Emotional stability in the Big Five explained

Why do other tests call it neuroticism?

Neuroticism is the same trait, measured from the other end. Many tests report a neuroticism score: the higher it is, the more strongly tension and moods affect you. So a high neuroticism score roughly matches a low emotional stability score, and the other way round.

DepthFive always flips the scale and only speaks of Emotional stability. The reason is simple. A label colours how you read a result, and "neuroticism" easily sounds like something is wrong. It is an ordinary trait on which people differ, just like Extraversion or Openness. Describing it from the calm end, without judging the other end, keeps it a description.

Want to compare a result from another test with yours from DepthFive? Against the same comparison group, a neuroticism score of 30 roughly matches an emotional stability score of 70. Another test does compare you with different people, though, so the number can also differ for that reason.

What does a high score look like?

With a high score you usually stay calm, even when things get tense. Your mood changes slowly, and after a setback you pick up the thread again quickly.

In daily life it might look like this. Your train is cancelled on the morning of an important meeting: you make a call, sort out another way and carry on. A colleague is curt with you in a meeting: you notice, but it does not follow you around all afternoon. After a difficult conversation you can turn your attention to something else.

That calm has clear strengths. You think clearly when things are busy, you stay reachable in a crisis, and other people sometimes lean on your steadiness.

Every side also has a flip side. If you feel little tension yourself, you may notice tension in others later, or rate someone's worries lower than they feel them. A sign that things are getting too much for you can also register late.

What does a low score look like?

With a low score you feel things strongly, and your mood moves with what happens. You quickly notice when something changes or is off, in yourself and in others.

A few examples. You can tell from the tone of a message that something is going on, before anyone says it. Days before an important conversation you are already turning it over, and by then you have often thought through what could go wrong. Good news reaches you too: you feel it fully.

That sensitivity is a strength. You are involved, you take risks seriously and you spot early when something is going wrong, in a project or in a relationship.

The flip side is that tension hits harder and lingers longer. A busy period costs you more energy than it costs someone with a high score. Rest, predictability and support often make a big difference for you.

That both sides bring something fits an evolutionary account of why people differ so much. In that account, each Big Five trait is a trade-off: what helps at one end costs something at the other ^[2]. For this trait, the account points to vigilance to danger and a drive to compete and get ahead at the sensitive end; at the very calm end, those may be weaker ^[2]. The author presents this as an idea to be tested, not as settled fact.

What does a score near the middle mean?

A score between 40 and 60 is just above or just below the middle. You handle most tension well, and you also notice when something gets to you. You have something of the calm and something of the sensitivity of both sides.

This close to 50, a new test could put you on the other side of the middle. That is measurement error, not a change in you. So read such a score as "roughly in the middle", not as a clear side.

What does research show on average?

On average, emotional stability increases with age. A review of long-term studies found the rise mainly between about 20 and 40 ^[3]. A more recent review saw the increase across the whole lifespan, and found it larger than earlier estimates ^[4]. How that works, and what it does and does not tell you, is explained in does personality change with age.

There is also a small difference between men and women. In a study across 26 cultures, women on average described themselves with somewhat higher neuroticism scores, so somewhat lower on emotional stability. The differences were small compared with the differences between people of the same gender ^[5].

These are group averages. They say nothing certain about you. They do explain why it helps to also compare your score with people of your own age and gender. That is why DepthFive shows two comparisons: one with the full reference group of more than 100,000 people and one with people like you.

At DepthFive you see your Emotional stability score after the free 20-question test, together with the other four traits, without an email address or account. If you want to go further, a one-off €25 ($25, or £22 in the UK) covers the remaining 100 questions and a personal report based on all 120.