The Science of Diverse Personalities
Most everything in this musing is based on writings by Mark Leary, Professor at Duke University.
To understand why we all have diverse personalities, and what generated the diversity, we need include the impact from genetics and the person’s environment. There are 6 different personality traits—extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and honesty/humility. But to form these traits we have to consider certain associations such as affiliation motivation, achievement motivation, power motivation, need to maintain internal psychological consistency between beliefs, attitudes, behavior, and other people’s view of ourselves. Also involved are self esteem and authenticity. We will need to throw in happiness, social anxiety, embarrassability, anger, hostility, guilt, shame, affect intensity, moral character, values, moral foundations, virtues, character strengths, curiosity, cognitive closure, intellectual humility, cognition needs, beliefs about human nature, beliefs about the world, locus of control, authoritarianism, identity, self-efficacy, self compassion, attachment style, tactics of social influence, Machiavellianism, dispositional empathy, consistency, stability, sex differences, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, observational learning, experiential learning, tight versus loose cultures, individualism versus collectivism, cultural values, nonconscious processes, nonconscious content, motives, habits, self control by inhibition versus initiation, goals, anti social disorders, borderline personality disorders, histrionic personality disorders, narcissistic personality disorders, avoidance, paranoia, dependent personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, schizoid personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and well-adjusted personalities.
To the extent we can understand all the above pieces of personality, and then properly relate all of them to each other regarding a particular personality trait, then we will, to varying degrees, have an understanding of just how complex understanding personalities really is. An immediate problem is that peculiarities will pop up pertaining to many of the above, which just adds to the complexity. For example, one important personality trait is the degree of extraversion a person is deemed to have. Trying to place myself here seemed impossible. If I don’t know the group well I find myself tending to be strongly introverted and shy. If I am quite familiar with the members of any group I tend to be strongly extraverted. I live currently in a high rise condo building. Most would probably classify me as extraverted since I am very friendly and very aloof all wrapped in one. The friendliness is inane chit chatting with no attempt on my part to remotely know anything of substance about their lives. Plus, given a choice I am almost always likely to choose doing things on my own. Not really that much of a group person. But we all need remember that diversity, a key aspect of the evolutionary process, cannot be given attributes of good, bad, sinful or ethical. How much of any of the many aspects of personality listed in the first paragraph are genetic vs environmental will vary. Our formative years, including parenting, play a big role in how many aspects of our personality develop. We also need keep in mind that much of the expression of our personalities is situational. We often behave differently in different situations.
For the most part our personalities produce consequences for ourself and others with whom we come in contact, but any impact on the evolutionary process is minuscule, if at all. Nothing about the evolutionary process is centered around the lives of any individuals of any species. It is the human species which creates images of God and write scriptures, invent religious rituals, etc. It is true that our human activities have driven many species to extinction, put a strain on our natural resources, overpopulated the globe and, for the first time in evolutionary history, activities of one species will now be the genesis of a sizable climate change. So in a larger sense, any increased knowledge about our own personalities or personalities in general can only impact on the degree of contentment we can reach personally, given our own peculiar personality. And as is always, the playing field here is not level. We don’t all start off life with an equal chance of achieving a high level of contentment. The best we can do is to seek a kind of governance over our society which best succeeds in maximizing the contentment for the maximum number of its citizens.
Let’s start with the 6 basic personality traits and go from there. The first one, extraversion, influences more of the other aspects of personality than any other trait. Psychologists prefer to use the one term, extraversion and talk about high and low degrees of this trait rather than use the two terms extraversion and introversion. In terms of happiness, extraverts tend to be more happy about their lives. People high in extraversion enjoy being around other people, enjoy social gatherings, and tend to seek out others with whom to do things. They also tend to be more assertive and dominant and tend to stay busier than those low in this trait.
Another of the basic traits is neuroticism, a measure of emotional stability. People who are high in neuroticism experience more negative emotions and these emotions tend to be stronger and last longer. They are more likely to experience anxiety, sadness, guilt, and regret. They are more afraid of things that don’t bother others as much. They try to avoid situations which look risky or threatening. They get bent out of shape more easily to many aspects of life, and are less satisfied with their lives. With negative feelings in abundance they need emotional support from others and tend to be somewhat needy and dependent. If someone is highly neurotic there is likely to be more conflict and less satisfaction in any marriage. And naturally this affects the spouse who then finds less satisfaction in the marriage. It is a sad situation in that a person high in neuroticism needs emotional support and yet the high neuroticism drives others away. High neuroticism results in a greater number of health problems, higher mortality rate (particularly heart disease and immune system damage). Some doctors feel that neuroticism is a major public health problem. High neuroticism has a strong genetic component. Parenting can also be an influence as children learn to sense high emotionality as normal. Plus, children can learn to perceive the world as a dangerous and unhappy place. We need remember that we are talking about degrees of neuroticism or whatever the trait in question. There is no all or none law operating here. At this point we are spending time with defining important personality traits and mentioning some possible consequences of having the trait in question to a strong degree. As we proceed other factors will be discussed which help determine the strength or formation of these basic traits. And remember, while genetics plays a role, the genetics involved is highly variable from person to person. Finally, we all have limited and variable ability to put all the pieces together into any perfectly completed puzzle.
The third major human behavioral trait is Agreeableness—-the degree to which we have positive feelings towards others. At the low end of the spectrum are people who are not very nice. They tend to be antagonistic, hostile, inconsiderate, critical, callous. Those at the high end of the scale are more likely to be pleasant, kind, sympathetic, and helpful. At the high end of agreeableness these persons tend to believe most people are honest and decent. Those at the low end are less trusting. When conflicts occur, agreeable people try to reach compromise and reach results which are acceptable to everyone. They prefer negotiation rather than using power or force to get other people do what they want. Agreeable people are more often helpful to others, whether family, friends, or strangers. They are more likely to donate their money and/or time when other people are in need. Those low in disagreement tend to be more prejudice, not just to certain races, ethnic groups and gays, but toward other stigmatized groups such as the obese. Agreeable people place higher value on relationships with other people and make a greater effort to tolerate frustrations caused by other people rather than getting angry or lashing out. Plus they are more empathetic and see the world through other people’s eyes, and experience greater distress when others are suffering. That does not mean those low in agreeableness are never sympathetic, but are much more selective. Those with high agreeableness have more successful friendships and romantic relationships. They get along better with other people and bring out better behavior in other people.
The 4th major human behavior trait is conscientiousness. People higher in this trait tend to be more responsible and dependable. They try harder to do what they should and to do it well. They are more organized than less conscientious people, are more industrious and have more persistence. They will be less impulsive and have a high level of self discipline. Conscientious people are healthier and live longer, less likely to smoke, use drugs, abuse alcohol, become obese, more likely to exercise, practice safe sex, drive safely, have greater success in school, at work, make more money, less likely to get divorced, are less likely to break rules, or cheat on a spouse, more likely to hold their tongue when something is best left unsaid, be careful even when it doesn’t matter.
The 5th major human behavior trait is openness. This trait mainly expresses how open a person is to new ideas or experiences. They are more likely to experiment and to engage in intellectual discussions. People high in openness are more curious about more things, less dogmatic, less set in their ways, and more humble about their positions. They are more flexible in their behavior. Those less open are more conventional and traditional with their lives. People who are high in openness don’t feel a need to conform to social expectations. People tend to gravitate to friends and romantic partners with those who have the same level of openness. People less open have more conflicts with other people, and tend to be more prejudice, and be more secretive about the things they do, and prefer to tell their friends about events after they have happened. People high in openness tend to enjoy sensory experiences, art, plays, etc. They are more likely to say they experience chills or goosebumps when they see beautiful things or hear beautiful music.
The 6th major behavior trait is honesty/humility. People who score high in this trait tend to be consistently honest, generous, fair, faithful, and humble. People who score low tend to be deceitful, manipulative, greedy, sly, and arrogant. If a person scores very low this may signal psychopathy in that they show total indifference to the well-being of other people.
This gets us a start on understanding why our personalities are so diverse, but many factors also come into play to influence these basic traits and these factors we will begin to consider in Part 2 of this musing.
