Neuroticism: definiton, traits, causes and assessment

Neuroticism is one of the most important personality traits for understanding how people respond to stress, uncertainty, and emotional challenges.

Let’s first look at a comprehensive definition of neuroticism.

Neuroticism represents the tendency of someone to experience negative emotions such as  depression, anxiety, hostility, shame, stress, anger, irritability, and self-doubt more than others.

It is also one of the main traits in the Big Five Personality. People who are high on neuroticism are more likely to lash out at others, find it difficult to cope with stressful events and can interpret minor frustrations as hopeless. People with high neuroticism are also very self conscious and impulsive.

In clinical psychology, it is widely recognized as a central factor underlying why some individuals experience intense worry, mood instability, or heightened emotional reactivity in everyday life. As highlighted by Barlow and colleagues, neuroticism forms the core of emotional suffering – it predisposes people to experience negative emotions more readily and more intensely, shaping everything from relationships to decision-making and long-term mental health outcomes.

The Six Facets of Neuroticism

While neuroticism is often described as a single personality trait, research shows it is best understood as a constellation of six interrelated emotional tendencies. These facets were selected for two reasons: first, on the basis of their historical and theoretical presence in the field; second, because they have been shown empirically to represent a broad spectrum of qualities within their given domain. These scales were created to be as nonoverlapping as possible while still remaining on the same domain.

The six facets that are associated with the domain of neuroticism are explained below

Anxious

Anxious people are more prone to feeling tense, worried, nervous and fearful. There is free floating anxiety in individuals and might indicate fears of things although it does not measure any specific phobias. The people who score low on this facet are usually calm, stable, fearless and relaxed.

Barlow (2014) emphasizes that this anxiety is rooted in an internal sense of unpredictability and uncontrollability – life feels difficult to manage, and internal sensations themselves may be perceived as threatening.

Anger/Hostility

Anger/Hostility reflects irritability, frustration, and emotional reactivity to perceived provocation or injustice. This facet is often misunderstood as aggression, but within the neuroticism domain it is better conceptualised as emotional dysregulation expressed through anger. This represents a higher tendency to get angry and feel related feelings such as bitterness and frustration. Although they feel angry more readily than others, it is not always the case that they will also express their anger. People who score low on this facet are more gentle, even tempered and amiable.

While regulated anger can support assertiveness and boundary-setting, poorly managed anger/hostility often leads to cycles of resentment, guilt, and rumination that reinforce neurotic distress.

Depression

The Depression facet reflects a predisposition toward sadness, low motivation, and a reduced capacity to experience positive emotion. Individuals high in this facet often anticipate failure, withdraw from activities, and feel emotionally depleted. Importantly, this facet does not indicate clinical depression; rather, it describes an enduring tendency toward depressive affect.

Self-Consciousness

Self-Consciousness captures sensitivity to social judgment and a tendency to feel easily embarrassed or scrutinized. Individuals high on this facet engage in extensive self-monitoring, often interpreting neutral social cues as signs of criticism or disapproval.

Impulsiveness

Impulsiveness within neuroticism reflects difficulty inhibiting urges or cravings, especially under emotional distress. Unlike impulsivity associated with Extraversion (which is linked to thrill-seeking), this form is emotion-driven impulsivity, where behaviours serve as attempts to quickly escape or reduce negative emotion.

When regulated, this facet supports creativity, expressiveness, and spontaneity, but unmanaged it becomes a pathway to emotional instability.

Vulnerability

The Vulnerability facet reflects a person’s perceived inability to cope effectively with stress. When faced with demands, individuals high on this facet feel easily overwhelmed, fear losing control, and doubt their coping resources.

Taken together, these six facets reveal that neuroticism is not a uniform disposition but a multi-layered emotional system.

What Causes Neuroticism?

What causes someone to be high in neuroticism than others? We can better understand it by looking at multiple genetics or enviornemntal factors that might be casuing someone to score high or low on nueroticism.

Mental-noise hypothesis

First theory that we will discuss in a mental noise hypothesis. It explains neuroticism as having noise that happens in the information processing system of a person and creates instabilituy of cogntive operations whcih can include processes involves in regulation. Reactivity processes and mental preoccupations are two sources for this noise to appear.

Flehmig et al. (2007) studied this mental noise in a questuionnaire “cognitive failures questionnaire” and they found that people who were high in neuroticism had a high correlation with the frequency of laps (error by omission) and slip (error in commision). The researchers concluded that mental noise is irrelevant to task and can be explained as preoccupations and worries.

Evolutionary explaination

Some evolutionary psychologists believe that hightened reactivity to negative outcomes provided a survival benefit and the researches have also found that if the negative effects of neuroticism are successfully coped with, it can actually lead to success in university.

Nettle suggested that higher levels of neuroticism were selected by evolution untill it’s benefits were outweighted by the negative effects. This resulted in neuroticism appearing in a normal distribution where some people will have very high level of neuroticism (more prone to depressive outcomes) or individuals with a very low levels of neuroticism (not what is optimal).

Terror Management Theory

According to terror management theory all of us are aware of the fact that death is inevitable and is also unpredictable. Compared to early humans (homo sapians) we are not met with the fear of death too often in our lives., but we still have an unconscious death anxiety. Terror management theory believs that when we our anxiety buffers against death anxity are insufficient or weak it causes us to be high in neuroticism.

These buffers can be a sense of lasting meaning in our life, achieved by having a future lagacy or having beliefs in the afterlife. Or it can be a sense of self esteem or personal value in the word that gives an enduring sesne of meaning. When these buffers get weaker we overcome with a crippling awareness of death and it can hinder or undermine our adaptive functions. This also related to the fact that a lot of mental health disorders are often related with underlaying death anxiety.

Genetics

Some researchers have found hereditary basis of neuroticism after finding that individual differences in people with neuroticism are 80 percent explained by hereditary and only 20 percent by enviornment. It suggest that some of us might be born with a tendency to be more high in neuroticism than others.

Interesting facts about neuroticism

• Twin studies suggest that approximately 40% to 50% of the variation in neuroticism is directly attributable to genetic factors.
• Large-scale research across 55 nations confirms that women consistently score higher on neuroticism than men globally.
• Longitudinal studies indicate that neuroticism levels typically peak in late adolescence (ages 16–21) before gradually declining with age.
• Psychology research consistently ranks neuroticism as the strongest personality predictor of relationship dissatisfaction and divorce.
• When paired with high conscientiousness, high neuroticism is linked to lower levels of Interleukin-6, a biological marker for inflammation.

How to assess neuroticism?

Neuroticism in an individual is generally examined by using self-report measures. These self-report measures are usually based on statements that a person rates himself on. Peer-reports and third-party observation can also be used sometimes to assess someone’s neuroticims level.

Following are some of the most used and common assessment measures for neuroticism.

1. NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO-PI-R)

NEO personality inventory is often considered the “gold standard” in various settings, for measuresing the Big Five personality traits. It is considered better because it measures all six of Neuroticism’s specific facets (Anxiety, Angry Hostility, Depression, Self-Consciousness, Impulsiveness, and Vulnerability), offering a very detailed profile.

2. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R)

This questionnaire was developed by Hans Eysenck, who identified neuroticism as a biological temperament. This scale focuses specifically on three major dimensions: Neuroticism, Psychoticism and Extraversion. It is used to study the biological basis of personality and is still historically relevent.

3. The Big Five Inventory (BFI)

BFI is a 44-item scale, which is really popular and is frequently used in academic research because it is shorter but robust than the NEO-PI-R. It assesses neuroticism as a broad domain without breaking it down into sub-facets, making it excellent for general screening or population-level studies.

4. International Personality Item Pool (IPIP-NEO)

This is an open-source, public-domain collection of items that correlates highly with the commercial NEO-PI-R. It is increasingly popular because it is free to use for researchers and bloggers, and it can be customized to be very short (e.g., 20 items) or very long (300 items).

Prevalance of neuroticism

Neuroticism levels can be different in various societies and cultures based on multiple factors associated with it. The most extensive and large global survey study was done by Schmitt et al., 2007 to assess the personality traits. They surveyed over 17,000 people across 56 nations.

The following table shows the average intensity of the trait in that population across the globe but it is important to note that it does not specify or claim that these people have any disorder.

Global neuroticism levels by region

Region / Country	Relative Level	Key Insights
East Asia(e.g., Japan, South Korea)	Highest	Consistently scores the highest globally. Researchers believe this may be due to cultural “self-effacement” (modesty) and high self-criticism rather than just pure anxiety.
South America(e.g., Argentina)	High	Argentina specifically ranked #2 in the world in the major 2007 study. High emotional expressiveness is culturally normative here.
Southern Europe(e.g., Spain, Italy)	Moderate – High	Generally score higher than Northern Europeans. This aligns with the “Mediterranean” culture of higher emotional expression.
North America(e.g., USA, Canada)	Average	The USA and Canada typically land right in the middle of the global average (mean scores around 50/100).
Northern Europe(e.g., UK, Germany)	Average	Scores are generally moderate. Germany often scores slightly lower (more stable) than the global average.
Scandinavia(e.g., Sweden, Finland)	Low	These nations often score lower on neuroticism, possibly linked to high social security, stability, and cultural values of emotional moderation.
Sub-Saharan Africa(e.g., DR Congo, Ethiopia)	Lowest	Surprisingly, some of the lowest neuroticism scores were found here. Researchers theorize this may be due to “resilience” or different cultural interpretations of the test questions.

Disclaimer: The information and assessment tools mentioned in this article are for educational and informational purposes only. They are not intended to be a substitute for professional psychological advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Self-administered tests can provide interesting insights, but they cannot replace a comprehensive evaluation by a qualified mental health professional. If you are experiencing significant distress or are concerned about your mental well-being, please consult a licensed clinical psychologist or healthcare provider.

References

Barlow, D. H. (Ed.). (2014). Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: A step-by-step treatment manual (5th ed.). The Guilford Press.

Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual. Psychological Assessment Resources.

Eysenck, H. J., & Eysenck, S. B. G. (1975). Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Hodder and Stoughton.

Flehmig, H. C., Steinborn, M., Langner, R., & Westhoff, K. (2007). Neuroticism and the mental noise hypothesis: Relationships to lapses of attention and slips of action in everyday life. Psychology Science, 49(4), 343–360.

Goldberg, L. R. (1999). A broad-bandwidth, public domain, personality inventory measuring the lower-level facets of several five-factor models. Personality Psychology in Europe, 7(1), 7–28.

John, O. P., Donahue, E. M., & Kentle, R. L. (1991). The Big Five Inventory, Versions 4a and 54. University of California, Berkeley, Institute of Personality and Social Research.

Schmitt, D. P., Allik, J., McCrae, R. R., & Benet-Martínez, V. (2007). The geographic distribution of Big Five personality traits: Patterns and profiles of human self-description across 56 nations. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 38(2), 173–212. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022106297299