Individuals with high scores on neuroticism are more likely than average to experience such feelings as anxiety, worry, fear, anger, frustration, envy, jealousy, pessimism, guilt, depressed mood, and loneliness.
[1] Such people are thought to respond worse to stressors and are more likely to interpret ordinary situations, such as minor frustrations, as appearing hopelessly difficult.
According to a 1998 study, being high in scores of positive emotion is generally an element of the independent traits of extraversion and agreeableness.
[10] Deciding which measure of either type to use in research is determined by an assessment of psychometric properties and the time and space constraints of the study being undertaken.
Lexical measures use individual adjectives that reflect neurotic traits, such as anxiety, envy, jealousy, and moodiness, and are very space and time efficient for research purposes.
Thompson (2008)[1] systematically revised these measures to develop the International English Mini-Markers which has superior validity and reliability in populations both within and outside North America.
[13] For instance, statements in colloquial North American English like "feeling blue" or "being down in the dumps" are sometimes hard for non-native English-speakers to understand.
[16][17] Neuroticism has been included as one of the four dimensions that comprise core self-evaluations, one's fundamental appraisal of oneself, along with locus of control, self-efficacy, and self-esteem.
[18][19][20][21][22] There is a risk of selection bias in surveys of neuroticism; a 2012 review of N-scores said that "many studies used samples drawn from privileged and educated populations".
This suggests that Neuroticism may increase vigilance where evasive action is possible but promote emotional blunting when escape is not an option.
[2][25] The five big studies have described children and adolescents with high neuroticism as "anxious, vulnerable, tense, easily frightened, 'falling apart' under stress, guilt-prone, moody, low in frustration tolerance, and insecure in relationships with others", which includes both traits concerning the prevalence of negative emotions as well as the response to these negative emotions.
[30] Flehmig et al. (2007) studied mental noise in terms of everyday behaviours using the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, which is a self-report measure of the frequency of slips and lapses of attention.
The authors interpret these findings as suggesting that mental noise is "highly specific in nature" as it is related most strongly to attention slips triggered endogenously by associative memory.
[34] These buffers consist of: While TMT agrees with standard evolutionary psychology accounts that the roots of neuroticism in Homo sapiens or its ancestors are likely in adaptive sensitivities to negative outcomes, it posits that once Homo sapiens achieved a higher level of self-awareness, neuroticism increased enormously, becoming largely a spandrel, a non-adaptive byproduct of our adaptive intelligence, which resulted in a crippling awareness of death that threatened to undermine other adaptive functions.
This overblown anxiety thus needed to be buffered via intelligently creative, but largely fictitious and arbitrary notions of cultural meaning and personal value.
Since highly religious or supernatural conceptions of the world provide "cosmic" personal significance and literal immortality, they are deemed to offer the most efficient buffers against death anxiety and neuroticism.
Thus, historically, the shift to more materialistic and secular cultures—starting in the neolithic, and culminating in the Industrial Revolution—is deemed to have increased neuroticism.
"[3] The effect size of these genetic differences remain largely the same throughout development, but the hunt for any specific genes that control neuroticism levels has "turned out to be difficult and hardly successful so far.
"[3] On the other hand, with regards to environmental influences, adversities during development such as "emotional neglect and sexual abuse" were found to be positively associated with neuroticism.
[27] Mean neuroticism levels change throughout the lifespan as a function of personality maturation and social roles,[36][37] but also the expression of new genes.
However, the relationship between brain activity and genetics may not be completely straightforward due to other factors, with suggestions made that cognitive control and stress may moderate the effect of the gene.
The review found that the causal relationship between regional cultural and economic conditions and psychological health is unclear.
[42] A 2013 review found that a high level of neuroticism in young adults is a risk factor for triggering mood disorders.
[47] Studies have shown that individuals with higher levels of neuroticism are associated with a shortened life span, a greater likelihood of divorce, and a lack of education.
A common perception of the personality trait most closely associated with risky behaviors is extraversion, due to the correlated adjectives such as adventurous, enthusiastic, and outgoing.