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Nonaffective Constraint

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Definition

Nonaffective constraint is a personality trait concerned with the modulation of activity in motor, emotional, and cognitive domains.

Introduction

Nonaffective constraint (NC) is a personality trait with roots in both neuroscience and personality research. Depue and Collins (1999) first conceptualized NC as a neuroregulatory system that modulates activity in motor, emotional, and cognitive domains. High levels of NC allows for greater levels of control over reactive behaviors, emotions, and cognitions (Depue and Lenzenweger 2015; Moore and Depue 2016). Rooted in a threshold model of behavioral reactivity, NC assumes a central neural contribution for such inhibition (see below). While there is no single neurobiological correlate for NC, self-report and neurocognitive tasks are well established in measuring NC at the behavioral level. Self-report instruments such as the constraint scale within the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (Tellegen 1982) assesses aspects of...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. City College and Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York City, NY, USA

    Eric A. Fertuck

  2. The City College of New York (CCNY), City University of New York, New York City, NY, USA

    Robert D. Melara

Authors
  1. Eric A. Fertuck
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  2. Robert D. Melara
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Correspondence to Eric A. Fertuck .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Educational Sciences, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Patrizia Velotti

  2. Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Patrizia Velotti

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Fertuck, E.A., Melara, R.D. (2019). Nonaffective Constraint. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_829-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_829-1

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