What Makes You What You Are

spirit What makes you the way you be? information News The Independent At somewhat point in your breeding, youve probably modify in a character questionnaire (Do you bet yourself as.? ), and wondered as you ticked the boxes if at that place corporation authentically be some(prenominal) validity to truly much(prenominal) a simplistic way of assessing tidy sum. Surely the scores tho reflect your mood on the day, or what you want the investigator to think. Surely everyvirtuoso gives the analogous answer, which is it depends.Or sluice if the scores measure something, sure as shooting it is how the soulfulness sees themselves, kind of than how they actually argon. In a new-fashioned book, I hit the books what the extent of the science downheartedlying spirit psychology really is. The answer is much than you would think. While it has unceasingly been popular in business and pop psychology, and within schoolman psychology, spirit research has been a woeful relation to the parts of the discipline with experiments and challenging object measures. However, this is changing fast.The field of temper is under leaving a conversion. The reasons for the renaissance argon several. Academics flat suck in some really juicy-priced semipermanent studies of the equal individuals, and it turns forth that those brief, simplistic, pencil-and-paper questionnaires affirm surprisingly useful properties. They produce a wide range of selfdescriptions. The solutions be fairly repeatable over intervals of umteen years. They too correlated quite well with ratings of the person given by their spouse, friends or colleagues.Much to a greater extent counterbalancetfully, though, the responses turn issue to predict objective events. For example, in a famous cohort of gifted Californian children recruited in the 1920s, and who be elderly or deceased right away, constitution scores numerical representations of answers to questions atomic number 18 basaling(a) predictors of smell channelancy. In an opposite large-term study, this judgment of conviction of American married couples, the flavour and duration of the marriage is predicted by the spirit scores of both parties prior to marriage. in that location be many separate examples, with personality scores predicting substance addiction, problem gambling, and the on garment of mental illnesses. Of course the prediction is a statistical one you can assign odds, non make oracular pronouncements solely this is how it forever is in psychology. Humans ar such(prenominal) complex systems that you are happy to formulate a portion of the sport in startcomes, and never expect to explain it all. In re cent years at that place has been regenerate inte equipoise in personality assessment. This has been greatly aided by the fact that in that location is now a consensus on what the keystone variables are.Its archaean development, the field was greatly hamper ed by every investigator having his or her throw scales, often using diametrical label and measures for what turned out to be the same thing, or indeed the same label for what turned out to be contrastive things. simply over the last 20 years, many studies in several polar cultures dupe shown that much of the systematic transformation in personality can be reduced to scores along cinque proportions (the striking pentad) extroversion, neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness. Its important to accent mark that these are all free burning dimensions.That is, there are no distinct important to stress that these are all continuous dimensions. That is, there are no discrete fibers of person. Personality dimensions are equivalent crown or weight, which vary continuously, non like being a left- or a right-hand writer. Your score on one dimension is independent of your scores on all the others, so there is an closely infinite diversity of contrastive boilersuit composes possible. If developments within psychology dumb open up facilitated the renaissance of personality studies, it is at the interface with biological science where the exciting developments are beginning to come.Neuroscientists have shown, mainly using the increasingly ripe brain imaging techniques that are now available, that those frank pencil-and-paper personality scores correlate significantly with the size or neurophysiological reactivity of specific regions of the brain. Moreover, these turn out to be the very regions that other types of exhibit (evidence from brain damage, for example) would lead us to expect would be involved in that ill-tempered area of psychological function. Geneticists, too, are getting involved in personality research.It has lately become apparent that more(prenominal) of the benignante genome differs from individual to individual, even within our rather patrimonialally homogenous species, than was previously thought. We screw this inter alia from the complete eon of Dr Craig Venters genome, which was produce earlier this month. About 0. 5 per cent of the genetic information in his maternallyinherited genome is different from his paternally-inherited one. Variant places affect nearly one-half his genes, and it is likely that in many cases those variants leave behind have some functional incumbrance on body, brain or behaviour.In a few cases, we even know which genetic variants have effectuate on personality. There is a gene that encodes a sense organ molecule for the neurotransmitter dopamine, and which contains a repeating sequence whose length varies from person to person. A calculate of studies have found that the length of this sequence correlates with self-reported extraversion and reward-seeking behaviour. In a nonher gene, the serotonin transporter, individuals with one variant are more likely to develop depressive symptoms in response to stressful life events than bearers of the other version.In a few years, we may be in the position of actually understanding the molecular bases of the differences in nature that we observe amongst healthy humans. (But none that genetic effects will not turn out to be the unanimous story single around half of the division in personality looks like being heritable, with the rest probably shaped by early environmental exposures and other developmental processes. ) The other group of researchers getting interested in personality is evolutionists. Personalitylike variation has been found in organisms as diverse as fish, mammals and birds.Indeed, Darwins whole theory of evolution rests on the placard that individuals vary from one another. Without such variation there can be no natural selection and no evolutionary form. The question for evolutionists is why you would find variation persisting in populations, when selection always reduces diversity in favour of the optimal type. In fact, it turns out that there are often mult iple optima, even within a single habitat, with individuals of one type doing well under certain(p) conditions, man farthesting less well than their competitors under others. Thus, nder certain conditions, while faring less well than their competitors under others. Thus, selection rarely narrows the population to harmony because individuals with different qualities flourish in different contexts. I rather like this as a guiding framework for sentiment close to personality in in advance(p) humans. Rather than imagining that there is some personality profile that is uniformly good to have, lets grab that all have their strengths and all have their pitfalls. Indeed, the failure of any one profile to dominate the human population attests to their approximately equal fitness in the long run.So, whatever your score on the Big Five, the point is not to try to mixture it, or fight it. The point is to assemble which niche within the complex ecology that is modern society will be a good one for you to pull in to the woods your trade in, and which of the diverse dangers ( kindly isolation, addiction, depression ) that mess about in our both beneficent and violent habitat are the ones against which you should be approximately vigilant. This is where self- experience comes in, and taking the personality test overleaf can be part of that. tally your personality wont tell you anything you dont know.Its based on how you see yourself, so logi discovery it couldnt. But it can reveal to you how you compare to other nation, and can also tap you into a wealth of accumulated psychological knowledge about the strengths and liabilities that other large number uniform to you have experienced. This is what the questionnaire and the interpretation overleaf are designed to do. Daniel Nettle is the author of Personality What Makes You the Way You Are (? 12. 99), published by Oxford University Press. To order a copy for the supererogatory price of ? 11. 69 (with free P) call Independent Books Direct on 0870 079 8897, or visit www. ndependentbooksdirect. co. uk What kind of personality are you? Take this test to discover the trueness Introducing the big five Once you have completed the questionnaire and added up your scores, you should have an recital of whether you score small, medium-low, medium- full(prenominal), or high on each of the Big Five dimensions of human personality. But what do these scores mean? Here, I explore the Big Five to examine their effects on our harps. Extraversion This is a familiar concept. High- scorers are fun-seeking and cheerful, simply they are not necessarily warm hedonists they are often ambitious and hard-working.They are also sexually adventurous and chicane to be the centre of attention. Low-scorers are not necessarily shy so much as aloof they can take or leave success, praise and pleasure. The take up way to think about this dimension is in terms of response to reward. troupe offers certain incentive s money, power, fame, attention, sex, thrills, and so on, and some tribe certain incentives money, power, fame, attention, sex, thrills, and so on, and some people pursue them full-out, while others have a more muted response and olibanum wont work so hard to enthral them.The strengths of high-scorers energy, charisma, drive, the ability to make things happen. The weaknesses a angle of dip to get bored, restlessness, infidelity, risky decisions. Strengths of lowscorers detachment, pursuit of natural goals, prudence, fidelity. The weaknesses not thrusting themselves forward, not having fun, a flat emotional tone. There is no value-judgement about which of these is better from the point of mentation of a potential employer or spouse, and is certainly worth being cognisant of the likely pitfalls and most suitable habitats for your occurrence aim of Extraversion.Conscientiousness Conscientiousness measures how good people are at setting themselves goals and produceing to the m. High-scorers are disciplined, efficient and systematic. They can compel temptation and stick to priorities they have set themselves. In most modern occupations, and oddly those where you have to manage your own time and priorities, fairly high Conscientiousness is advantageous. Low-scorers are more likely to get confuse from tasks, renege on plans, and succumb to weaknesses of the will. Indeed, low Conscientiousness is a risk factor for developing addictions of all kinds.Being high in Conscientiousness is not always an unalloyed benefit, though. Some times it is indeed important to stick to plans. But at other times it is important to be able to assortment them on a sixpence. Very high scorers are perceived as grim, pedantic, un self-produced, even miserly. There is even a call up for excessive Conscientiousness obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and this is a very socially disabling condition. There are many human activities, including, crucially, social relations hips, where it is essential to be able to do in the here and now to your environment as it changes.Highly conscientious people are rigid, often sticking to tasks and plans even when the point of them has been overtaken by events, or when the necessarily of others around them require spontaneous reorganising of priorities. Thus, if you are very low in Conscientiousness, for the interestingness of your misgivinger, your health, and your wellbeing, you may bespeak to work effortfully at seeing your plans through, and being selfdisciplined. If you are a very high scorer, you may need to learn to be more spontaneous and intuitive, again for the benefits that this will bring in terms of flexibility and improved social relationships.Neuroticism I would like to dispel the depression that Neuroticism is always a enceinte thing, a kind of pathology, and that the best level of Neuroticism to have is a very low one. The evidence for the prosecution yes, high-scorers live their lives und er the Damoclean swords of depression, anxiety, stress, and disappointment. Whatever the world says about them, they are often uncomfortable in their inner lives, and go through life either with bouts of difficult times, or with a constant vague feeling that something is not quite right.However, if we think logically, negative emotions, such as worry, are always going to be there for a reason. iodin would not want to be solely without worry. It would be as damaging to life decisions as the inability to feel physiologic pain is to peripheral physiology. High Neuroticism scorers can bring to bear howling(a) powers of deep thought, detailed analysis, novel insight. They care about the dilate that others cant be bothered to follow up. Under some stack they do well academically. If you are a high-scorer, you may well be a member of a thinking duty such as an academic or a writer.High Neuroticism scorers, then, have confidential advantages. The challenge for them is to find ways to plenitude with the negative sequels of their personality. Some people respond well to cognitivebehavioural therapy, some to meditation, many to exercise. Low-scorers, too, have disadvantages. You probably dont suffer much in life, which is good, notwithstanding maybe you are not thoughtful enough. Maybe you let details go, and dont think deeply enough about future drawbacks or problems. Maybe you are too carefree or rose-spectacled to see every potentiality. Agreeableness Agreeableness is a dimension of empathy towards others.High-scorers are often found in caring professions such as nursing and counselling.. They have larger-than-average social networks, and their relationships with others are harmonious. They dont get into fights and are generally deadening to anger. By contrast, the very lowest-scorers are sociopaths they unfeelingly use others for their own ends. So far so good. It is better to be well-liked than to be a sociopath. However, in many fields, high Agreeablen ess reduces occupational attainment. Nice guys really do finish last, and moreover, plenty of our leading have something of the sociopath about them.Successful artists and executives, though, ply to be rather low in Agreeableness. This means that the high Agreeableness scorer may not be active to be hard-headed. You may stay in relationships that do you no good out of empathy for the others involved. Agreeableness is the most sexually-patterned of the Big Five, with no prizes for guessing women scoring more highly on average than men. This adds an interesting new perspective on the paucity of women in positions of power. Many of them find it difficult to be callous enough.Should we be encouraging them to be more callous, or trying to change what we reward? Openness Openness is a dimension of imagination. High-scorers make mental associations that go beyond what is given to the senses, or what is logically deducible. They are keen on rhyme and the arts, and often have metaphysi cal or esoteric ideas. Nobody wants to be called unimaginative, but when you stop and think about it, it is not evident Nobody wants to be called unimaginative, but when you stop and think about it, it is not evident that being imaginative in this sense is necessarily useful in life.Low-scorers can be very wakeless and capable, though they will be orientated towards the practical and the soluble. High-scorers will be more able and willing to venture into the domains of the aesthetic. However, they can also develop eccentric, paranormal or even delusional beliefs, and fail to exonerate simply resolvable practical problems. neither a high nor a low score is inherently desirable it is simple a matter of harnessing the strengths that you have. www. independent. co. uk ht/w. needn. ou/essinepro tp/wwidpnetc. knw/cec/es nlt-htmksyutewyyuae426. tl aiywa-ae-o-h-a-o-r-069hm ht/o. lfg tp/gog/fS