Immoderation
A facet of neuroticism. Four items in the IPIP-NEO-120.
The fifth facet of neuroticism is difficulty resisting cravings and urges: whether a person tends to overindulge, to go on binges and to give in to temptation when it is in front of them. It sits in neuroticism because the urge is felt as a pressure that is hard to bear, not because it is about mood.
What it does not mean
A high score is not a verdict on willpower or character, and it is not a diagnosis of anything. The scale asks how a person feels about cravings and temptation in ordinary life; it does not ask about any particular habit, and it cannot tell a love of food from a love of shopping.
A low score is not asceticism. People who easily resist temptation can still enjoy things; they stop when they mean to.
Four items make a short scale. A facet score moves more between attempts than the 24-item domain score, and it describes a tendency in ordinary life as the person reports it, not a diagnosis of anything.
High and low in daily life
High. People high on this facet say they go on binges, find it hard to resist temptations and struggle to control their cravings. In daily life that shows as a second helping, an open tab at midnight, a purchase that was not planned, and a resolution that lasts until the thing is in reach. Many high scorers are also the most generous and spontaneous people they know.
Low. People low on this facet say they rarely overindulge, easily resist temptations and can control their cravings. In daily life that shows as leaving half a dessert, buying only what was on the list, and stopping at one. Others sometimes find this restraint a little joyless.
Parent domain
- Neuroticism: the broad trait this facet belongs to, with five sibling facets.
What the research says it predicts
In the model of impulsivity built on the Big Five, this facet marks urgency, the tendency to act rashly when feelings run high, which is distinct from the sensation seeking of excitement-seeking and the lack of planning of low cautiousness. (Whiteside and Lynam, 2001)
This facet and anger form the volatility aspect of neuroticism, which varies separately from the withdrawal aspect. (DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson, 2007)
Where people fall
The spread of scores
Curve height shows how common each score is; the darker middle holds half of all people. If you have taken a test on this device, your marker is drawn on.
IPIP-NEO-120, immoderation, 4 items
410,376 people
The other facets of neuroticism
Sources and licence
Whiteside, S. P., & Lynam, D. R. (2001). The Five Factor Model and impulsivity: Using a structural model of personality to understand impulsivity. Personality and Individual Differences, 30(4), 669-689. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(00)00064-7
DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Between facets and domains: 10 aspects of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93(5), 880-896. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.93.5.880
Instrument: IPIP-NEO-120. Johnson, J. A. (2014). Measuring thirty facets of the Five Factor Model with a 120-item public domain inventory: Development of the IPIP-NEO-120. Journal of Research in Personality, 51, 78-89. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2014.05.003 Key: https://ipip.ori.org/30FacetNEO-PI-RItems.htm.
Norms: Johnson, J. A. IPIP-NEO-120 public dataset (IPIP120.dat), OSF component wxvth of osf.io/tbmh5, https://osf.io/wxvth/.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm
Instrument: IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers. Goldberg, L. R. (1992). The development of markers for the Big-Five factor structure. Psychological Assessment, 4(1), 26-42. doi:10.1037/1040-3590.4.1.26 Key: https://ipip.ori.org/newBigFive5broadKey.htm.
Norms: Open-Source Psychometrics Project, IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers responses (IPIP-FFM-data-8Nov2018.zip), 1,015,342 responses collected 2016 to 2018, https://openpsychometrics.org/_rawdata/.
Licence: Public domain (IPIP). Permission is granted automatically for any person to use IPIP items for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial. https://ipip.ori.org/newPermission.htm