Abstract

Recent studies have disagreed on how various combinations of the major personality factors Extraversion and Neuroticism relate to the variability of moods. This study attempted to find the most important personality influences upon mood variability by including Psychoticism alongside Extraversion and Neuroticism in the analysis. Neither Extraversion nor Neuroticism, singly or in combination, could account for individual differences in mood variability. However Psychoticism was linearly related to mood variability, but only when individuals were introverted: there was no link between personality and mood variability for extraverts. It is suggested this result reflects the influences of the different lifestyles of these two personality types. Introverts are expected to draw upon the self to initiate mood changes, whilst extraverts use their environments.