Personality and Traits: The good, the bad, the ugly (2023)

We would all benefit from being more aware of our personality traits and characteristics. This is because they are important predictors of our behavior and attitudes.

The world we live in is different than it was 10, 5 or even a year ago. Thanks to social media, easy-to-use communication tools and globalization, the range of options and information is constantly expanding.

Without a clear idea of ​​your preferences, making the right choice can be extremely difficult and confusing. Every personality is unique, and knowing what makes us who we are can lead to greater life satisfaction, better life choices, and overall success in both personal and professional life.

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Defined character and personality traits

While both character and personality are used to describe a person's behavior, the two look at different aspects of that person. A person's personality is more visible while theCharacterreveals itself over time through different situations.

More specifically:

“Personality is easy to read and we are all experts at it. We judge people [as] fun, outgoing, energetic,optimistic, confident - as well as overly serious, lazy, negative and shy - if not on the first date then soon after. And while it may take more than one iteration to confirm the presence of these types of features, by the time we've decided they're actually there, we've usually collected enough data to justify our conclusions.

“The character, on the other hand, takes a lot longer to decipher. It includes qualities that only show themselves in certain - and often unusual - circumstances, such as honesty, virtue, and the likefriendliness.“

Lickermann, 2011

While personality is easier to spot, it is largely static and slow to develop. The character, on the other hand, takes longer to be recognized but is easier to change. This is because character is shaped by beliefs, and with enough effort and motivation, a change in perspective and worldview can result in a change in character.

Character malleability makes sense when you look at human evolution. In order for our ancestors to survive, they had to adapt to new environments and change over time—and the same is true in modern times.

When a person considers a significant change in their environment, their beliefs will change to accommodate the change.

For example, a shy person can learn to change their attitude towards public speaking by taking on the role of a teacher. The new social and external demands lead to an internal change that changes their behavior.

Thus, even if an individual's innate preference is to stand before the public, beliefs andValuesthat shape their behavior can evolve to reflect the values ​​of their immediate groups and communities. This awareness and adaptability helps with survival (Kurtus, 2011).

The bottom line is that while our innate personality traits are important, we can transcend them when personal or cultural demands demand it.

Palestra TED:Who are you really? The mystery of personalityvon Brian Little

In this talk, personality expert Brian Little explains the phenomenon of overcoming a person's innate traits and examines how our character is transformed by the big projects we work on.

trait theories

Tools for identifying personality traits have never been so numerous. "There are around 2,500 personality tests in the US alone' (Ash, 2012). However, quantity does not mean quality.

Because of the immense personality variations, it is difficult to place people into different classifications. Instead, rating people according to the most common personality traits can allow us to infer a person's behavior by looking at the average of their decisions (Pappas, 2017).

Below are two of the most commonly used personality tools to help you identify your personality traits. Some pros and cons of each are also highlighted.

A quick note is that we only review scale-based personality assessments and not profile-based assessments. The difference is that scale-based assessments treat personality traits as existing on a continuum, while profile-based assessments classify people according to binary categories (e.g., introvert vs. extrovert).

Common profile-based assessments that you may be familiar with are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Enneagram. Although these tools can be a fun way to gain self-awareness, they are often criticized by scholars (Grant, 2013).

A major criticism is that the results of profile-based assessments place people in specific categories (e.g. labeling someone as an extrovert or introvert, a thinker or a feeler), but few things in life are so black and white. In reality, our personality traits are thought to exist on scales with opposite poles, and we all fall somewhere between the extremes of this continuum (egIntroversion-ExtroversionScale).

Expressed differently, "If the MBTI measured height, you would be classified as tall or short, although most people fall within an average height range“ (Krznaric, 2013). Therefore, we limit this review to scale-based assessments, which are better scientifically supported.

The Big Five or OCEAN model

Perhaps the most comprehensive and scientifically based personality test available isthe big five.

Unlike the popular (but controversial) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), this assessment does not categorize people into personality profiles, but rather analyzes an individual based on the most common traits found in the global community. Features are easy to remember as they form the acronym OCEAN.

OCEAN Meaning:

1. opening:
   This describes an individual's love for innovative experiences. Those with high scores are usually morecreative. Individuals with lower scores tend to be more conservative and prefer routine.
2. conscientiousness:
   This shows that someone is turning to the organization. Individuals with high scores are considered motivated, disciplined, and reliable. Lower scores indicate someone who is less responsible and more likely to get distracted.
3. extroversion:
   This factor indicates how cheerful and communicative a person can be. When someone scores high on extroversion, they tend to be gregarious and vulnerableachieve your goals. Low scores indicate someone who is introverted and more subservient to authority.
4. friendliness:
   This trait describes how someone interacts with the people around them. High scores indicate someone is warm and friendly. Those who tend to be more self-centered and distrustful (or even shy) tend to fare worse.
5. neuroticism:
   Emotional stability can say a lot about how likely someone is to develop bad moods and anxiety. High neuroticism scores indicate someone less secure, and low scores describe a calm and confident person (Westerhoff, 2008).

These categories serve as an umbrella that influences other areas of personality, such as:

• Openness: imagination, feelings, actions, ideas, values, adventures, artistic interests, etc.
• Conscientiousness: order, self-discipline, competence, striving for achievement, etc.
• Extraversion: warmth, friendliness, assertiveness, activity level, positive emotions, etc.
• Kindness: trust, compliance, humility, altruism, kindness, cooperation, etc.
• neuroticism:hostility, depression, impulsivity, anger, vulnerability, self-awareness, etc. (ETS, 2012)

Take the test

Those interested in knowing their OCEAN scores can take one of the following quizzes:

1. The Great Five personality test
2. (Others)Big Five Personality Test
3. Personality test at 123test.com
4. Ten Point Personality Measure(available in several languages)

We will once again examine the pros and cons of the OCEAN model.

Advantages:

Unlike the MBTI, which attempts to match people to one of 16 personality profiles, the Big Five understand that individuals have certain traits that must be measured on a continuum. It's rare to be on just one side of the spectrum or the other.

For example, to say that extroverts absorb energy when interacting with others and that introverts expend energy when interacting with the outside world is incorrect since both derive energy from their interpersonal relationships (Grant, 2015).

"The Big Five framework captures, at a broad level of abstraction, the similarities between most existing personality descriptive systems and provides an integrative descriptive model for personality research" (John & Srivastava, 1999).

Thanks to its results, which provide scales of various traits rather than profiling the individual, this personality assessment tool can offer a degree of flexibility and versatility, which has allowed researchers to use the assessment to study the impact of these traits on different areas of life, such asMental health, Finance and Relationships.

And for the most part, these properties have proven to be relatively stable. Specifically, in a nine-year study, there was “moderate to high [stability] ranging from 0.73 to 0.97 in males and 0.65 to 0.95 in females. The greatest stability of gender equality was found foropenness to experiencee o mais Baixo para conscienciosidade“ (Rantanen, Metsäpelto, Feldt, Pulkkinen & Kokko, 2007).

More specifically, men showed more stability on traits like neuroticism and extraversion, while women showed more stability on traits like openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.

Opposites:

Despite its stability and usefulness, the tool has its weaknesses.

Here are some:

1. Too big to fail

As mentioned, the beauty of this tool is its overview of personality traits, but it's also a limitation. A good analogy to explain this is the categorization of living organisms into plants or animals. While useful for making certain distinctions, it is not useful for "predicting the value of certain behaviors by a particular person" (John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008).

2. Not so universal

Although there is evidence-based research to support the tool's validity in over 50 countries, shortcomings in translation and applicability to non-English speaking cultures can be found. This leads to skewed results, as a study with a small South American tribe has shown (Dingfelder, 2013).

the pen model

Developed by Hans and Sybil Eysenck in 1975, this model analyzes the biological factors that trigger or influence personality. The three central traits explored by this model are psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism (Waude, 2017).

The origins of this model date back to the 1960s, but originally it did not measure psychoticism (which relies on measurements ofcompassion, morality and creativity). The older model used the Eysenck Personality Inventory to collect and analyze the results.

With the addition of psychoticism, the questions were updated and the instrument used to collect these results was renamed the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.

Each of the trait categories examines the following human behaviors:

1. psychoticism:
   People who do well on this measure often exhibit hostile, inconsiderate, reckless, nonconforming, willful, and impulsive behaviors. Higher testosterone levels are associated with higher levels in this range.
2. extroversion:
   Individuals with high levels of extroversion are more extroverted and talkative, and crave external stimuli. Higher arousal usually occurs as a result of increased cortical arousal and can be measured by skin conductance, brain waves, or sweating.
3. neuroticism:
   People with high levels of neuroticism are more prone to depression and anxiety. The trait is activated by the sympathetic nervous system, which is also responsible for the fight-or-flight response. This can be measured by heart rate, blood pressure, cold hands, sweat and muscle tension.

Based on these measures, there are four possible quadrants that individuals may fall into:

1. Stable Extroverts: Recognized for being talkative, easy-going, lively, and carefree and for theirguidequalities
2. Unstable extroverts: seen as touchy, restless, impulsive, and irresponsible
3. Stable Introverts: Recognized for their calm, reliable, peaceful, caring, and passive qualities
4. Unstable Introverts: Regarded as reserved, pessimistic, rigid, anxious, and moody

Interested parties can fill out the Eysenck personality questionnaireHere.

Once again, we will examine the pros and cons of this personality model.

Advantages:

The model analyzes descriptive and causal effects. It examines three specific dimensions, making it easy to understand. And it showed test-retest reliability.

In fact, this assessment can predict certain outcomes by specifically looking at the mood pattern. For example, according to a 2012 study, the questionnaire can predict significant associations with anxiety.

"Focusing on the item 'Does your mood often go up and down?' showed a statistically significant association with melancholy and anxiety in patients with positive scores on this item.”

Bech, Lunde and Moeller, 2012

Through studies of twins, the researchers also found that some of the personality traits measured by the PEN model "exhibit significant genetic variation" (Heath, Jardine, Eaves, & Martin, 1988). For extraversion-related traits, the researchers found "both additive gene action and dominance," while "neuroticism elements appeared to show purely additive genetic inheritance" (Heath, Jardine, Eaves, & Martin, 1988).

However, some factors were found to be influenced by subjects' environment, including the psychoticism scale, although "environmental effects for psychoticism appeared to be largely confined to males" (Heath, Jardine, Eaves, & Martin, 1988).

Opposites:

Like most personality assessments, the PEN model is unable to predict people's future behavior, even using the model allows for a better understanding of people's personalities.

And the model has certain limitations. In a study of both incarcerated and non-incarcerated individuals, researchers found that the samples commonly used in surveys using the PEN model can lead to misleading results.

While previous studies have shown high rates of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism in criminals, researchers Rebolla, Herrera, and Collom found that this correlation may be related to both a person's environment and inherited traits. They argue that extroverts are “less prone to conditioning. And this tendency increases with high [neuroticism] scores” (Rebollo, Herrera & Colom, 2002).

The researchers argue that building a conscience requires conditioning (something neurotic and extraverted people resist), which can lead to higher levels of antisocial personalities in people who are highly extroverted and neurotic but lack social support during of growth is lacking. (Rebollo, Herrera & Colom, 2002).

The results show that since personality traits are influenced by heredity, it is primarily through character and conditioning that a change can be developed in an individual. For example, those who are more prone to anxiety and shyness can be taughtcoping techniquesthat are more in line with social norms and enable better communication and integration into society.

Examples of positive and negative qualities

Now that we've explored the differences between personality and character, we can delve deeper and examine the broader traits associated with both positive and negative traits.

Collective personality research has helped clarify the behaviors that are most nurturingwellbeing, with most of these behaviors helping to cultivate resilience to external stimuli.

Another way to interpret this is the concept of mental toughness. This ability is acquired by focusing on things under personal control, which reinforces the internal locus of control.

The behaviors that lead to mental toughness are listed below (Morin, 2013):

• Mentally strong people don't feel sorry for themselves; Instead, they take responsibility for their own lives.
• They don't give their power away to others, so they remain in control of their emotions.
• Mentally tough people accept change and are open to flexibility.
• Control is placed on things that are under the person's control, such as their attitude.
• Satisfying everyone is not the priority. While it's important to be kind and fair, it's not important to make everyone happy.
• There is a motivation to take calculated risks.
• Mentally strong people focus on the present and plan for the future.
• Mentally strong people try to make better decisions in the future and not repeat past mistakes.
• You demonstrate an ability to appreciate and celebrate other people's achievements.
• You don't give up after failure; Instead, they keep trying until they get it right.
• Mentally strong people tolerate solitude and silence.
• They don't feel the world owes them anything; Instead, they create opportunities by using their own talents and merits.
• Real change takes time and mentally strong people understand that, so they are patient.

These behaviors are positively supported by characteristics such as:

• Tenacity: not giving up when push comes to shove or problems arise
• Trust: Belief in personal ability to find solutions to challenges
• Optimism: the perception that the odds are in your favor
• Adaptability: Openness to new inputs and ideas
• self-consciousness: the ability to change perspective
• Reliability: Delivering on promises and goals
• Responsibility: Taking mistakes and personal mistakes
• Wellness: prioritizing personal mental and physical health

These and other traits contribute to strong mental health (Half, 2016).

This supports the idea that openness, friendliness and awareness are the foundation upon which change and challenges are welcomed, not shunned. This, in turn, helps open doors to new possibilities and opportunities.

Special,

“People whose personalities tend toward empathy, cooperation, confidence, and humility (Costa & Widiger, 2002) are more intrinsically motivated and find pleasure in the effort they expend to complete tasks or solve problems. These individuals, who have a dominance orientation preference, do not shy away from challenging situations, and their desire to face challenges outweighs their fear of appearing unknown to others. That is, they approach challenges with the intention of overcoming them.”

Watson, 2012

The opposite of outgoing, calm, conscientious, and pleasant traits are those defined by judgement, neuroticism, and an external locus of control. Some behaviors that fall into this category are:

1. Inability to accept setbacks
2. Lack of clarity and decision making
3. Low critical thinking ability
4. Do not build strong interpersonal relationships
5. Always stay in the comfort zone
6. helplessness and lack of endurance
7. tendency to pessimism
8. Low imagination and inability to visualize desired outcomes (Cardone, 2011)

Individuals high in Neuroticism often exhibit narcissism, have inflated egos, and are emotionally distant, angry, hostile, and inflexible. These people tend to exhibit the above behaviors.

However, according to some studies, one of the most important preventatives against such negative traits is self-control. “The more conscientious or level-headed people are, regardless of their other characteristics, the less likely they are to be attracted to harmful or illegal activities” (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2016).

Therefore, by increasing self-awareness, individuals can recognize their shortcomings and adopt habits that help balance their personality traits. This in turn helps them to thrive.

Character Traits Worksheets for Kids and Adults (PDFs)

Unlike traits, a trait describes a person's beliefs and attitudes about life, family, work, and life.community.

Cultivating positive character traits can lead to greater success.

This is well explained by this excerpt from an article distinguishing between character and personality:

“There is a direct correlation between positive character traits and a happy and successful life. Negative character traits rooted in “strong and long” usually lead to conflict at some point. But a focus on positive change can and does work.”

China, 2010

Understanding one's character traits and developing a strong desire and motivation for change can lead to better outcomes.

Here are some worksheets that can help you and the people in your life to start this process.

For children:

There are many tools to help explain character traits to children. Here are some options for students in grades one through eight.

Fill in the blank worksheet

Perfect for second through fifth graders,this worksheetcan be used in English, vocabulary and writing lessons.

Analysis and development of character traits

HereThere are 12 different worksheets for students in grades one through eight. Worksheets introduce the idea of ​​character traits and help students analyze and develop their character traits.

Character Traits Lesson Plan

Those who teach third grade can usebeentire lesson plan (including worksheets) to introduce character traits to young students.

For adults:

While learning about character traits is especially helpful at an early age, adults can benefit from becoming familiar with their positive and negative character traits.

Positive Traits Worksheet

Adults are sometimes unable to recognize good qualities in themselves, which can prevent them from developing self-compassion and self-esteem.this worksheetdescribes 58 positive qualities. You can identify the positive qualities that describe yourself that can increase your belief in yourself and lead to transformative conversations.

Visual of character traits

Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words. Clients who are unable to verbalize their feelings or thoughts can usethisuseful infographics showing the opposite pairs of different character traits.

Questionnaire on positive and negative characteristics

Taking a test can sometimes be very revealing. Anyone who would rather fill out a questionnaire than identify their own positive and negative character traits can respondthis25 questions and determine your individual characteristics.

The character trait anchor table and other graphical organizers

It can be difficult to introduce the character concept to a younger audience. But using an easy-to-understand vocabulary and an interactive, visual, and fun process can help get the message home.

Teachers interested in using the process in the classroom can use these freely available resources:

Anchor graphic for character traits

It can be difficult to explain to children the difference between inner and outer character traits. By using an 'external' and 'internal' chart, students can begin to categorize their physical and personal characteristics.this techniqueIt can also be used to identify the differences between emotions (how a character feels) and traits (describes personality).

character development in the classroom

A noisy classroom often leads to many impatient and distracted children. Additionally, students, especially those living in low-income areas, can carry a lot of emotional baggage, making it difficult to stay motivated and stay focused on the subject at hand. For such situationsbeis a great resource that suggests many ways to create a welcoming, educational classroom.

A message to take away

The research above suggests that while personality traits are often heritable and beyond our control, the things we value and believe in can transform our character.

Expanding your self-awareness is probably the first step to taking control of your life. No wonder, then, that “the most successful people are the most confident” (Rosenfeld, 2016).

Being aware of the personality of others can also be helpful, especially in situations like hiring someone into your company. And while there are many personality assessment tools to choose from, some are more consistent than others.

Cultivating an open, comfortable, and mindful environment, whether in the office or at home, can help create values ​​that nurture and nurture growth and success. Using visualization tools to inspire, motivate and spark interest in change is vital when it comes to aligning individuals and organizations towards a specific goal or mission.

Here's a great TED Talk by Dan Gilbert that summarizes that message:

As Gilbert points out in the video, it's true that our personality traits are hereditary, but we still have the power to change. Our beliefs and values ​​that influence character are not black and white - they adapt to our experiences and are heavily influenced by the different interactions and situations in which we are involved.

We are not static creatures and, like nature, are constantly changing. It's up to us to decide who we want to grow into. The best thing to do is to write down where we are at the moment and imagine where we want to go.

If change is the only constant, then the most successful people are those who are in control of their own change.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on personality and character. Have you ever done a personality analysis, and if so, how accurate do you think it was? Do you think people can change their character? Let us know in the comments section.

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