Investigating The Influence of Personality Traits on Emotion Regulation Among Young Adults

Abstract Book of the 3rd International Academic Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities

Year: 2026

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Investigating The Influence of Personality Traits on Emotion Regulation Among Young Adults

Karishma Malhotra, Dr. Anand Siddaiah

ABSTRACT:

Various studies have demonstrated the influence of personality on emotion regulation, whereby the “Big Five” traits have notably predicted adaptive strategies like cognitive reappraisal or maladaptive ones like expressive suppression. The results elicited that individuals high in Neuroticism were seen utilizing more expression suppression in order to regulate their negative affect, which is associated with higher suicide risk and lower life satisfaction. On the other hand, in the case of individuals with high Conscientiousness adopted goal-directed regulation strategies, such as cognitive reappraisal, that allowed for effective regulation during times of experiencing intense emotions. Additionally, empirical evidence signifies how personality does not just predict which strategy is used but also how effective that strategy is for the individual, a dynamic that can fluctuate with age and cognitive development. However, while Neuroticism and Extraversion have shown clear links towards specific coping strategies, traits such as Agreeableness and Openness lack consistency with regard to the associations with specific regulation strategies in different demographic groups. Furthermore, there is a “replication crisis” with regard to the findings for Conscientiousness and Openness, which are far less consistent than those for Neuroticism across different segments of the population. Therefore, this study aims to address these research gaps, with a view to corroborating the existing literature in a purposeful manner that shall add to the reliability and validity of this subject of inquiry. For this purpose, a correlational research design would be utilized among 500 university students in order to explore the significant association that exists between different personality traits and emotion regulation strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression. Data shall be collected by employing the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross & John, 2003) that shall yield the scores on cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression, whereas the NEO-FFI-3 (Costa, P. T., Jr., & McCrae, R. R., 2005) shall yield information pertaining to the different personality trait profiles among the young adults studying at the university. Finally, addressing these research gaps could support the development of effective mental health interventions with a deeper understanding of emotional development during young adulthood, positively impacting the overall well-being of the individual.

Keywords: Emotion Regulation; Personality Traits; Young Adulthood