Chapter 13
Emotion and Personality

 

Chapter Outline

Introduction

• Emotions include three components
• Associated with distinct subjective feelings or affects
• Accompanied by bodily changes, mostly in the nervous system
• Accompanied by distinct action tendencies, or increases in probabilities of certain behaviors
• People differ in emotional reactions, even to the same event, so emotions are useful in making distinctions between persons

 

Issues in Emotion Research

Emotional States Versus Emotional Traits

• Emotional states: Transitory, depend more on the situation than on a specific person
• Emotional traits: Pattern of emotional reactions that a person consistently experiences across a variety of life situations
  

Categorical Versus Dimensional Approach to Emotion

• Categorical approach
• Focus on identifying a small number of primary and distinct emotions
• Lack of consensus about regarding which emotions are primary
• Lack of consensus is attributable to different criteria used for defining an emotion as primary
• Dimensional approach
• Based on empirical research rather than theoretical criteria
• People rate themselves on a variety of emotions, then the researcher applies statistical techniques (mostly factor analysis) to identify dimensions underlying ratings
• Consensus among researchers on two basic dimensions: Pleasant/Unpleasant and High Arousal/Low Arousal
• Two-dimensional model suggests every emotion can be described as a combination of pleasantness/unpleasantness and arousal
  

Content Versus Style of Emotional Life

• Content refers to the specific kinds of emotions that a person experiences
• Style refers to how emotions are experienced
• Content and style have trait-like properties (stable over time and situations, meaningful for making distinctions between people)

Content of Emotional Life

• Pleasant Emotions
• Happiness and life satisfaction
• Researchers have defined happiness in two complimentary ways
• Judgment that life is satisfying
• Predominance of positive relative to negative emotions
• Self-report and non-self-report measures of happiness correlate with self-report scores on social desirability
• Part of being happy is to have positive illusions about the self, an inflated view of the self as a good, able, desirable person
• Survey measures of happiness and well-being predict other aspects of people’s lives we would expect to relate to being happy
• Compared to unhappy people, happy people are less abusive, less hostile, report fewer diseases, are more helpful, creative, energetic, forgiving, and trusting
• Thus, self-reports of happiness are valid and trustworthy
• What we know about happy people
• No sex difference in overall happiness, global well-being, life satisfaction, and across cultures and countries
• No age differences in overall happiness, although circumstances that make people happy change with age
• Ethnic group membership is unrelated to subjective well-being
• National differences in subjective well-being
• People in poorer countries are less happy
• People in countries that provide citizens fewer civil and political rights are less happy
• Differences in economic development of nations may be a key source of differences in happiness of countries
• Personality and well-being
• High extraversion and low neuroticism contribute more to happiness than gender, ethnicity, age, and all other demographic characteristics
• Two different models of relationship between personality and well-being
• Indirect model: Personality causes a person to create a certain lifestyle, and lifestyle causes emotional reactions
• Direct model: Personality causes emotional reactions
• Research by Larsen et al. to assess the direct model
• Best predictor of responsiveness to positive mood induction is extraversion
• Best predictor of responsiveness to negative mood induction is neuroticism
• Thus, it is easy to put an extravert into a good mood and a high neuroticism person into a bad mood
• Suggests personality had a direct effect on emotions

• Unpleasant emotions
• Anxiety, negative affectivity, or neuroticism
• Person high on neuroticism is moody, touchy, irritable, anxious, unstable, pessimistic, and complaining
• Eysenck’s biological theory
• Neuroticism is due primarily to the tendency of the limbic system in the brain to become easily activated
• Limbic system is responsible for emotion and for “fight-flight” reaction
• No direct tests of this theory, but indirect evidence supports
• Neuroticism is highly stable over time
• Neuroticism is a major dimension of personality found with different data sources in different cultures and by different researchers
• Neuroticisms shows moderate heritability
• Cognitive theories
• Neuroticism is caused by styles of information processing—preferential processing of negative (but not positive) information about the self (not about others)
• Related explanation holds that high neuroticism people have richer networks of association surrounding memories of negative emotion—unpleasant material is more accessible
• One type of unpleasant information is poor health—link between neuroticism and self-reported health complaints
• Major diseases categories are not related to neuroticism
• But neuroticism is related to diminished immune functioning during stress
• Matthews’ attentional theory that high neuroticism people pay

more attention to threats and unpleasant information in environments

• Depression and melancholia
• Diathesis-stress model: Stressful life event triggers depression among those with pre-existing vulnerability, or diathesis
• Beck’s cognitive theory: Certain cognitive style is a pre-existing condition that makes people vulnerable to depression
• Vulnerability lies in the particular cognitive schema, a way of looking at the world
• Three areas of life most influenced by depressive cognitive schema—Cognitive triad: Information about self, world, future
• Explanatory style
• Depressed people maintain an internal, stable, and global explanatory style—pessimistic explanatory style
• Anger-proneness and potential for hostility
• Type A personality and heart disease
• Type A personality: Syndrome or a cluster of traits, including achievement strivings, impatience, competitiveness, hostility
• Research identified Type A personality as a predictor of heart disease
• Research subsequently identified hostility as a trait of Type A most strongly related to heart disease
• Hostility: Tendency to respond to everyday frustrations with anger and aggression, to become easily irritated, to feel frequent resentment, to act in a rude, critical, antagonistic, uncooperative manner in everyday interaction
• Hostility in Big Five: Low agreeableness, high neuroticism
  

Style of Emotional Life

• Emotional content refers to the “what” of person’s emotional life, whereas style refers to the “how” of an emotional life

 

• Affect intensity as an emotional style
• High affect intensity people experience emotions strongly and are emotionally reactive and variable
• Low affect intensity people experience emotions only mildly and only gradual fluctuations and minor reactions
• Assessing affect intensity and mood variability
• In early studies, affect intensity was assessed using a daily experiential sampling technique
• Affect Intensity Measure (AIM): Questionnaire measure that allows quick assessment of emotional style in terms of intensity
• Research findings on affect intensity
• High (relative to low) affect intensity people display greater mood variability or more frequent fluctuations in emotional life over time
• Affect intensity relates to personality dimensions of high activity level, sociability, arousability, high extraversion, high neuroticism

Interaction of Content and Style in Emotional Life

• Hedonic balance between positive and negative emotions represents the content of emotional life
• Affect intensity represents the style of emotional life
• Hedonic balance and affect intensity are unrelated to each other and interact to produce specific types of emotional lives that characterize different personalities
• Positive hedonic balance, low affect intensity
• Positive hedonic balance, high affect intensity
• Negative hedonic balance, low affect intensity
• Negative hedonic balance, high affect intensity

 

SUMMARY AND EVALUATION

• Emotion states versus emotional traits
• Emotional content versus emotional style
• Content and style interact within persons to produce distinct varieties of emotional lives

 

KEY TERMS

            Emotions                                            Anterior Cingulate
Action Tendencies                             Prefrontal Cortex
Functional Analysis                           Depression
Emotional States                                Diathesis-Stress Model
Emotional Traits                                Cognitive Schema
Categorical Approach                        Cognitive Triad
Dimensional Approach                      Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Content                                              Neurotransmitter Theory of Depression
Style                                                   Hostility
Happiness                                          Type A Personality
Positive Illusions                               Syndrome
Mood Induction                                 Affect Intensity
Neuroticism                                        Low Affect Intensity
Limbic System                                   Mood Variability

Chapter Overview

This chapter introduces students to theory and research at the interface of emotion and personality. The authors begin by defining emotion, noting that emotions have three key components. They are accompanied by distinct subjective feelings, bodily changes, and distinct action tendencies. The authors review several key issues in emotion research, beginning with the distinction between emotions as temporary states and emotions as enduring characteristics of a person. Next the authors discuss and differentiate the categorical and dimensional approaches to emotion. There is little consensus about the primary emotions among those working from the categorical approach, but the dimensional approach has identified two key dimensions—pleasantness/unpleasantness and arousal. The authors then distinguish emotional content and emotional style, noting that content refers to the “what” of emotional life, whereas style refers to the “how” of emotional life. The authors then review research on the content of emotional life, beginning with a review of research on pleasant emotions. In this section, the authors review empirical work on happiness and life satisfaction, including what we know about happy people, the relationship between money and happiness, and the relationship between personality and happiness. The authors present an empirically informed program to increase happiness. The authors then review theory and research on unpleasant emotions, beginning with anxiety, negative affectivity, and neuroticism. The authors review Eysenck’s biological theory and several cognitive theories of neuroticism. Next the authors address work on depression, and review diathesis-stress models of depression, and Beck’s cognitive theory of depression. The authors then review work on anger-proneness and hostility, highlighting research on the relationships between Type A personality and heart disease. The authors turn to a discussion of emotional style, highlighting theory and research on affect intensity. The authors close with a discussion of the interaction of emotional content (hedonic balance) and emotional style (affect intensity) as a way of understanding the distinct varieties of emotional lives.

Learning Objectives

 

• Define emotion, and identify and discuss the three key components of emotions.

• Distinguish emotion states from emotion traits.

 

• Differentiate and discuss the categorical and dimensional approaches to emotions.

• Differentiate and discuss the content and style of emotional life.

 

• Discuss theory and research on happiness and life satisfaction.

• Discuss what we know about the characteristics of happy people.

 

• Discuss the results of research designed to investigate the relationship between income and happiness.

• Discuss the relationships among personality traits and well-being.

 

• Identify and discuss the key elements of an empirically informed program to increase happiness.

• Discuss theory and research on anxiety (also known as negative affectivity or neuroticism).

 

• Discuss Eysenck’s biological theory of neuroticism.

• Discuss several cognitive theories of neuroticism.

 

• Discuss theory and research on depression, including the diathesis stress model and Beck’s cognitive theory of depression

• Discuss theory and research on anger-proneness and the potential for hostility, including work on the relationship between Type A personality and heart disease.

 

• Discuss theory and research on affect intensity as an emotional style.

• Discuss how personality researchers assess affect intensity.

 

• Discuss the interaction between content and style in emotional life.

Lecture Topics and Lecture Suggestions

 

• The Evolution of Happiness (Buss, 2000). This lecture presents the key ideas laid out in an interesting paper that provides an evolutionary psychological analysis of happiness. This lecture will encourage students to think in terms of integrating the different domains of personality that have been covered in the course. In particular, this paper and the associated lecture guide students to consider the interface of evolutionary psychology and the study of emotion. Following the lecture, encourage students to discuss the ideas, including arguing in favor of them or against them. As always, be sure to help students fashion logical arguments rather than knee-jerk arguments that are not scientifically defensible.

• According to Buss (2000), an evolutionary perspective offers novel insights into some major obstacles to achieving happiness
• Impediments to achieving happiness include
• Large discrepancies between modern and ancestral environments
• The existence of evolved mechanisms “designed” to produce subjective distress, and
• The fact that evolution by selection has produced competitive mechanisms that function to benefit one person at the expense of others
• On the positive side, people also possess evolved mechanisms that produce deep sources of happiness
• These include mechanisms designed to initiate and maintain mating bonds, deep friendship, close kinship, and cooperative coalitions
• According to Buss (2000), understanding these psychological mechanisms—the selective processes that designed them, their evolved functions, and the contexts governing their activation—offers the best hope for holding some evolved mechanisms in check and selectively activating others to produce an overall increment in human happiness

 

Reference:

            Buss, D. M. (2000). The evolution of happiness. American Psychologist, 55, 15–23.

• Emotional Reactions to Infidelity (Shackelford, LeBlanc, & Drass 2000). This lecture presents research investigating the emotional reactions to a long-term partner’s sexual infidelity or emotional infidelity. The research is empirically guided and represents an example of the categorical approach to emotions in the sense that the researchers sought to identify the basic or primary emotions that underlie emotional reactions to a partner’s infidelity. Research on conflict in romantic relationships is a favorite topic of students, and this research is squarely within this topic. Use this lecture as a springboard for discussing and distinguishing between the categorical and dimensional approaches to emotion.

 

• Shackelford et al. (2000) sought to identify emotional reactions to a partner’s sexual infidelity and emotional infidelity
• In a preliminary study, 53 participants nominated emotional reactions to a partner’s sexual and emotional infidelity
• In a second study, 655 participants rated each emotion for how likely it was to occur following sexual and emotional infidelity
• Principal components analysis (similar to factor analysis) revealed 15 emotion components
• These emotion components included Hostile/Vengeful, Depressed, and Sexually Aroused.
• The researchers then conducted repeated measures analyses of variance on the 15 components, with participant sex as the between-subjects factor and infidelity type as the within-subjects factor
• A main effect for sex was obtained for nine components
• For example, men scored higher on Homicidal/Suicidal, whereas women scored higher on Undesirable/Insecure
• A main effect for infidelity type obtained for 12 components
• For example, participants endorsed Nauseated/Repulsed as more likely to follow sexual infidelity and Undesirable/Insecure as more likely to follow emotional infidelity
• The researchers address limitations of this research, including reliance on self-report and imaginary infidelities, and highlight the need for an integrative theory of emotional reactions to infidelity

Reference:

Shackelford, T. K., LeBlanc, G. J., & Drass, E. (2000). Emotional reactions to infidelity.
Cognition and Emotion, 14, 643–659.

Classroom Activities and Demonstrations

 

• Larsen and Buss differentiate categorical and dimensional approaches to emotion. Those using the categorical approach seek to identify the primary, basic, or fundamental emotions. Before lecturing on the work that has been done in this area, ask students to generate their own list of primary emotions. Distribute Activity Handout 13-1 (“What are the Primary Emotions?”). Give students about five minutes to complete the handout. Ask several students to volunteer the emotions they nominated as primary. Use this activity as a springboard for discussing theory and research on primary emotions. Challenge students to consider whether researchers will ever agree on a single set of primary emotions—why or why not? What research needs to be done that might reveal such a single set of primary emotions?

• One way to define happiness is to examine how researchers measure it. Several questionnaires have been developed to assess self-reported happiness. Some of these questionnaires focus on the balance between pleasant and unpleasant emotions in a person’s life. An example of this type of questionnaire is the Fordyce Scale. In this activity, students will complete this scale. Distribute Activity Handout 13-2 (“Fordyce Scale”). Give students a minute or so to complete this handout. Ask students to volunteer the percent of time they are happy, neutral, and unhappy. Note for students that research indicates that the average college student reports feeling happy 65 percent of the time, neutral 15 percent of the time, and unhappy 20 percent of the time. Use this activity as a springboard for discussing self-report assessments of happiness, and for discussing, more generally, the correlates of self-reported happiness.

 

• Larsen (1984) developed the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM) that allows a relatively quick assessment of a person’s emotional style in terms of intensity. In this activity, students will complete a few of the items from the AIM. Distribute Activity Handout 13-3 (“Affect Intensity Measure”). Give students about five minutes to complete this handout. Note for students that higher scores reflect relatively greater affect intensity, whereas lower scores reflect relatively lower affect intensity. Use this activity as a springboard for discussing the correlates of affect intensity, including the relationships of affect intensity with personality traits.

Questions for In-Class Discussion

 

• Larsen and Buss distinguish between emotion states and emotion traits. Ask students to describe and discuss each of these conceptualizations of emotions. Ask students to generate some of their own examples of emotion states and emotion traits. Ask students to consider whether it might be more appropriate for personality psychologists to study emotion states or emotion traits. Why might one conceptualization of emotions be more appropriate for personality psychologists to study? Or perhaps do students think both conceptualizations of emotions are appropriate for personality psychologists to study?

• Larsen and Buss review empirical work that led personality researchers to conclude that the absence of either health or wealth can bring misery, but that the presence of health and wealth do not guarantee happiness. First, ask students to discuss what this means, referring to the results of empirical work in this area. Second, challenge students to address why the absence of health and wealth can bring misery, but their presence does not guarantee happiness. Why is human nature built this way?

 

• Larsen and Buss review research indicating that, of all the features of Type A personality, the trait that appears to be central to the relationship between Type A personality and heart disease is hostility. First, ask students to discuss the results of research on Type A personality and heart disease. Next, challenge students to think about why hostility seems to be the key component driving the relationship between Type A personality and heart disease. There is no answer to this issue yet, but encourage students to think about this interesting finding.

Critical Thinking Essays

 

• Larsen and Buss differentiate two approaches to the nature of emotions. One approach conceptualizes emotions as categories, and researchers working from the categorical approach attempt to identify the primary or basic emotions that underlie all emotional experiences. The dimensional approach views emotions as arrayed along, for example, a circumplex defined by two dimensions—pleasantness/unpleasantness and arousal. Which approach makes more sense to you, and why?

• Compare and contrast the direct and indirect models of the relationships between personality and well-being, as presented by Larsen and Buss.

 

• Think about your closest friend. Based on what you know about him or her, where would you classify that person on affect intensity? Provide specific examples that support your classification.

Research Papers

 

• Researchers have investigated individual differences in several different positive emotions, including satisfaction with life. Conduct a review of the psychological literature. Identify three articles published in the last five years that address individual differences in life satisfaction. Select articles that are not cited or discussed by Larsen and Buss. A good place to start is to search for recent papers published by Dr. Ed Diener, a leader in this field. For each article, summarize what the researchers investigated, how they investigated it, and what they found.

• Type A personality is a syndrome of personality and emotion traits that is predictive of heart disease and other health problems. Conduct a review of the psychological literature. Identify three articles published in the last five years that address the relationships between Type A personality and heart disease, or another health problem. Select articles that are not cited or discussed by Larsen and Buss. For each article, summarize what the researchers investigated, how they investigated it, and what they found.

 

• The Affect Intensity Measure (AIM) was developed as a questionnaire measure of affect intensity or emotional variability and volatility. Many studies have used this measure to investigate individual differences in affect intensity, or the relationships between affect intensity and other personality variables. Conduct a review of the psychological literature. Identify three articles published in the last five years that use the AIM to assess affect intensity, and investigate the relationships between affect intensity and some other individual difference variable. Select articles that are not cited or discussed by Larsen and Buss. For each article, summarize what the researchers investigated, how they investigated it, and what they found.

Recent Research Articles and Other Scholarly Readings

 

Brown, J. D., & Marshall, M. A. (2001). Self-esteem and emotion: Some thoughts about feelings. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 575–584.

Calvo, M. G., & Castillo, M. D. (2001). Selective interpretation in anxiety: Uncertainty for threatening events. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 299–320.

Chambless, D. L, Bryan, A. D., & Aiken, L. S. (2001). Predicting expressed emotion: A study with families of obsessive-compulsive and agoraphobic outpatients. Journal of Family Psychology, 15, 225–240.

Danner, D. D., Snowdon, D. A., & Friesen, W. V. (2001). Positive emotions in early life
and longevity: Findings from the nun study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 804–813.

Diener, E. (2000). Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist, 55, 34–43.

Diener, E., Gohm, C. L.; Suh, E., et al. (2000). Similarity of the relations between marital status and subjective well-being across cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 31, 419–436.

Diener, E., & Lucas, R. E. (2000). Explaining differences in societal levels of happiness: Relative standards, need fulfillment, culture and evaluation theory. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 41–78.

Diener, E., Napa Scollon, C. K., Oishi, S., et al. (2000). Positivity and the construction of life satisfaction judgments: Global happiness is not the sum of its parts. Journal of Happiness Studies, 1, 159–176.

Diener, E., Wirtz, D., & Oishi, S. (2001). End effects of rated quality of life: The James
Dean effect. Psychological Science, 12, 124–128.

Eisenberg, N., Gershoff, E. T., Fabes, R. A., et al. (2001). Mother's emotional expressivity and children's behavior problems and social competence: Mediation through children's regulation. Developmental Psychology, 37, 475–490.

Eisenberg, N., Losoya, S., Fabes, R. A., et al. (2001). Parental socialization of children’s dysregulated expression of emotion and externalizing problems. Journal of Family Psychology, 15, 183–205.

Frank, M. G., & Stennett, J. (2001). The forced-choice paradigm and the perception of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 75–85.

Gale, A., Edwards, J., Morris, P., et al. (2001). Extraversion-introversion, neuroticism-stability, and EEG indicators of positive and negative emphatic mood. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 449–461.

Garnefski, N., Kraaij, V., & Spinhoven, P. (2001). Negative life events, cognitive emotion regulation and emotional problems. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 1311–1327.

Harker, L., Keltner, D. (2001). Expressions of positive emotion in women’s college yearbook pictures and their relationship to personality and life outcomes across adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 112–124.

Henirch, C. C., Blatt, S. J., Kuperminc, G. P., et al. (2001). Levels of interpersonal concerns and social functioning in early adolescent boys and girls. Journal of Personality Assessment, 76, 48–67.

Kardum, I., & Krapic, N. (2001). Personality traits, stressful life events, and coping styles in early adolescence. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 503–515.

Kokkonen, M., & Pulkkinen, L. (2001). Examination of the paths between personality, current mood, its evaluation, and emotion regulation. European Journal of Personality, 15, 83–104.

Lerner, J. S., & Keltner, D. (2001). Fear, anger, and risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 146–159.

Lozano, B. E., & Johnson, S. L. (2001). Can personality traits predict increases in manic and depressive symptoms? Journal of Affective Disorders, 63, 103–111.

Oishi, S., Schimmack, U., & Diener, E. (2001). Pleasures and subjective well-being. European Journal of Personality, 15, 153–167.

Mesquita, B. (2001). Emotions in collectivist and individualist contexts. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 68–74.

Mroczek, D. (2001). Age and emotion in adulthood. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 87–90.

Peirson, A. R., & Heuchert, J. W. (2001). The relationship between personality and mood: Comparison of the BDI and the TCI. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 391–399.

Sacco, W. P., & Phares, V. (2001). Partner appraisal and marital satisfaction: The role of self-esteem and depression. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 63, 504–513.

Schimmack, U., Oishi, S., Diener, E., et al. (2000). Facets of affective experiences: A framework for investigations of trait affect. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 655–668.

Siemer, M. (2001). Mood-specific effects on appraisal and emotion judgements. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 453–485.

Spasojevic, J., & Alloy, L. B. (2001). Rumination as a common mechanism relating
depressive risk factors to depression. Emotion, 1, 25–37.

Tiedens, L. Z. (2001). Anger and advancement versus sadness and subjugation: The effect of negative emotion expressions on social status conferral. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 86–94.

Van Honk, J., Tuiten, A., de Haan, E., et al. (2001). Attentional biases for angry faces: Relationships to trait anger and anxiety. Cognition and Emotion, 15, 279–297.

Activity Handout 13-1:
What are the Primary Emotions?

Instructions: In the spaces provided below, write down what you think are the primary, basic, or fundamental emotions. Although 10 spaces are provided, you need not use all these spaces. If you think there are more than 10 primary emotions, write these emotions on the back of this page. The emotions you list are the ones that can be combined in various ways to capture every emotion experienced by humans.

 

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Activity Handout 13-2:
Fordyce Scale

Instructions: Answer the following questions quickly. Make sure your percents add up to 100 percent.

 

 

            What percent of the time are you Happy? _____

            What percent of the time are you Neutral? _____

            What percent of the time are you Unhappy? _____

            *Make sure you percents add up to 100 percent

 

Activity Handout 13-3:
Affect Intensity Measure

Instructions: The following events refer to emotional reactions to typical life events. Please indicate how YOU react to these events by placing a number from the following scale in the blank space preceding each item. Please base your answers on how YOU, react, not on how you think others react or how you think a person should react.

                        Almost                                                                       Almost
Never              Never              Occasionally               Usually            Always           Always
1                      2                                  3                      4                      5                      6

 

1. ____            I get overly enthusiastic.

2. ____            Sad movies deeply touch me.

3. ____            When I’m happy I feel like I’m bursting with joy.

4. ____            When I feel guilty, this emotion is quite strong.

5. ____            When I am nervous I get shaky all over.