The vulnerability status of neuroticism: over-reporting or genuine complaints?

Neuroticism is widely documented to reflect an exaggerated reporting of physical symptoms, due to an over-sensitive focus on internal stimuli in individuals high in this trait. This study scrutinized the responses to 409 retrospective health reports to see if negative affect (NA), indicating neuroticism, was differentially related to different types of physical complaints. The role of other personality risk factors, related to neuroticism and coping style were also examined. The findings show that high NA was uniquely related only to diseases of tension type, such as high blood pressure, migraine, or neck pain. Of the other factors, which all correlated with NA, hostility, self-critical attitude, and coping were uniquely related to these same complaints. It is concluded that neuroticism has a more genuine vulnerability potential to disease.