurotic individuals may only “evaluate” negative emotions as more unpleasant than lowly neurotic individuals. It implies that highly neurotic individuals may retrospectively evaluate their memories of past negative emotional experiences as more unpleasant than lowly neurotic individuals.