The Role of Extraversion, Neuroticism and Positive and Negative Mood in Emotional Information Processing

In present research, based on emotion congruence hypothesis, the role of extraversion and neuroticism personality dimensions in emotional information processing and the moderating role of positive and negative mood were assessed. 654 university female students completed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R);then, on the basis of extreme scores in extraversion and neuroticism dimensions from the main sample, 4 groups (each with 30 Ss) were selected. All groups experienced positive and negative induced mood in two separate sessions with 2 to 4 weeks interval. After mood induction in each session, subjects performed three cognitive tasks:free recall, probability rating and story completion. The findings revealed that subjects with higher extraversion, made more positive judgment and interpretation in positive mood condition; and individuals with higher neuroticism, made more negative judgmentand interpretation in negative mood condition; but extravert and neurotic subjects did not differ significantly in the number of positive and negative recalled words in the two mood conditions. Overall, the findings of this research support the view that extraversion and neuroticism are associated with judgment and interpretation of emotional information in emotion-congruent manner and indicate that current mood states moderate the judgments and interpretations of emotional information in extraverted and neurotic individuals.