Effects Of Neuroticism And Negative Emotions On Inhibitory Control In Adolescents

A large number of studies have shown that the individuals with higher levels of neuroticism are more sensitive to negative events than the ones with lower levels of neuroticism,and thus are prone to display emotional instability and more impulsive and aggressive behaviors.In addition,numerous studies have found that the inhibitory control is closely related to impulsive and aggressive behaviors.Although domestic and foreign studies have explored how the neuroticism levels affect individuals’ emotional responses and how emotions affect the inhibitory control,there is no current study to explore whether and how the neuroticism levels and the emotions interactively affect the inhibitory control.Therefore,based on the previous research findings,this study investigated whether and how the neuroticism levels and negative emotions interacted to influence adolescents’ inhibitory control through the following two experiments.Study 1 took 92 adolescents as subjects,using the three-mixed-factor experimental design of 2(groups: high neuroticism levels/low neuroticism levels)* 2(emotions:negative pictures/neutral pictures)* 2(trial types: consistent/inconsistent),and requiring high and low neurotic level individuals to complete the Stroop task under the condition of neutral and negative emotional face pictures to explore whether and how the individual neuroticism levels and negative emotions interactively affect the cognitive inhibitory control.Study 2 took 92 adolescents as subjects,using the three-factor-mixed experimental design of 2(groups: high neuroticism levels/low neuroticism levels)* 2(emotions:negative pictures/neutral pictures)* 2(trial types: standard stimulus/deviation stimulus).The experiment used the individual’s error rate and reaction time in the double-choice Oddball task as dependent variables to explore whether and how the neuroticism levels and negative emotions interactively influence the behavioral inhibitory control.Finally,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)In Study 1,no interactive influence was found between the neuroticism level and negative emotions on the cognitive inhibition control of adolescents.(2)Compared with individuals with low levels of neuroticism,for the ones with high levels of neuroticism,negative emotions impair their abilities to control the behavioral inhibition.(3)The levels of individual neuroticism are closely related to their mental health.The higher the level of neuroticism,the lower the level of mental health.