Investigating the Relationships Between Basic Emotions and the Big Five Personality Traits and Their Sub-Traits

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Personality Science
• Affective Science

Background:

• Limited research explores the Big Five personality traits beyond Extraversion and Neuroticism in relation to emotional states.
• The role of discrete emotions in understanding the full spectrum of personality traits and their facets remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationships between all Big Five personality traits and their aspects with discrete emotional states.
• To examine how personality traits predict baseline and reactivity to emotional stimuli.

Main Methods:

• 203 participants completed the Big Five Aspects Scale.
• Participants viewed emotionally evocative video clips and reported basic emotions before and after each clip.
• Correlational and regression analyses assessed trait-emotion relationships.

Main Results:

• Conscientiousness negatively correlated with baseline sadness.
• Agreeableness positively correlated with disgust, fear, and sadness.
• Extraversion predicted higher joy, while Neuroticism linked to greater fear and sadness.

Conclusions:

• Findings confirm Extraversion and Neuroticism's roles in positive and negative emotionality.
• Agreeableness is associated with increased negative affect sensitivity.
• Conscientiousness (Orderliness) and Openness to Experience (Intellect) show protective effects against specific negative emotions.