Basic dimensions of temperament and their relation to anxiety and depression: A symptom-based perspective

We examine relations among neuroticism/negative emotionality (N/NE), extraversion/positive emotionality (E/PE), and the mood and anxiety disorders. We present data showing that E/PE correlates most strongly with anhedonia/depressed affect and social anxiety. Similarly, although N/NE is a general predictor of psychopathology, it correlates more substantially with subjective distress and dysphoria than with other types of dysfunction. Thus, it is most strongly related to disorders characterized by pervasive distress, moderately related to syndromes involving more limited forms of distress, and weakly related to disorders characterized primarily by behavioral avoidance. We demonstrate a similar pattern at the symptom level, examining the basic dimensions comprising PTSD, OCD, specific phobia, and depression. These systematic associations suggest a fundamental continuity between normal and abnormal psychological processes.