Neuroticism and Personality: Exploring Emotional Instability

Personality in itself is very intriguing and inquisitive to almost everyone. In layman’s terms, Personality is what a person is. It is all about the person, ‘in and out’. The word ‘Personality’ comes from the Roman word ‘persona’ which means Mask. In Roman theatres, the actors used to act out the roles assigned to them by wearing these masks. Every mask represented a new character and new characteristics. In the same manner, personality is the ‘mask’ that every individual wears, varying from situation to situation, to adapt to the demands of the environment.

Below are a few quoted definitions of personality:

• Raymond Cattell (1970): Personality is what permits the prediction of what a person will do in a given situation.
• Gordon Allport (1948): Personality refers to the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems, that determines its unique adjustment to the environment.
• Hans Eyesenck (1971): Personality is the more or less stable and enduring organization of a person’s character, temperament, intellect and physique, which determines his unique adjustment to the environment.

The trait being measured determines how personality varies. A stable and consistent characteristic of an individual, a personality trait, may result from one’s heredity, environment, or both. Here, we will understand one such trait, widely recognized as a personality characteristic, called Neuroticism, along with its effect on personality.

What is Neuroticism?

To put simply, neuroticism is a personality trait of an individual that is the measure of all the negative qualities like aggression, emotional instability, self-doubt, anxiety and even depression. It refers to the extent to which such qualities are present in the individual. The presence of neurotic traits exists in a spectrum (low – average – high). The greater its presence, the greater would be the emotional instability of the person. In other words, neuroticism refers to the extent of emotional stability of a person.

Neuroticism, as a personality trait, has immense potential to affect one’s personality. The same is verified by different intellectuals in their theories. These theories later explained the influence of neurotic characteristics on personality, outlining different perspectives of their respective theorists.

A. The Humor Theory/The Four Temperaments: Hippocrates

The theory of Four Temperaments is a ‘Type’ theory of Personality, which was proposed by Hippocrates for the very first time. According to this theory, the personality of an individual could be typified under four different types, based on the dominance of one of the following four different humours – blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. The types are therefore:

1. Sanguine (blood): People with this type of personality are happy, optimistic, light-hearted, and hopeful.
2. Choleric (yellow bile): Such people are characteristically irritable, extrovert, with strong, passionate and active imagination.
3. Melancholic (black bile): Bad-tempered, dejected, depressed and having a pessimistic outlook on life.
4. Phlegmatic (phlegm): It reflects being cold, calm and sluggish in terms of personality.

Here, the characteristics of people with the Choleric or Melancholic type of personality are classified to be neurotic. They are people who are believed to be over-stimulated by external stimuli, thus resulting in emotional instability and hyperactivity in them.

B. Eyesenck’s Theory of Personality

Eyesenck’s theory of personality is primarily based on this theory of Four Temperaments, where Neuroticism was the first trait he historically defined. It is a trait approach to personality where he used factor analysis to develop two dimensions namely –

1. Introversion/Extraversion: It defines the extent to which an individual is extrovert, i.e., sociable and outgoing, or introvert, i.e., reserved and socially withdrawn.
2. Psychoticism/Normality: It refers to the extent to which an individual has insight, empathy, and aggression.
3. Neuroticism/Stability: It defines the extent to which an individual is emotionally stable or unstable.

Eyesenck outlined the linkage between the sympathetic nervous system and the neurotic traits of the individual. According to his theory and the results of factor analysis, the sympathetic nervous of an emotionally stable person would be less reactive to stressful situations, than that of a neurotic person. Thus, in other words, a neurotic person is more likely to panic and lose control of their emotions under situations that pose uncertainty, doubt and suspicion. Thus, neuroticism here is explained as the function of one’s environment and personality disposition.

C. The Big 5 Traits of Personality

Originally established by F.W. Fiske, the Big 5 model of personality was later extended by McCrae & Dcosta. According to this model, there are 5 different traits that makeup one’s personality. These traits are:

1. Openness to experience, marked by characteristics like curiosity, imagination and organisation, seeking spontaneity, practicality and exploration of new possibilities when ‘high’. Then, the characteristics are inflexible and close-minded to seeking and accepting new experiences when ‘low’.
2. Conscientiousness, marked by discipline, achievement orientation, and discipline on the ‘high’ end, and incompetence, indiscipline on the ‘low’ end.
3. Extraversion, being sociable, excitement-seeking and outgoing on the ‘high’ end, and introversion, reserved and socially withdrawn on the ‘low’ end.
4. Agreeableness, having straightforwardness, compliance and altruism on the ‘high’ end and scepticism, demanding and unsympathetic on the ‘low’ end.
5. Neuroticism, having anger, hostility, and irritability on the ‘high’ end, and emotionally stable, calm, and resilient on the ‘low’ end.

Here, neuroticism is explained to be a personality trait that influences one to be anxious, depressed, tired and overwhelmed, ultimately leading that person to reflect their emotional instability to every stimulus in general.

Conclusion

Thus, it can be concluded that neuroticism is a potential negative trait in an individual, whose high incidence probes all kinds of negative thoughts and behaviours in the person. Such behaviours stay prevalent in all situations, like depressed mood, lack of emotional regulation, suspicion of people around, and high sustenance of stress. Being maladaptive, these behaviours incline one’s personality to be susceptible to more stressful situations and inhibit their potential to adapt to demanding situations. A neurotic person must succumb to additional help, to deal with their situational demands more effectively and adaptively.