Word-association emotional indicators: associations with anxiety, psychoticism, neuroticism, extraversion, and...

Word-association emotional indicators (e.g., long reaction time, response repetition) were studied in relation to anxiety, psychoticism, neuroticism, extraversion, and creativity. Two hundred fifty male university students in India completed 5 measures. A principal components analysis with varimax rotation indicated that (a) rare but not bizarre and atypical word associations were related to creativity; (b) rare word associations that were bizarre, isolated, and atypical were positively related to psychoticism and to psychopathic deviation; (c) long reaction time and repetition of the stimulus word before responding were related to suspiciousness, and (d) the P scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975) tapped some features of social anhedonia, social deviance, and mild antisocial behavior.