Stressed, depressed, and rank obsessed: Individual differences in Compassion and Neuroticism predispose toward rank-based depressive symptomatology *Jeffrey J. Kimab, Ruby Gerrishab, Paul Gilbertabc, James N. Kirbyab aSchool of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia bCompassionate Mind Research Group, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia cCentre for Compassion Research and Training, University of Derby, College of Health and Social Care Research Centre, Derby, UK * corresponding author:
[email protected] Citation: Kim, J. J., Gerrish, R., Gilbert, P., & Kirby, J. N. (2020). Stressed, depressed, and rank obsessed: individual differences in Compassion and Neuroticism predispose toward rank-based depressive symptomatology. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice. DOI:10.1111/papt.12270 Abstract As social creatures we monitor our relative rank and/or status with others via social comparisons. Whilst research has identified perceptions of inferiority or ‘low rank’ relative to others is a robust predictor of depressive, anxious, and stress symptomology, to date individual differences have been ignored. Here we provide empirical evidence for how divergence across personality traits interact with social rank variables to buffer or predispose toward depressive symptomology. Across three independent samples (N = 595) we replicated a social rank model of mental health, and with our third sample (N = 200) we sought to investigate attenuating roles for neuroticism vs compassion with multiple moderated regression models. Neuroticism predicted greater levels of rank-associated depression, and compassion failed to function as a protective factor for rank-associated depression. However, a closer inspection of the original Big-5 factor-structure positions this scale as a measure of ‘interpersonal submissiveness’ or ‘conflict appeasement’ rather than genuine compassion.