The relationship between mood experienced during an exam, proneness to frustration and neuroticism

We examined how proneness to experience feelings of aggression in frustrating situations and neuroticism are related to three mood dimensions - tense arousal (TA), energetic arousal (EA) and hedonic tone (HT) - measured before and after an exam. Individuals high in sensitivity to frustration had low HT and EA, and high TA after completing the exam. The analysis revealed that frustration was significantly associated with TA, even after controlling for neuroticism and TA before exam. Neuroticism was significantly correlated with mood in both measurements. The results suggest that the relationship between individual differences in response to frustration and mood is sensitive to situational factors, while neuroticism is rather chronically associated with negative emotionality.