Evaluation of state-trait anxiety and difficulties in emotion regulation: Based on personality dimensions of sensitivity to punishment and sensitivity to reward

The aim of the present study was to investigate the state-trait anxiety and difficulties in emotion regulation based on personality dimensions of sensitivity to punishment (SP) and sensitivity to reward (SR). For this purpose, participants were male students in Urmia University, who were selected by their extreme scores on the Sensitivity to Punishment and Reward Sensitivity Questionnaire and were assigned to four groups: High sensitivity to punishment (HSP), low sensitivity to punishment (LSP), high sensitivity to reward (HSR) and low sensitivity to reward (LSR). Then, State-Trait Anxiety and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Questionnaire were administered to each personality group (individually).The collected data were analyzed by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), one-way ANOVA and post hoc tests. Results showed that there were a significantdifferences between the four groups based onstate-trait anxiety and difficulties in emotion regulation. It seems that high sensitivity to punishment (HSP) associatedwith more experienced anxiety and more difficulties in emotion regulation.