To make further progress in elucidating the relation between personality and mood disorders, future studies should be guided by six broad considerations. First, most of the literature on personality and depression has focused on the broad traits of N/NE and E/PE. There is a need for further work on conscientiousness and on lower levels in the trait hierarchy (i.e., facets). It is important to determine whether a more specific level of analysis will yield more powerful effects and increase the specificity of associations between personality constructs and particular forms of psychopathology. Clinical traits, such as ruminative response style and self-criticism, need to be included in these studies and evaluated jointly with traditional personality dimensions. Finally, it is important to continue to explore interactions between traits.
