The Association of Personality with Anxious and Depressive Psychopathology

The questions of to what extent and in which ways personality dimensions are associated with anxious and depressive psychopathology are still unresolved. Most research has focused on “neuroticism” and “extraversion,” or traits related to these personality dimensions. Neuroticism was originally described as reflecting emotional instability and anxiety proneness (Eysenck & Rachman, 1965). This trait was hypothesized to be related to the “visceral brain,” more often called the “limbic system,” which was supposed to regulate emotional expression and to control autonomic responses. According to Eysenck (1967), neurotic subjects are characterized by higher levels of autonomic activity (or reactivity), mediated by the visceral brain. Extraversion was described as reflecting sociability, liveliness, impulsivity, and the level of ease and pleasure felt in the company of others (Eysenck & Rachman, 1965). The last-mentioned trait was theorized to be related to the ascending reticular activating system, with a higher level of arousal in introverts and a higher level of inhibition in extraverts (Eysenck, 1967). A wide range of electrophysiological and other psychophysiological studies confirmed this hypothesis (Stelmack, 1981). Cloninger (1986) proposed that “harm avoidance,” an anxiety-related trait, is positioned between neuroticism and extraversion. This positioning was confirmed by a strong positive correlation with neuroticism (r = .63) and a strong negative correlation with extraversion (r = –.55), as measured with