Five Flavors of Personality

What is personality?

Simply defined, personality is the unique combination of characteristics that makes an individual who he or she is. When we speak of personality, we mean not only behavior and social attitudes but also temperament, beliefs, emotions and our mental state. We make casual observations and commentary on others’ personalities every day as we attempt to orient ourselves to our environment, make connections with our peers, and build relationships with others.

These informal evaluations of personality are actually quite similar to the means by which personality psychologists try to explain why and how individuals behave a certain way. While our personality assessments usually center upon a single individual, psychologists instead focus on larger groups and use broader terms that can be applied to everyone. Research in this field has produced numerous and varied theories that endeavor to describe the development of personality traits.

Components of Personality

Personality theory, though somewhat divergent, is all based on the notion that individuals possess a particular combination of traits that make them unique. These feelings, thoughts, behaviors and reactions develop within each of us and remain largely constant throughout life.

There are a few essential qualities of personality that most theorists base their research on. These include:

* Consistency, or the notion that there is an identifiable and predictable pattern to an individual’s behavior. Basically, we can be expected to act in nearly the same way in various situations.
* Psychological and physiological, or the idea that personality is not just a mental and emotional concept, but that it is also affected by biological principles like brain function, genetics, and neurotransmission.
* Impact behaviors and actions, or the assertion that personality both influences and causes or determines an individual’s reaction to an environment.
* Multiple expressions, or the observation that personality comes through many outlets including an individual’s behaviors, thoughts, relationships, social interactions, and feelings.

Theories of Personality

Psychologists and researchers have been studying personality for decades. Among the most widely accepted theories regarding personality development are the biological (personality and heredity are linked), the behavioral (personality and the environment), the psychodynamic (personality and the subconscious mind), and the humanist (personality and individual experience). Each theory attempts to provide the most specific yet most inclusive explanation for how personality develops and why we act or react in certain ways.

One of the most prevalent research models is trait theory, which asserts that an individual’s personality is comprised of several dispositions or temperaments. Psychodynamic and humanist theories are included in this model, as is the popular “Big Five” theories of personality.

The Big Five Model

The Big Five model of personality began more than a half century ago with the work of D.W. Fiske (1949). Later expanded through the research of Norman (1967), Smith (1967), Goldberg (1981), and McCrae & Costa (1987), this model identifies five main components of personality and they various ways they come together to make an individual unique.

The Big Five explains not personality types but rather specific dimensions of personality. How the different elements combine is what determines an individual’s personality. Most of the research on this model has indicated that personality as determined by the Big Five, remains unwavering throughout life and that it can predict, to a degree, an array of outcomes including academic achievement, occupational performance, marital longevity, and overall physical health.

What Are the Five Flavors of Personality?

The Big Five dimensions of personality are:

1. Openness.
2. Conscientiousness.
3. Extraversion.
4. Agreeableness.
5. Neuroticism.

Openness refers to traits including insight, imagination and creativity. Individuals who score high in this dimension are generally open to learning new things and are quick to pick up unfamiliar concepts. They thrive on innovation and experimentation, and generally tend to have a broad range of diverse interests.

Conscientiousness is commonly displayed via extreme thoughtfulness and strict impulse control. Individuals high in this area are typically goal-oriented, organized and focused on details. They tend to work well in self-directed environments, are independent, enjoy planning, and take a proactive approach in most situations.

Extraversion includes characteristics such as sociability, excitability, assertiveness, talkativeness, and expressiveness. Individuals who exhibit high levels of this trait enjoy interacting with their environment, make friends easily, are comfortable in social situations, and usually communicate well.

Agreeableness is characterized by factors such as selflessness, trust, kindness, affection and other humanitarian behaviors. These individuals crave harmony, avoid discord, adapt easily, and show concern for others. Those who score high in this category usually favor pleasant situations and may be quick to acquiesce simply to prevent conflict.

Neuroticism, sometimes referred to as emotional stability, includes traits such as irritability, sadness, moodiness, and anxiety. Individuals with high levels tend to be exceedingly sensitive to their environment, may feel insecure in unfamiliar situations, may become easily discouraged or depressed by changes in circumstance, and experience frequent mood swings.

Of course, each of the Big Five dimensions of personality is very broad and encompasses a wide range of more precise traits. The theory is rooted in analysis based on self-reporting or perceptions of others, which creates numerous inconsistencies and exceptions within each category. This also contributes significantly to the controversy over the accuracy of this model and its various applications.

For example, extraversion includes both sociability and excitability, but neither one is definitively linked by logic. It is possible for an individual to be pleasant and friendly, but not excessively emotional or highly strung. However, studies have suggested that many individuals who feel at ease in social situations are also likely to be comfortable expressing their emotions openly, which is why these two traits are grouped together in the same category.

It should be noted that personality is a complex area of study. There are many aspects of personality—such as motivations, emotions, attitudes, abilities, social position, personal experiences, and self-understanding—that are not considered in the Big Five model but that are equally important in determining an individual’s unique characteristics. While some of these other factors may have relationships with any one of the Big Five dimensions, they are completely separate units of study. This is why the Big Five concept does not attempt to outline personality type, but simply means to present certain common personality traits that many of us share.

Taking the Big Five Further: Meta-Traits and the AB5C Model

There is no doubt significant research and a substantial body of literature dating back nearly sixty years to support the validity of the five-factor model of personality. However, researchers have disagreed about the ability of the Big Five to explain personality or predict future behavior, which has driven constant further study into these five broad dimensions.

Recent research has uncovered an exciting addition to the five-factor model. Called meta-traits, these characteristics further classify each of the Big Five dimensions and explain much of the inconsistency present in the lower level traits.

The first meta-trait has been called Alpha, Stability, or Self-Control. Used interchangeably, these labels all describe a mix of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and low Neuroticism. Individuals who score high in this meta-trait need to maintain order in their lives and do this by exhibiting restraint in their behavior. These individuals reason that their circumstances and immediate environment can be controlled more effectively if they avoid risk-taking activities.

Biologically, this meta-trait has been liked to serotonin function in the brain. Serotonin is responsible for regulating mood, behavior, and understanding; it helps increase an individual’s sense of caution while calming the corresponding feeling of distress that could inhibit self-control. As author and NYU Visiting Scholar Scott Barry Kaufman, Ph.D. points out in his blog post titled “Do You Grab Life by the Horns or Sit on the Sidelines?” one research study concluded that the most consistent relationship between personality and serotonin was that higher levels of serotonin in the brain corresponded to more impulse control among research subjects.

The second meta-trait has been called Beta, Plasticity, or Engagement. Also interchangeable terms, this trait refers to a combination of Extraversion and Openness. Individuals who score high on this meta-trait have a desire to engage in their world and search for ways to immerse themselves in new and innovative experiences. This meta-trait has a biological connection with dopamine, the neurotransmitter responsible for energizing actions and cognition, and influences an individual’s sensitivity to reward, scope of thinking, and how one approaches situations. Studies have shown links between increased dopamine production and positive outlook, open thinking, and intellectual flexibility.

As a 2002 paper by University of Minnesota researchers Colin G. DeYoung, et al suggests, these meta-traits are not direct opposites of one another and it is possible for an individual to possess any combination of the two. DeYoung writes, “The opposite of plasticity is not stability but rigidity, while the opposite of stability is not plasticity but instability.”

Kaufman asserts that based on these findings, in the most simplistic terms there are actually only five different kinds of individual personalities:

1. High stability, high plasticity
2. High stability, low plasticity
3. Low stability, high plasticity
4. Low stability, low plasticity
5. Moderate stability, moderate plasticity

Scientists who have researched these meta-traits point to their significance as a means to add an element of predictability to the five-factor model of personality. By considering these meta-traits, psychologists may be better able to accurately explain an individual’s particular characteristics and to predict future behaviors.

According to Jason Rentfrow, Ph.D., another personality researcher, there is much more to an individual’s personality than the basic Big Five dimensions. He points to the Abridged Big 5 Circumplex (AB5C) as a way to deepen understanding of personality.The AB5C (Hofstee, de Raad & Goldberg 1992) and is a more comprehensive model of personality that lets psychologists investigate blends of any two of the Big Five facets of personality. Through surveys, self-assessment and professional evaluation, individuals can be classified in any one of 45 different personality dimensions. This offers a much broader scope of explanation and presents a more complex picture of an individual’s traits, especially specific characteristics like friendliness and thoughtfulness.

For example, an individual who scores high in Openness and Extraversion would likely be gregarious and imaginative. Yet the combination of these two factors also suggests an individual is likely to be witty or entertaining, a much more subtle distinction. Conversely, an individual who scores low in Extraversion but high in Openness is apt to be thoughtful and philosophical; this is, again, a more nuanced and specific characterization.

Why Are the Big Five Important?

The five factors of personality have long been used as a predictive model, even though research has been largely unsupportive of this application. In corporate situations, the Big Five dimensions of personality have traditionally been combined with the well-known Myers-Briggs Personality Test to identify job candidates who might add the most value to a company. These assessments have been used to predict occupational success, to weed out ineffective workers, to forecast future earning potential, and to discover employees with management potential.

The Big Five have also been important in determining an individual’s predilection for certain risk behaviors that could put his or her health in jeopardy. These behaviors include things like smoking, excessive drinking, chronic overeating, avoiding regular preventative health care and maintenance, and forestalling treatment for existing medical conditions.

There are also links between an individual’s personality traits and his or her predisposition to psychological conditions like anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, chronic fatigue, and compulsive behavior. Many of these mental disorders have strong ties to physiological ailments, as well.

One recent study has even suggested a connection between the Big Five dimensions of personality and quality of life. According to researchers Benjamin P. Chapman, Ph.D., Jeffrey M. Lyness, MD, and Paul Duberstein, Ph.D., Conscientiousness can be linked to decreased risk of ill health later in life. In their study, these researchers conducted extensive interviews and personality assessments of primary care patients aged 65 to 97 years, and found that individuals who scored high in Conscientiousness had fewer chronic ailments and were in generally better health overall than their less conscientious peers.