Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Interrelations among Biologically Relevant Personality Traits, Emotion Regulation Strategies, and Clinical Symptoms

  • Published:
Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Biologically relevant personality traits of weak inhibitory control (disinhibition) and threat sensitivity confer vulnerability to various clinical problems. Difficulties with emotion regulation have also been studied extensively in relation to risk for and maintenance of psychopathology. However, it remains unclear how emotion regulation strategies interface with dispositional vulnerabilities in affecting clinical symptomatology. The current study provided an initial examination of the roles of disinhibition, threat sensitivity, and use of key emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) in the occurrence of distress-related symptoms (i.e., depressivity, anxiousness, and borderline personality features). Analyses revealed that trait disinhibition and lowered use of cognitive reappraisal were related to each form of distress symptomatology, with the predictive relationship for disinhibition accounting entirely for that of reappraisal. This finding suggests that deficient top-down control capacity (i.e., disinhibition) is integral to failures in the use of an adaptive but cognitively demanding regulation strategy (i.e., reappraisal). By contrast, threat sensitivity was related both to anxiousness and use of expressive suppression, with the latter two variables unrelated to one another. Anxious individuals may avoid emotionally evocative situations, negating the downstream need to engage in the maladaptive strategy of expressive suppression. Despite certain study limitations (a cross-sectional, self-report design; modest sample size), the current study yielded evidence in line with study hypotheses, indicating a pivotal role for dispositional traits in associations between cognitive-behavioral processes and clinical problems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Importantly, the item content of this scale reflects fear vs. fearlessness in relation to stressors, risk situations, and social situations; it was designed to index the biologically relevant trait of threat sensitivity in the domain of self-report, through reference to an established measure of physiological defensive reactivity (i.e., startle-blink potentiation; see Kramer et al. 2012). As such, it differs considerably from items included in anxiety scales such as the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (see below), which focus on the general experience of distress and perceived anxiousness with specific referents.

  2. Given Nelson and colleagues’ (2016) finding of a disinhibition by threat sensitivity interaction in predicting symptoms of distress disorders (including depression and generalized anxiety disorder, analogous to our depressivity and anxiousness variables), we performed supplemental analyses to test for predictive effects of this interaction. In regression models for each clinical variable that included disinhibition, threat sensitivity, and their interaction as predictors, no interaction effects emerged as significant.

  3. Given the small sample, post-hoc power analyses were performed using G*Power 3.1 (Faul et al. 2009) to ascertain whether the sample (N = 59 to 62) was sufficient to detect the hypothesized effects. Power to detect each zero-order correlation in this sample at α = .05 exceeded .800, except for the smaller observed correlation between expressive suppression and anxiousness (r = .160, power = .334). Power to detect the hypothesized results (partial r2 for the relevant trait predictor; Faul et al. 2009) exceeded .900.

References

  • Aldao, A., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2010). Specificity of cognitive emotion regulation strategies: A transdiagnostic examination. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48(10), 974–983.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aldao, A., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2012). When are adaptive strategies most predictive of psychopathology? Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 121(1), 276–281.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aldao, A., Nolen-Hoeksema, S., & Schweizer, S. (2010). Emotion-regulation strategies across psychopathology: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(2), 217–237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Aldao, A., Gee, D. G., De Los Reyes, A., & Seager, I. (2016). Emotion regulation as a transdiagnostic factor in the development of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology: Current and future directions. Development and Psychopathology, 28(4), 927–946.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beblo, T., Fernando, S., Klocke, S., Griepenstroh, J., Aschenbrenner, S., & Driessen, M. (2012). Increased suppression of negative and positive emotions in major depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 141(2-3), 474–479.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brislin, S. J., Drislane, L. E., Smith, S. T., Edens, J. F., & Patrick, C. J. (2015). Development and validation of triarchic psychopathy scales from the multidimensional personality questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 27(3), 838–851.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brislin, S. J., Venables, N. C., Drislane, L. E., Blonigen, D. M., Iacono, W. G., Tellegen, A., Edens, J. F., & Patrick, C. J. (2017). Further validation of triarchic psychopathy scales from the multidimensional personality questionnaire: Setting the stage for large-sample etiological studies. Assessment, 24, 575–590.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brislin, S. J., Patrick, C. J., Flor, H., Nees, F., Heinrich, A., Drislane, L. E., … Foell, J. (2018). Extending the construct network of trait disinhibition to the neuroimaging domain: Validation of a bridging scale for use in the European IMAGEN project. Assessment [advance e-publication].

  • Brozovich, F. A., Goldin, P., Lee, I., Jazaieri, H., Heimberg, R. G., & Gross, J. J. (2015). The effect of rumination and reappraisal on social anxiety symptoms during cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 71(3), 208–218.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buchman-Schmitt, J. M., Brislin, S. J., Venables, N. C., Joiner, T. E., & Patrick, C. J. (2017). Trait liabilities and specific promotive processes in psychopathology: The example of suicidal behavior. Journal of Affective Disorders, 216, 100–108.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buhle, J. T., Silvers, J. A., Wager, T. D., Lopez, R., Onyemekwu, C., Kober, H., et al. (2014). Cognitive reappraisal of emotion: A meta-analysis of human neuroimaging studies. Cerebral Cortex, 24(11), 2981–2990.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Butler, G., Fennell, M., Robson, P., & Gelder, M. (1991). Comparison of behavior therapy and cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 167–175.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell-Sills, L., Barlow, D. H., Brown, T. A., & Hofmann, S. G. (2006). Acceptability and suppression of negative emotion in anxiety and mood disorders. Emotion, 6(4), 587–595.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1992). A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 155–159.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cronbach, L. J., & Meehl, P. E. (1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52, 281–302.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • D’Avanzato, C., Joormann, J., Siemer, M., & Gotlib, I. H. (2013). Emotion regulation in depression and anxiety: Examining diagnostic specificity and stability of strategy use. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37(5), 968–980.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dennis, T. A. (2007). Interactions between emotion regulation strategies and affective style: Implications for trait anxiety versus depressed mood. Motivation and Emotion, 31, 200–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egloff, B., Schmukle, S. C., Burns, L. R., & Schwerdtfeger, A. (2006). Spontaneous emotion regulation during evaluated speaking tasks: Associations with negative affect, anxiety expression, memory, and physiological responding. Emotion, 6(3), 356–366.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, A. J., Vanderlind, W. M., & Beevers, C. G. (2013). Enhanced anger reactivity and reduced distress tolerance in major depressive disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 37(3), 498–509.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Etkin, A., Büchel, C., & Gross, J. J. (2015). The neural bases of emotion regulation. Nature Reviews. Neuroscience, 16(11), 693–700.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A. G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1149–1160.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, P. L., & Durham, R. C. (1999). Recovery rates in generalized anxiety disorder following psychological therapy: An analysis of clinically significant change in the STAI-T across outcome studies since 1990. Psychological Medicine, 29, 1425–1434.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fresco, D. M., Moore, M. T., van Dulmen, M. H. M., Segal, Z. V., Ma, S. H., Teasdale, J. D., & Williams, J. M. G. (2007). Initial psychometric properties of the experiences questionnaire: Validation of a self-report measure of decentering. Behavior Therapy, 38, 234-246.

  • Fydrich, T., Dowdall, D., & Chambless, D. L. (1992). Reliability and validity of the Beck anxiety inventory. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 6, 55–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabrys, J. B., & Peters, K. (1985). Reliability, discriminant and predictive validity of the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale. Psychological Reports, 57, 1091–1096.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grillon, C., Ameli, R., Foot, M., & Davis, M. (1993). Fear-potentiated startle: Relationship to the level of state/trait anxiety in healthy subjects. Biological Psychiatry, 33, 566–574.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J. (1998). Antecedent- and response-focused emotion regulation: Divergent consequences for experience, expression, and physiology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(1), 224–237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & Jazaieri, H. (2014). Emotion, emotion regulation, and psychopathology: An affective science perspective. Clincial Psychological Science, 2(4), 387–401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gross, J. J., & John, O. P. (2003). Individual differences in two emotion regulation processes: Implications for affect, relationships, and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 348–362.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hendricks, M. A., & Buchanan, T. W. (2016). Individual differences in cognitive control processes and their relationship to emotion regulation. Cognition & Emotion, 30(5), 912–924.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, K. M., & Trull, T. J. (2001). The factor structure of the Personality Assessment Inventory – Borderline Features (PAI-BOR) scale in a nonclinical sample. Journal of Personality Disorders, 15(6), 536–545.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joormann, J., & Stanton, C. H. (2016). Examining emotion regulation in depression: A review and future directions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 86, 35–49.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kashdan, T. B., & Breen, W. E. (2008). Social anxiety and positive emotions: A prospective examination of a self-regulatory model with tendencies to suppress or express emotions as a moderating variable. Behavior Therapy, 39(1), 1–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kotov, R., Gamez, W., Schmidt, F., & Watson, D. (2010). Linking “big” personality traits to anxiety, depressive, and substance use disorders: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 768–821.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kotov, R., Krueger, R. F., Watson, D., Achenbach, T. M., Althoff, R. R., Bagby, R. M., et al. (2017). The hierarchical taxonomy of psychopathology (HiTOP): A dimensional alternative to traditional nosologies. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 126, 454–477.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kozak, M. J., & Cuthbert, B. N. (2016). The NIMH research domain criteria initiative: Background, issues, and pragmatics. Psychophysiology, 53(3), 286–297.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, M. D., Patrick, C. J., Krueger, R. F., & Gasperi, M. (2012). Delineating physiologic defensive reactivity in the domain of self-report: Phenotypic and etiologic structure of dispositional fear. Psychological Medicine, 42, 1305–1320.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, M. D., Patrick, C. J., Hettema, J. M., Moore, A. A., Sawyers, C. K., & Yancey, J. R. (2018). Quantifying dispositional fear as threat sensitivity: Development and initial validation of a model-based scale measure. Assessment.

  • Krueger, R. F., Hicks, B. M., Patrick, C. J., Carlson, S. R., Iacono, W. G., & McGue, M. (2002). Etiologic connections among substance dependence, antisocial behavior and personality: Modeling the externalizing spectrum. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 411–424.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Macatee, R. J., & Cougle, J. R. (2013). The roles of emotional reactivity and tolerance in generalized, social, and health anxiety: A multimethod exploration. Behavior Therapy, 44(1), 39–50.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McLean, C. P., Miller, N. A., & Hope, D. A. (2007). Mediating social anxiety and disordered eating: The role of expressive suppression. Eating Disorders, 51(1), 41–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mennin, D. S., Heimberg, R. G., Turk, C. L., & Fresco, D. M. (2005). Preliminary evidence for an emotion dysregulation model of generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 1281–1310.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Morey, L. C. (1991). Personality assessment inventory: Professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, L. D., Strickland, C., Krueger, R. F., Arbisi, P. A., & Patrick, C. J. (2016). Neurobehavioral traits as transdiagnostic predictors of clinical problems. Assessment, 23(1), 75–85.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ochsner, K. N., & Gross, J. J. (2008). Cognitive emotion regulation: Insights from social cognitive and affective neuroscience. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17(2), 153–158.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ohira, H., Nomura, M., Ichikawa, N., Isowa, T., Iidaka, T., Sato, A., et al. (2006). Association of neural and physiological responses during voluntary emotion suppression. Neuroimage, 29(3), 721–733.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J., & Hajcak, G. (2016). RDoC: Translating promise into progress. Psychophysiology, 53(3), 415–424.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J., Curtin, J. J., & Tellegen, A. (2002). Development and validation of a brief form of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. Psychological Assessment, 14(2), 150–163.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J., Bernat, E. M., Malone, S. M., Iacono, W. G., Krueger, R. F., & McGue, M. (2006). P300 amplitude as an indicator of externalizing in adolescent males. Psychophysiology, 43(1), 84–92.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J., Durbin, C. E., & Moser, J. S. (2012). Reconceptualizing antisocial deviance in neurobehavioral terms. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 1047–1071.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Patrick, C. J., Venables, N. C., Yancey, J. R., Hicks, B. M., Nelson, L. D., & Kramer, M. D. (2013). A construct-network approach to bridging diagnostic and physiological domains: Application to assessment of externalizing psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122, 902–916.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rapee, R. M. (1991). Generalized anxiety disorder: A review of clinical features and theoretical concepts. Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 419–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, J. B., & Schulkin, J. (1998). From normal fear to pathological anxiety. Psychological Review, 105, 325–350.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salsman, N. L., & Linehan, M. M. (2012). An investigation of the relationships among negative affect, difficulties in emotion regulation, and features of borderline personality disorder. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 34(2), 260–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shapero, B. G., Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (2016). Emotional reactivity and internalizing symptoms: Moderating role of emotion regulation. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 40(30), 328–340.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Spielberger, C. D. (1983). Manual for the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Form Y). Palo Alto, CA: Mind Garden.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanton, K., Rozek, D. C., Stasik-O’Brien, S. M., Ellickson-Larew, S., & Watson, D. (2016). Transdiagnostic approach to examining the incremental predictive power of emotion regulation and basic personality dimensions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 125, 960–975.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tellegen, A. (1991). Personality traits: Issues of definition, evidence, and assessment. In D. Cicchetti & W. M. Grove (Eds.), Thinking clearly about psychology: Essays in honor of Paul E. Meehl (Vol. 2: Personality and psychopathology, pp. 10-35). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

  • Trochim, W. M., & Donnelly, J. P. (2006). The research methods knowledge base (3rd ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Atomic Dog.

    Google Scholar 

  • Venables, N. C., Hicks, B. M., Yancey, J. R., Kramer, M. D., Nelson, L. D., Strickland, C. M., et al. (2017). Evidence of a prominent genetic basis for associations between psychoneurometric traits and common mental disorders. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 115, 4–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Venables, N. C., Foell, J., Yancey, J. R., Kane, M. J., Engle, R. W., & Patrick, C. J. (2018). Quantifying inhibitory control as externalizing proneness: A cross-domain model. Clinical Psychological Science, 6, 561–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vollestad, J., Sivertsen, B., & Nielson, G. H. (2011). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for patients with anxiety disorders: Evaluation in a randomized controlled trial. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49, 281–288.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yancey, J. R., Venables, N. C., Hicks, B. M., & Patrick, C. J. (2013). Evidence for a heritable brain basis to deviance-promoting deficits in self-control. Journal of Criminal Justice, 41(5), 309–317.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yancey, J. R., Vaidyanathan, U., & Patrick, C. J. (2015). Aversive startle potentiation and fear pathology: Mediating role of threat sensitivity and moderating impact of depression. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 98(2), 262–269.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yancey, J. R., Venables, N. C., & Patrick, C. J. (2016). Psychoneurometric operationalization of threat sensitivity: Relations with clinical symptom and physiological response criteria. Psychophysiology, 53(3), 393–405.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Young, S. E., Friedman, N. P., Miyake, A., Willcutt, E. G., Corley, R. P., Haberstick, B. C., & Hewitt, J. K. (2009). Behavioral disinhibition: Liability for externalizing spectrum disorders and its genetic and environmental relation to response inhibition across adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 118(1), 117–130.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zung, W. W. K. (1965). A self-rating depression scale. Archives of General Psychiatry, 12(1), 63–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by grant P50 from the National Institute of Mental Health and grant W911NF-14-1-0027 from the US Army. The content of this paper is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, Department of the Army, Department of Veterans Affairs, or U.S. Recruiting Command. Funding sources had no role in the study design, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Florida State University, 1107 West Call Street, Tallahassee, FL, 32306-4301, USA

    Emily R. Perkins, Katherine A. McDermott & Christopher J. Patrick

  2. Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Karolina Sörman

Authors
  1. Emily R. Perkins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Karolina Sörman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Katherine A. McDermott
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Christopher J. Patrick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Emily R. Perkins or Christopher J. Patrick.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

Emily R. Perkins, Karolina Sörman, Katherine A. McDermott, and Christopher J. Patrick have no financial disclosures or competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures were approved by the University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board (HSC #0002S35481).

Informed Consent

All participants provided written informed consent.

Experiment Participants

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

Online Resource 1

Six scatterplots demonstrating the robustness of bivariate relationships among traits, emotion regulation strategies, and clinical symptoms. Subplots A and B show that while cognitive reappraisal demonstrated consistent negative associations with psychopathology, expressive suppression was uncorrelated with each symptom measure. Subplots C and D show similarly transdiagnostic relationships for disinhibition but a selective association between threat sensitivity and anxiousness. Finally, subplots E and F show specific relationships between disinhibition and reappraisal and between threat sensitivity and expressive suppression. (PDF 199 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Perkins, E.R., Sörman, K., McDermott, K.A. et al. Interrelations among Biologically Relevant Personality Traits, Emotion Regulation Strategies, and Clinical Symptoms. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 41, 549–559 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-018-9709-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-018-9709-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation