A broad factor of temperament or personality, including characteristics of anxiety, fearfulness, jealousy, sadness, shyness, and irritability. Moreover, individuals who have a relatively high degree of neuroticism appear to react adversely to sources of environmental stress (i.e., they have a proneness to distress or discomfort). These sorts of associations led Hans Eysenck (1916-1997) to propose that neuroticism reflects an overly responsive sympathetic nervous system and thus involvement of the limbic system. An association also has been reported with symptoms of depression, but that neuroticism does not reflect a vulnerability to depression. This claim has been challenged. A study in rural Senegal of parents of 65 families revealed some relevant, but tentative, findings based on a previous study by the same research team. Women with above-average levels of neuroticism had 12% more children than those with below-average levels. However, offspring aged 0 to 5 years of mothers with high levels of neuroticism had a lower (18%) BMI compared to children with mothers who had low neuroticism, a possible sign of malnutrition threatening survival but applying only to families of low social rank in the village. A third relevant finding is that women with an intermediate level of neuroticism had the greatest reproductive success. These studies used the Big Five factor model of personality, which is available as a a research tool in the form of an inventory. Another inventory is one derived from the Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism (PEN) model. Perhaps the most widely used personality test is Eysenck’s Personality Inventory (EPI) that takes into account neuroticism relative to stability, as well as extraversion/introversion, and psychoticism/socialization. Recently, the popular press has latched on to a research finding that neuroticism could be ‘good’ for you, but the study involved has been subject to some trenchant criticism.
See Extraversion, Five Factor model, Limbic system, Major depressive disorder, Personality, Social stress, Sympathetic nervous system (SNS), Temperament, Trait