Neuroticism
Neuroticism is the Big Five trait for how readily you feel negative emotions such as worry, sadness, irritation and stress. Researchers define it as fairly stable tendencies to react with negative emotions to threat, frustration or loss.1 Scored the other way round, the same trait is called emotional stability.
- The two ends: From feels stress and moods strongly, to steady and slow to upset.
- Volatility: Irritation, anger and moods that swing quickly.
- Withdrawal: Worry, doubt, sadness and feeling easily threatened.
- In the free test: Scored as emotional stability. Eight statements count toward feeling things strongly and two toward steady.
A name that sounds like an insult
Call someone neurotic over dinner and it's a put-down. In research, the word is a neutral label for one end of a scale everyone sits on somewhere.
The free test on this site turns it the other way up and reports emotional stability, the name Lewis Goldberg's item set uses. Higher means steadier.2
Snapping, or lying awake
The trait has two related sides. Researchers named them Volatility and Withdrawal.3,4
From the outside they can look nothing alike. One person's stress comes out as snapping at whoever is nearest. Another's stays inside as worry, the kind that's still running at midnight.
Eight of the ten ask about the hard side
These are the trait's 10 statements in the free personality test, from the IPIP, with "I" in front.2 Agreeing with the eight on the strong-feelings side lowers your emotional stability score.
| Statement | Agreeing counts toward |
|---|---|
| I get stressed out easily. | Feeling things strongly |
| I am relaxed most of the time. | Steady |
| I worry about things. | Feeling things strongly |
| I seldom feel blue. | Steady |
| I am easily disturbed. | Feeling things strongly |
| I get upset easily. | Feeling things strongly |
| I change my mood a lot. | Feeling things strongly |
| I have frequent mood swings. | Feeling things strongly |
| I get irritated easily. | Feeling things strongly |
| I often feel blue. | Feeling things strongly |
Only two describe the steady side. The scale is mostly asking how often stress, worry and mood swings turn up in your days.
What a high score is linked to
Neuroticism predicts a wide range of mental and physical health problems, and even how often people use health services.1
People with anxiety, depression and substance use conditions scored higher on it on average, across a review of 175 studies.5
That's a pattern across groups of people. A high score on a free test is not a sign that you have any condition.
The trait that changes most
It moves with age. On average, emotional stability rises as people get older, especially between 20 and 40.6
It moves in treatment, too. When a review pooled 207 studies of therapy and other programs, which ran about 24 weeks on average, emotional stability shifted more than any other trait, and people being treated for anxiety shifted most of all.7
One cognitive behavioral approach, the Unified Protocol, was built to work on neuroticism directly, rather than on one condition at a time.8
A short email, a canceled flight
Toward the strong-feelings end
Stress arrives fast and stays. A two-line email can start a long evening of worry, and a bad morning can color the whole day: the commute home, the dinner, the call you meant to make. The same sensitivity means you notice when something matters to you.
"He wrote 'Can we talk tomorrow?' and I spent the evening going over everything I might have done wrong."
Toward the steady end
You stay level when plans fall through and bounce back quickly from a bad day, and people around you may find that calming. Steady still has feelings in it, so checking in with yourself is worth doing at this end too.
"The flight was canceled, so I found a seat on the next one and called home."
In the middle? Some things get to you. Others roll off.
If worry is the part you notice most, the thought record has a separate path for worries about the future.
What has been weighing on you most this week? Write it down as it is, then write one thing that made it a little lighter, even for an hour.
Answer this with JoyQuestions people ask about neuroticism
What is the difference between anxiety and neuroticism?
Neuroticism is a broad, lasting trait that covers worry, sadness, irritation and mood swings. Anxiety is one feeling inside it. An anxiety disorder is a health condition only a clinician can identify.
Is neuroticism genetic?
Partly. In twin and family studies, about 40% of the differences in personality traced to genes and about 60% to environment.9 That figure covers personality traits in general, not neuroticism alone.
How can you tell if someone is neurotic?
A label won't tell you much. The trait shows up as worrying often, getting upset or irritated easily, and moods that swing. If someone close to you seems that way, asking how they're doing will tell you more than a word.
Can neuroticism be changed?
On average, slowly, yes.6,7 Nobody can promise how much one person will change, and a score is a description. It isn't a target.
If worry or low moods are weighing on you, talking to a doctor or someone you trust is a good next step. Crisis resources lists lines you can call or text right now.
Related
- Know yourself: the section hub.
- Free personality test: see where you fall on all five traits.
- Conscientiousness and agreeableness: two of the other four traits.