The sources of stress and coping styles as mediators and moderators of the relationship between personality traits and physical symptoms

91 Numerous studies examine the role of personality and its interaction with situational demands to the perceived stress (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 1990; Watson, 1990), ways of coping with stress (Costa, Somerfield, & McCrae, 1996; Watson & Hubbard, 1996) and subjective physical health (Bolger & Schilling, 1991; Endler & Parker, 1990). The effects of personal dispositions are emphasized especially in ambiguous and threatening situations (Caspi & Moffitt, 1993). Because personality traits have effects on intrapersonal as well as interpersonal resources, and through them, on the ways of coping with stress, a relationship between personality traits, perceived stress and coping could be expected. Research on the relationships between personality traits and coping with stressful situations most often examine Eysenck’s personality traits, especially neuroticism and extraversion (Bolger, 1990), while other dimensions of the five-factor model of personality are examined somewhat less frequently (Costa et al., 1996). Generally, results show significant associations between neuroticism and exposure to stressful events, perceived stress, coping and health outcomes (Watson & Hubbard, 1996). Neuroticism predicts the frequency of various stressful life events when operationalized both objectively as well as subjectively (Bolger & Schilling, 1991; Gunthert, Cohen, & Armeli, 1999). Many studies have shown that individuals high in neuroticism have a tendency to negatively evaluate events around them, interpret ambiguous stimuli as negative and threatening (Penley & Tomaka, 2002), are easily upset, overreact to daily hassles (Watson, Clark, & Harkness, 1994) and remember negative events better than emotionally stable individuals (Bolger & Schilling, 1991). Also, research has shown that neuroticism is negatively related to the use of Jasna Hudek-Knežević, Department of Psychology, University of Rijeka, Trg I. Klobučarića 1, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia. E-mail: hudekj@human. pefri.hr (the address for correspondence);