Revisiting the Ego-Syntonic Assumption: Investigating Neuroticism and Harmony With Thoughts of Negative Emotions

Abstract

It has been assumed that personality disorders or constituent traits are ego-syntonic, but studies that have addressed this claim have revealed ego-dystonicity. Across three studies (two preregistered), we addressed some methodological weaknesses in these past studies that may conceal ego-syntonicity. Participants (total N = 1,331) completed measures of neuroticism and then imagined experiences that predominantly induced either fear, sadness, or anger (Studies 1 and 2) or recalled past experiences that predominantly elicited each emotion (Study 3). Subsequently, participants judged their emotional reactions on the two ego-syntonicity dimensions of (a) consonance with the self and (b) acceptance (evaluation). Across the studies, neuroticism generally had positive and about moderate-sized relations to consonance judgments and between trivial-sized and small-sized relations to acceptance judgments that were most often positive (Studies 1 and 2) but sometimes negative (Study 3); mean-level analyses suggested that people with relatively higher neuroticism indicated their emotional experiences were, most often, somewhat consonant with the self and acceptable. Regardless, in Study 3, the sample, including those relatively higher in neuroticism, indicated their recalled emotions were too extreme. Broadly, the data suggest that people relatively higher (vs. lower) in neuroticism may regard their contextualized negative emotion as more consonant with the self but not necessarily as more acceptable. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Full text

Revisiting the Ego-Syntonic Assumption: Investigating Neuroticism and
Harmony With Thoughts of Negative Emotions
William Hart, Charlotte K. Cease, Joshua T. Lambert, and Danielle E. Witt
Department of Psychology, University of Alabama
It has been assumed that personality disorders or constituent traits are ego-syntonic, but studies that have
addressed this claim have revealed ego-dystonicity. Across three studies (two preregistered), we addressed
some methodological weaknesses in these past studies that may conceal ego-syntonicity. Participants (total
N=1,331) completed measures of neuroticism and then imagined experiences that predominantly induced
either fear, sadness, or anger (Studies 1 and 2) or recalled past experiences that predominantly elicited each
emotion (Study 3). Subsequently, participants judged their emotional reactions on the two ego-syntonicity
dimensions of (a) consonance with the self and (b) acceptance (evaluation). Across the studies, neuroticism
generally had positive and about moderate-sized relations to consonance judgments and between trivial-
sized and small-sized relations to acceptance judgments that were most often positive (Studies 1 and 2)
but sometimes negative (Study 3); mean-level analyses suggested that people with relatively higher neurot-
icism indicated their emotional experiences were, most often, somewhat consonant with the self and accept-
able. Regardless, in Study 3, the sample, including those relatively higher in neuroticism, indicated their
recalled emotions were too extreme. Broadly, the data suggest that people relatively higher (vs. lower) in
neuroticism may regard their contextualized negative emotion as more consonant with the self but not nec-
essarily as more acceptable.
Keywords: ego-syntonicity, neuroticism, personality, self, self-verification
Questions persist about the long-standing presumption that person-
ality disorders (PDs) or constituent PD traits are ego-syntonic (i.e.,
consonant with the self-concept and acceptable) versus ego-dystonic
(i.e., dissonant with the self-concept and unacceptable) and the extent
to which PDs or PD traits are associated with control over the proto-
typical manifestations of the trait (Miller et al., 2018;Sleep, Lamkin,
et al., 2019). On the one hand, PD traits can cause significant impair-
ments (Samuel et al., 2018), making it likely that these personality fea-
tures are ego-dystonic and perceived by the person as uncontrollable
manifestations of illness. On the other hand, PD traits might harmo-
nize with the self to some degree. Adler believed people “use”but
do not “possess”psychopathology (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956).
Other psychologists have expressed congenial sentiments, noting
that people will strategically convey images associated with psycho-
pathological conditions to come across as more psychologically dis-
turbed (Braginsky et al., 1969;Fontana et al., 1968;Fontana &
Klein, 1968;Hart et al., 2016).
To address these matters, there has been recent interest in under-
standing how people with differing levels of PD traits perceive
these constructs (Hart et al., 2018;Hart & Tortoriello, 2019;Miller
et al., 2018;Sleep et al., 2017;Sleep, Lamkin, et al., 2019). This
research has assessed people’s attitudes toward (e.g., liking, desirable)
and (dys)functionality judgments of prototypical features of different
PD traits (e.g., “being fearful”for Negative Affectivity; Hart et al.,
2018). The logic for these assessments is that ego-syntonicity should
be marked by perceiving the prototypical features of PD traits as, at
least, rather good and functional (Hart et al., 2018;Miller et al.,
2018). Generally, this research shows large or very large positive rela-
tions between PD trait levels and dysfunction or attitude judgments
(Hart et al., 2018;Miller et al., 2018); however, mean-level analyses
show that people with relatively elevated PD traits rate the prototypical
features less unfavorably but still unfavorably (Hart et al., 2018;Miller
et al., 2018). Hence, based on this evidence, it has been suggested that
people with higher levels of PD traits have greater tolerance for these
traits but do not perceive them as absolutely harmonizing with the self
and view them as dysfunctional (Hart et al., 2018;Miller et al., 2018;
Sleep, Lamkin, et al., 2019). This evidence is not only theoretically
important, but it has practical implications, too. It suggests that people
with PD traits may be more open to change than is conventionally
assumed (Miller et al., 2018;Sleep, Lamkin, et al., 2019).
Nonetheless, because personality is often resistant to change (Sleep
et al., 2022;Tyrer, 2009), it is possible that ego-syntonicity exists, but
the prior studies were not equipped to detect it. For example, two
shortcomings of the prior studies are suggested upon considering
This article was published Online First May 1, 2023.
Charlotte K. Cease https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4911-2866
All data and materials are available at: https://osf.io/zwxb3/?view_only=
ab572f6a5d04445e98b5313ab3ba9c99. Preregistration documentation is
available at: https://osf.io/grh2j/?view_only=3c2eca2589f14ed69965c408176
d152e and https://osf.io/nvs9k/?view_only=e19ceb7328fa48d8822f9e4c
6690f0c1.
William Hart contributed toward conceptualization, methodology, formal
analysis, writing–original draft, writing–review and editing. Charlotte K.
Cease contributed toward formal analysis, writing–original draft, writing–
review and editing. Joshua T. Lambert contributed toward formal analysis,
writing–original draft, writing–review and edi ting. Danielle E . Witt contribut ed
toward writing–original draft, writing–review and editing.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Charlotte
K. Cease, Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, 505
Hackberry Lane, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States. Email: clkinrade@
crimson.ua.edu
Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment
© 2023 American Psychological Association 2023, Vol. 14, No. 5, 501–511
ISSN: 1949-2715 https://doi.org/10.1037/per0000620
501
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.