Journal of Personality and Social Psycholology, 1993 May;64(5):847-60

Stability of emotion experiences and their relations to traits of personality.*

Izard CE, Libero DZ, Putnam P, Haynes OM
Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark 19716.

The article presents a theoretical framework for studying emotion-personality relations and an empirical study of the stability of 88 normal middle-class mothers' emotion experiences and their relations to personality during the 3 years after childbirth. Ss completed the Differential Emotions Scale (DES), Eysenck's Personality Questionnaire, Jackson's Personality Research Form, and Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale. The DES demonstrated stability over 3 years. There was individual stability despite changes in group means during the postpartum period. Positive emotionality, as well as the discrete emotions of interest, enjoyment, and shyness, predicted Extraversion. Negative emotionality and the discrete negative emotions were significant predictors of Neuroticism. Positive emotionality was inversely related to Neuroticism. There were expectable correlations among specific emotions and primary traits of personality.

* Reproduced with permission of the APA - Journal of Personality and Social Psychology