neuroticism

Meaning: Neuroticism is one of the five traits in the five-factor model, remembered as OCEAN: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism. It describes how easily and intensely a person feels negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, and sadness. People who score high react strongly to stress and tend to recover slowly. People who score low are called emotionally stable. Eysenck's model also treats neuroticism as one of its two main dimensions, alongside extraversion, and links it to biological reactivity.

On the MCAT: Passages usually give a short description of a person or a questionnaire result, and you name the trait or place the person on a continuum. A person who worries constantly and is easily upset would be high in neuroticism. Trait theory treats traits as fairly stable across time and situations. This contrasts with social-cognitive and situational accounts, which stress the environment. Twin and adoption studies, in which identical twins resemble each other more than fraternal twins, are used to argue that genes contribute to personality traits, including this one.

Common confusion: Neuroticism is not a psychological disorder, and it is not Freud's older term "neurosis." Each Big Five trait is a spectrum, so a high score only places someone toward one end of a normal range. Introversion is also a different dimension. It is the low end of extraversion, not a form of neuroticism.