Personality correlates of variable moods

Attempts to explain the existence of individual differences in mood variability have generally focused on broad personality traits with varying success. The present efforts assess the validity of theoretical models that propose various combinations of extraversion and neuroticism as predictors of levels of mood change and an opposing model that presents psychotic type traits as the most likely to accompany variable moods. In the two studies reported here psychotic traits were the more prominent predictors of mood variability measured longitudinally, but a large portion of variance in mood variability remained unexplained by personality characteristics.