INTERACTIONS IN PREDICTING MOOD FROM EXTROVERSION AND NEUROTICISM

Many researchers have found evidence that, when only marginal distributions are examined, extraversion is related primarily to positive affect, whereas neuroticism is related primarily to negative affect. Recent findings have suggested that extraversion and neuroticism interact in predicting mood so that marginal relations could be misleading. The present study used extraversion (and its components, sociability and impulsivity) along with neuroticism in regression equations including interactive and curvilinear components to predict measures of positive and negative affect. Results confirm earlier findings that extraversion and neuroticism interact in predicting both positive and negative affect. The interaction pattern was similar to previous findings: Both positive and negative affect were strongly related to extraversion only among neurotic subjects.