PERSONALITY, MOOD, AND THE EVALUATION OF AFFECTIVE AND NEUTRAL WORD PAIRS

Four studies bridged the areas of personality-mood and mood-cognition relations by investigating the effects oi Extraversion and Neuroticism on the evaluation of affectively pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral wo rd pairs. Specifically measured were affectivity ratings, categorizati on according to affect, judgements of associative strength, and respon se latencies. A strong, consistent cognitive bias toward affective as opposed to neutral stimuli was found across participants. Although som e biases were systematically related to personality and mood, effects of individual differences were present only under specific conditions. The results are discussed in terms of a personality-mood framework an d its implications for cognitive functioning.