Why do I Cope With Emotions Like This?: Structure, Demographic Correlates, and Distinction of Trait Responses to Emotion (TREs) From the Five Factor and HEXACO Models of Personality

Trait responses to emotion (TREs) are personality traits that develop from consistent emotion coping strategies. TRE theory is a novel theory and has yet to be empirically validated; thus, the primary aims of Study 1 were to determine the empirical relationships among individual TREs and the relationship between TREs and demographic factors that influence personality development: age, gender, early life experiences, and socioeconomic factors. Study 1 developed a multidimensional model to explore TRE from a TurkPrime sample (N = 284). Multi-dimensional scaling yielded 3 dimensions: approach, dyscontrol, and engagement. Age, gender, and early life experiences were significantly associated with TREs. Study 2 extended the findings of Study 1 by testing whether the 3 latent dimensions identified in Study 1 replicated and were distinct from other prominent models of personality (e.g., five-factor and HEXACO models). Study 2 replicated the multidimensional model from Study 1 in a TurkPrime sample (N = 546) and determined that TRE latent dimensions had small to moderate correlations with facets of the five-factor and HEXACO personality models, supporting TRE dimensions as a distinct personality model. These studies have better characterized the empirical relationships and structure of TREs and distinguished TREs from other prominent models of personality.