Beyond Affect: Exploring the Emotional Dimensions of the Big Five and their Sub-Traits

Objective To investigate relationships between the Big Five, their sub-traits, and basic emotional states.BackgroundMost research has focused on how emotional attributes relate to Extraversion and Neuroticism. However, the potential for discrete emotional states to enable a richer understanding of the emotive nature of all Big Five traits has been neglected.MethodParticipants (N = 203) answered the Big Five Aspects Scale, watched six emotionally stimulating video clips, and self-reported their experience of each basic emotion pre (Baseline) and post (Reaction) video. Spearman correlations were computed to identify state-trait relationships before using regression to assess the unique contribution of each trait in predicting each emotion.ResultsConscientiousness is negatively related to Baseline Sadness, Agreeableness is positively related to Reaction Disgust, Fear, and Sadness, Extraversion is positively related to Joy, and Neuroticism is positively related to Fear and Sadness.ConclusionsFindings support Extraversion and Neuroticism’s links to positive and negative emotionality respectively whilst also indicating that Agreeableness uniquely predicts heightened sensitivity to negative affect, Conscientiousness is associated (particularly Orderliness) with protection against experiences of Sadness, and people high in Openness to Experience (particularly Intellect) are less sensitive to Surprise. Potential mechanisms that explain these state-trait relationships are explored.