Are We All Different?

We have all been tempted to complete any one of many personality tests that can be found in papers or online. Some tests like the Myers-Briggs have acquired notoriety in that they are quite popular in employment circles but have been discounted by psychologists as having no predictive value. In fact, many psychologists claim that no good evidence at all exists to support the idea that there are personality types that can be defined. 

Psychologists are much more likely to talk about individual traits on which people differ. One such trait is how outgoing one is, the familiar spectrum of introversion–extraversion. Psychologists have found good evidence for four other traits, which are often grouped together as the big five and represented by the acronym OCEAN. Each trait or factor represents a dimension: Openness to experience – curious vs cautious; Conscientiousness – organized vs easy-going; Extraversion – outgoing vs solitary; Agreeableness – friendly vs detached; and Neuroticism – nervous vs confident. The definitions are obviously much more detailed and precise. Why these traits in particular are important to psychologists is that they explain individual differences in people all around the world in many different cultures. 

UNDERLYING TRAITS

While the traits are well characterised, all attempts to combine these dimensions into personality types have failed. Now, in a big data study using information from four groups of 150,000 to over 550,000 people, Gerlach and associates at Northwestern University have explored if there are underlying personality types that can be found using the big five traits as starting points. They started with the most detailed data set and, using some innovative modeling techniques, looked for clusters of similar individuals in the five-dimensional space of the traits. Four clusters were found that defined personality types. The authors then looked in the other three (less detailed but larger) data sets and found that the same defined clusters could be found. The size of the data sets is what made these clusters stand out; earlier work had used data sets of only 1,000 to 15,000 people. Larger data sets have become possible because researchers can now easily collect data online (e.g., web-based surveys).

What the researchers found is that many people could be described in terms of four personality types that they labeled “Average,” “Self-Centered,” “Reserved,” and “Role Model.” The Average cluster is the least defined of the four and is characterised by average scores on the big five factors. The Role Model cluster is denoted by very low scores on neuroticism and high scores on the other traits. It is also a personality type that is more evident in older individuals. The Self-Centered cluster (found more frequently in younger males) has high extraversion but is low on openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. The Reserved cluster is characterised by low scores on neuroticism and openness. The Reserved type seems to reflect the stubborn, confident individual who is unwilling to accept alternate points of view; it is also more evident among the oldest survey respondents. Females are less likely to be Self-Centred and are likely, especially at older ages, to have a Role Model personality.

While the biblical terms of the wise and the foolish are not part of these personality descriptions, it should be evident that what the researchers called the Role Model reflects characteristics that we would describe as part of wisdom, and the Self-Centered individual sounds a lot like the fool as described in Scripture. What is reassuring about the data is that with age, it appears that more people achieve wisdom, something we can all pray for.