Relationship Between Somatic Symptoms, Inferiority and Superiority Complex, and the Big Five Personality Traits
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Đorđe Čekrlija
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Nikola Miloš Rokvić
Abstract
Although previous research has consistently linked personality traits, with the experience of somatic symptoms, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. In particular, it is not well understood how self-evaluative personality aspects such as inferiority and superiority contribute to the expression of somatic complaints. This study examined the relationships between somatic symptoms, inferiority and superiority complexes, and the Big Five personality traits to clarify whether inferiority and superiority contribute to variance in somatic symptoms. Short Inferiority Complex Scale-10, Superiority Complex Scale-10, Big Five Inventory-10, and The Patient Health Questionnaire–15 were utilized in the study. Somatic symptoms correlated positively with inferiority complex and neuroticism, and negatively with agreeableness and extraversion. Inferiority complex positively correlated with neuroticism and negatively with other personality traits, whereas superiority complex positively correlated with all traits except neuroticism. Multiple regression analyses showed that only inferiority complex and neuroticism were significantly associated with somatic symptoms. The findings support the robust associations among somatic symptoms, neuroticism, and inferiority, suggesting that individuals high in these variables may be particularly prone to somatization. Addressing maladaptive self-perceptions and improving emotional regulation may therefore represent important targets for intervention in individuals with prominent somatic symptoms.
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Research ethics: The authors confirm that the ethical policies of the journal have been adhered to, and that the study was completely conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
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Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
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Author contributions: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. All authors state that this is an original study, have approved the manuscript submitted to the Human Affairs journal, and declare that it is not under consideration by any other journal. Conceptualization: Đ.Č., N.M.R., Formal analysis: Đ.Č., Methodology: Đ.Č., Data collection: N.M.R., Software: Đ.Č., Visualisation: Đorđe Čekrlija, Writing – original draft: Đ.Č., Writing – review and editing Đ.Č., N.M.R.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: No Large Language Models, AI, or machine learning tools were used in the writing of this manuscript. Any data analyses were performed using standard statistical software, and all results were independently verified by the research team.
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Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: The authors declare that they received no financial support or funding for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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Data availability: The data is publicly available at https://osf.io/unywb.
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This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/humaff-2025-0070).
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