Weinhardt, Jan (2023) The Influence of Personality on Negative Affect: A Cross-Sectional Analysis. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.
|
Text
Bachelor_final_s3764397_Jan_Weinhardt EmotionDynamic 25-1-23 1250.pdf Download (477kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Introduction: Personality and psychopathology have continuously been conceived as overlapping concepts. Most studies have focused on the relationship between higher-order personality traits like the ‘Big Three Personality Inventory’ and psychopathology, depression, anxiety, and maladjustment in general. However, with new insights into dynamic features of personality and emotion regulation, the study of personality on negative affect has been lacking, since negative emotion regulation majorly contributes to the development of psychopathology. Hence, we expand the existing body of literature by hypothesizing that personality traits are associated with negative affect in the general population. Methods: On a convenience sample, we used a cross-sectional analysis of 130 European adults, of which the majority were female (n= 97, M= 25.21, SD= 9.65) and the minority males (n= 37, M= 27.59, SD= 11.57) to determine any possible association using multiple regression analysis. Our dependent variable negative affect was conceptualized as high levels of negative inertia, regulation dysfunction, high interaction of emotion components as well as overall sadness and decreased emotional flexibility, increased emotional variability and instabillity. Results: We found a significant result for our main hypothesis: higher levels of neuroticism lead to greater expression in negative affect (beta =0.261, t(130)=5.057, CI= (0.159; 0.363), p<0.001). We found insignificant results for our secondary and third hypotheses: lower levels of conscientiousness lead to greater expression of negative affect ((beta= -0.076, t(128) = - 1.444, CI= (-0.180; 0.028), p= 0.151) and lower levels of extraversion/positive emotionality lead to greater expression of negative affect (beta= -0.052, t(129)= -0.878, CI= (-0.171; 0.66), p= 0.382), respectively. Discussion: We concluded that high levels of neuroticism indicate a stronger expression of negative affect in the general population. People high in neuroticism often experience negative emotion dynamics as we have conceptualized negative affect. Furthermore, we argue that sub-clinical expression of neuroticism can be seen as a predictor for high levels of negative affect, which is linked to many forms of psychopathology. Limitations and future research: Limiting factors include the poor conceptualization of the variables, lack of generalizability, low reliability, and low validity. Nevertheless, we conclude practical applications of our results, filling the research gap of the association between personality and negative affect on sub-clinical maladjustment. Future research should focus on the dynamic perspective of the concepts studied by implementing longitudinal studies and adding mediators to an experimental design to obtain more reliable results.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Ernst, A.F. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Feb 2023 11:19 |
| Last Modified: | 16 Feb 2023 11:19 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1694 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |