The lexicon of emotions and personality traits
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12923/2353-8627/2025-0013Keywords:
psycholexical approach, emotions, personalityAbstract
Introduction: The aim of the present study was to examine the relationship between the emotion lexicon and the Big Five personality traits. This is the first psycholexical study to analyse the convergence of individual differences in personality traits and emotions.
The aim and methods: The study employed a list of emotion descriptors presented as short sentences, allowing the measurement of predispositions to experience eleven emotions. Personality traits were assessed using the IPIP-50 questionnaire in its Polish adaptation. A total of 360 participants took part in this cross-sectional study.
Results: Canonical analysis revealed four statistically significant, non-redundant canonical roots explaining the variance in personality traits and predispositions to experience emotions. There were two roots dominated by a single trait, whereas the other two represented personality types associated with different patterns of emotional experience. Emotional stability was linked to less frequent experiences of anxiety, sadness, distress, and shame. Intellect co-occurred with the experience of interest. Combinations of low versus high levels of Extraversion and greeableness correlated with individual differences in contempt, shame, and emotion regulation.
Conclusions: The observed patterns partially confirm previous findings and highlight new relationships that had not been detected previously due to the use of tools measuring a limited range of emotions. The Big Five model explains only a part of the predispositions to experience emotions. A more comprehensive understanding of individual differences in emotions requires personality models developed from psycholexical research using a high-dimensional and inclusive approach.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Oleg Gorbaniuk, Julia Gorbaniuk, Maciej Talewski (Autor)
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