Openness to Experience and Depression
Abstract
The present study examines, in the context of the Five Factor Model, the contradictory role played by the and facets (of the factor) in the prediction of depression. The fact that our data are taken from a sample of the Spanish general population is also a cross-cultural contribution that must be emphasized. 112 participants – 50% females and 50% males – filled out the NEO-PI and the BDI depression questionnaires. A stepwise regression shows that the facet of makes a different – though still contradictory – contribution to the prediction of depression than the facet. Both facets are statistically significant in the prediction of depression, but they apparently go in opposite directions. Whereas predicts a lack of depression, seems to be a predictor of depression. In order to clarify the possible role of gender in this “crossed prediction,” a univariate ANOVA was performed, taking depression from the BDI as a dependent variable and and as fixed factors. From this analysis we have seen that the contradictory role played by in the prediction of depression is linked to gender: Women scored high in and are thus statistically more susceptible to depression. These results are discussed from the point of view of the PB theory of depression.