Neuroticism

Neuroticism (derived from neurosis ) is a personality trait in the personality and differential psychology and refers to the emotional instability of a character. The term goes back to the German -born psychologist Hans Jürgen Eysenck. All personality traits underlying that they are relatively stable, consistent, and temporally continuous.

Origin

Eysenck determined his personality concept using a factor analysis. The factor of neuroticism can be divided into the dimensions lability - stability according to him. He has close connections with factor analysis, the onetime used terms " poorly organized personality ", " dependent" or "abnormal before the disease " on. Eysenck referred to him as " lack of personality integration."

Eysenck saw the origin of this concept in personal differences of individuals with regard to the autonomic physiological arousal. After unstable or neurotic personalities are more sensitive to fear and stress - causing situations as emotionally stable individuals. They also need more after such excitement to return to their original state. As an explanation Eysenck served the limbic system, which is also responsible for the processing of emotions. Neurotic behavior is thus the result of a strong reaction of the limbic system to external stimuli. This occurs in people with high Neurotizismuswert more often neuroses, because external stimuli are more emotionally coded and thus better conditioned. In addition to neuroticism, he defined the characteristics of introversion - extraversion and psychoticism. Neuroticism has become a recognized personality concept and together with the extraversion, compatibility, openness and conscientiousness of the Big Five personality traits.

Description

The concept of neuroticism was determined by Eysenck by a factor analysis. In people with high Neurotizismuswert often find the following characteristics and behaviors:

• Tendency to nervousness
• Irritability, moodiness
• Tendency to insecurity and embarrassment
• Complaints about anger and fears
• Complaints of physical pain ( headaches, stomach upset, dizziness, etc.)
• Tendency to sadness and melancholy
• Very all sensitive to stress
• Rather negative affective state

The Neurotizismuswert can by psychological tests - are recognized - in most cases questionnaires. Such tests are, for example, the 566 -question personality questionnaire MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) or the NEO- FFI. As with the other features of the Big Five, the heritability is about 0.5.