Effect of Neuroticism on Information Processing of Emotional Faces in Adolescents

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of neuroticism on processing of emotional faces in adolescents. The subjects of the study (30 subjects with high neuroticism and 30 subjects with low neuroticism) were selected based on their scores in Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (JEPQ) and also a semi-structured clinical interview was performed. Then computerized pictorial version of modified dot-probe task was carried out on them. The data were analyzed through mixed analysis of variance. The results of this study indicated that adolescents with high neuroticism showed significant vigilance to angry emotional face while adolescents with low neuroticism showed significant avoidance from angry face. The findings of this study demonstrated that personality trait of neuroticism in adolescents can cause attention biases to emotional faces.