Neuroticism and well-being? Let's work on the positive rather than negative aspects

Abstract

The present studies show that certain cognitive strategies (e.g. savoring, practicing gratitude) enable individuals high in neuroticism to maintain or recover their positive emotions. In Study 1, participants (regardless of neuroticism differences) felt positive about a pleasant event if they savored it; however, dampening the event caused individuals high but not low in neuroticism to feel less positive. Study 2 showed that being grateful for things in their lives helped participants maintain their affect balance after a positive mood induction, or regain their affect balance after a negative mood induction. This research is thus the first step toward illuminating how people (including individuals high in neuroticism) could improve their momentary affect via the alternative route of maintaining or increasing positive emotions, rather than the traditional solution of reducing negative emotions.

Keywords:

• neuroticism
• well-being
• positive emotions
• cognitive strategies

Notes

Notes

1. As English is the official (/first) language in Singapore, and is also the medium of instruction, the original English items of the IPIP scale were used. No translation to the native ethnic languages (Chinese, Malay, and Tamil) was necessary, as all the undergraduate participants were competent in English.

2. For both studies, factor analyses of the 20 IPIP neuroticism items produced one single factor. All 20 items also showed substantial loadings on the single factor (Study 1: factor loadings greater than 0.48; Study 2: factor loadings greater than 0.56). The intercorrelations among the 20 items were also all significant. In both studies, the neuroticism measure also demonstrated convergent validity, showing significant correlations with life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect in the expected directions.

3. Two additional sets of analyses predicting T2 PA: (1) based on only the PANAS positive emotions; and (2) based on the mean score of only the eight positive emotions, yielded results that replicated these findings.

4. As the standard deviations for the neuroticism scores in both studies were relatively small, and only a small percentage of both samples (Study 1: 15%; Study 2: 9%) had scores above 75% of the maximum achievable score, the terms ‘high’ (or ‘low’) in neuroticism do not refer to individuals who are ‘high’ or ‘low’ in neuroticism in an absolute sense. These terms are used throughout the paper in a relative sense, and merely refer to participants who are relatively higher (or lower) in neuroticism, as compared to other participants.