The trait perspective of personality emphasizes the broad role of traits in outcome prediction, whereas the social-cognitive perspective emphasizes the importance of if—then intrapsychic associations. Three studies (N = 188) were conducted to reconcile these alternative views of personality in the context of stress-related behaviors. Implicit priming tasks were used to quantify the extent to which stress primes activated thoughts of aggression (Studies 1 and 2) or eating (Study 3), and trait levels of neuroticism were also assessed. Neuroticism did not consistently predict stress-related implicit associations, consistent with the independence of these predictors. Of more importance, such implicit associations predicted problematic outcomes (e.g., physical aggression), but only to the extent that relevant individuals were also high in neuroticism. The results highlight an interface of trait and social-cognitive views of personality and do so in the context of understanding stress-reactivity processes, a topic of importance to multiple literatures.
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