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.
Adams-Dickinson et al. (Fri,) studied this question.