The relationship between personality and affect over the lifespan

This study compared the trait and emotion perspectives of personality devel opment by examining relationships between extraversion, neuroticism, positi ve and negative affect across the lifespan. A total of 533 volunteers: 228 children and early adolescents (8 to 15 years), 163 late adolescents and yo ung adults (16 to 29 years) and 142 adults (30 to 68 years) completed Eysen ck's Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Positive and Negative Affect S chedule (PANAS). Extraversion correlated significantly with positive affect and neuroticism with negative affect in each age group. As predicted by th e emotion perspective, correlations were significantly stronger for adults than children and early adolescents. In addition, extraversion-positive aff ect and neuroticism-negative affect factors explained less variance for chi ldren and early adolescents compared to those of adults. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.