Chunk #39 — CAUSAL LINKS BETWEEN NEUROTICISM AND ADVERSE OUTCOMES — Causal Links Between Neuroticism and Mental Disorders — 3. Neuroticism and emotional reactivity to stressful life events
Coping style may be an important component of the greater emotional reactivity of persons high in neuroticism (Matthews et al., 2003). There is evidence that persons high in neuroticism use fewer problem-focused and more emotion-focused strategies to cope with stress (Watson & Hubbard, 1996). In addition, there is evidence that persons high in neuroticism are more likely to use inefficient escape-avoidance strategies to cope with stress (Bolger, 1990). Thus, it appears that persons high in neuroticism have both an increased likelihood of experiencing negative life events and an increased magnitude of emotional reactivity to those events, partly because of how they cope with stress.
