List of The Most Important Personality Characteristics
Some people argue there are only five personality types: introvert, extrovert, thinker, feeler and judger. These personality traits seem like a simple and natural way to classify someone's behavior. However, recent research has shown that's not the case. Using Duke University’s Personal Genomics lab as an example, Dr. Cadell Last, a Duke postdoctoral associate in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and expert on using genomics on complex traits and behaviors, explains in this video that the current thinking on personality is changing. He talks about how the research of Richard Depue and Michael Luciana at Cornell University suggests there are 16 or even more genetically based, independent personality factors. These traits include intellect/imagination, goal-directed persistence, sensitivity to punishment/reward and openness to experience. This is not your run-of-the-mill personality inventory that has been used for years by psychologists to help people improve their lives. It doesn’t ask for your astrological sign or favorite color. It’s based on the latest research.
Dr. Christopher Chabris of Union College in New York has also done his own research evaluating personality factors. He says, “The big five personality traits have some predictive power in a lot of areas. For instance, openness and conscientiousness are associated with success in school and work, agreeableness and emotional stability are positively correlated with marital success, and extraversion is positively correlated with physical health. Also, these traits are associated with general intelligence; people who get good grades are also more conscientious and agreeable than those who get poor grades. But these associations account for only about 25 percent of the difference between people on these traits. There are three to five other personality dimensions that we need to measure in order to predict future success and well-being, and these aren't captured at all by the big five.”
According to Affectiva, a Cambridge company, who created the "Emotion API", the "big 5" personality traits are not accurate or effective. They claim that by scientists studying facial expressions in a lab, they have shown that there is twice as much going on when an individual is experiencing emotions as when they are describing them. In fact, according to this research, some of the most common and prominent emotions that people describe express themselves quite differently than they do when they feel them.
People also have different ways of classifying themselves. You may not be as impulsive or hard-working as some say, but that does not mean you are lazy or unproductive. Each person has their own way for describing themselves and their experiences. For instance, if you've always been told that you were a "dreamer," a typical daydreamer, then it may be difficult to believe that there are people out there who prefer to call themselves an "action-oriented" dreamer instead. Also, the big five personality traits are even more subjective than popular culture might lead us to believe. Is it possible that there are many different types of personalities, or maybe just one that is expressed in different ways by others? This kind of thinking is new. However, it supports the idea that each person has their own way of looking at their lives and the way they influence others.
Actually, there are thousands of people who have tested themselves using questionnaires like Myers-Briggs. And there are vast differences between them. It's almost as if every participant was an individual personality type with over a hundred shades within it. So when we look at these 16 new personality traits, we must keep in mind that they are all dependent on how each person interprets and reacts to certain situations.
Dr. Cadell Last of Duke University points out that, "Prior to the research conducted at Cornell and Duke, it was generally assumed that all personality traits could be explained by a handful of underlying dimensions. The theory was that all of our personality traits were simply different manifestations of a general factor of personality and specific trait factors. ... Now we know this is not the case."
"The study revealed an almost infinite number of possible combinations between five main genetic factors, each with eight variants and each variant with five levels in males and females -- for a total of over 400,000 possible variations," says Dr. Cadell Last. The results show that there are at least 16 different major personality types. Sample questions for the personality inventory are available here and were taken from a similar test created by Dr. Christopher Chabris of Union College in New York, which is hosted on Facebook through the YourMorals website.
Affectiva created the "Emotion API" to allow developers to incorporate machine learning into their products and services to recognize human emotions and affective states in any media, including text transcripts, audio files, video footage, or images. The API uses cloud-based deep learning technology developed by Affectiva's research team as part of ongoing research into affective computing (the science of using computers to understand and respond empathically to human emotion). The company's patented computer vision and machine learning technologies allow developers to identify and label six basic emotions (happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness, anger) as well as five positive or negative affective states (joy/interest, calm/relaxed, boredom/tiredness, frustration/anger, confusion/uncertainty). Developers can also create their own labels.
The big five personality traits are the best predictor of performance in sport psychology. The reason is that these traits impact motivation and one's willingness to train hard. There are different approaches to sport psychology and many of them involve the use of the big five personality model. The following demonstrates how the big five personality traits affect sports performance.
Conscientiousness has been found to be correlated with self-reported and performance based measures of intelligence. That being said, conscientiousness also correlates with motivation to excel in sports and attention to detail, which are also important factors for success in sports psychology.
Openness is another important factor for success in sport psychology. This trait is linked to creativity, flexibility, curiosity and an ability to deal with novel situations. Openness involves future-oriented goal setting and planning as well as a preference for variety, diversity, novelty and stimulation; it relies on exploration rather than habituation. Openness is correlated with the variables of extraversion and neuroticism.
Extraversion has been linked to an array of positive performance outcomes in sport psychology. This trait encompasses sociability, assertiveness, excitement seeking and emotionality. Extraversion has two different dimensions; one called "surgency" and the other called "cheerfulness". High levels of extraversion are associated with positive affect such as happiness, and a positive outlook on life in general. When considering this trait within the context of sport psychology it becomes clear that individuals higher in extraversion will likely enjoy being part of a team environment, they will be more assertive when confronting challenges that arise either internally or externally (i.e.
Conclusion
The Big Five Personality Traits were originally believed to be the "universal" dimensions of personality, but recent research has concluded that these traits are limited in number and work best in predicting our behavior within certain social contexts. However, the new personality traits can still be useful as they are related to how an individual may impact others and their environment. In this regard, they can still provide a variety of valuable tools for understanding a person's ability to lead, motivate and influence others. As such, it is important for people to understand more about themselves as well as their relationships with other people.
Further information about aspects of personality including the big five personality traits: http://psychology.about.