A longitudinal study of facets of extraversion in depression and social anxiety

• Facet-level analysis increases understanding of personality-disorder relations.
• Depression is highly associated with lack of positive affectivity.
• Social anxiety is moderately strong associated with lack of positive affectivity.
• Social anxiety is also moderately strong associated with low sociability.
• Increasing positive emotions in depression and social anxiety seems promising.

The present study examines the relationship of lower level facets of extraversion with depression and social anxiety. A sample of 2942 adults aged 18–65, consisting of healthy controls, persons with a prior history of emotional disorders, and persons with a current emotional disorder were assessed at baseline (T0) and 2 (T2) and 4 years (T4) later. At each wave anxiety and depressive disorder according to DSM-IV criteria, symptom severity and facets of extraversion (positive affectivity, sociability and activity) were assessed. Using structural equation modeling we found that trait depression had a large association with lack of positive affectivity, while trait social anxiety showed moderately strong associations with both low sociability and lack of positive affectivity. Facet-level analyses increase the specification of associations of personality constructs with particular forms of psychopathology. Given the role of positive emotions in resilience against depression and possibly social anxiety, interventions directly aimed at increasing positive emotions seem warranted.