{"id":32498,"date":"2023-04-21T08:53:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=32498"},"modified":"2023-04-21T08:53:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-21T15:53:56","slug":"demystifying-personaltiy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/demystifying-personaltiy\/","title":{"rendered":"Demystifying Personality"},"content":{"rendered":"

For as long as humans have existed, personality has been studied. And yet a comprehensive understanding of what makes humans so different from each other has largely remained a mystery, especially when it comes to proving<\/em> personality science. Daniel Nettle set out to solve this mystery in his 2007 book titled, Personality: What makes you the way you are? <\/em>In this work, Nettle offers a quantitative, scientific approach to personality theory using psychology and factor analysis to distill human personality characteristics to what the field of psychology calls The Big Five: Extraversion, Neuroticism, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Openness.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

I have read numerous books on personality over the years and am an avid user of Gallup\u2019s Strengthsfinder,[2]<\/a> as well as a certified Enneagram coach. However, until I read Daniel Nettle\u2019s book, I had not observed the intersection of neuroscience and personality theory. Being able to describe how people are different is interesting and useful, but being able to observe those personality trats in the brain and even begin to map genetic variants to personality takes the implications to another level.<\/p>\n

Nature vs. Nurture<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Behavior geneticists estimate that our personality is based 50% on genetics and 50% on life experience and environmental factors. Curiously, research shows that \u201csimple notions about the influences of family environment on personality must be discarded,\u201d contrary to popular belief.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 In fact, there is a great deal we do not know about how the non-genetic components of personality are formed, which is indirectly related to my research on how to equip early adolescent girls with protective factors that increase resilience to daily stress. The 50% estimate of genetic-based personality makes me wonder if there is a similar percentage of stress resilience that is based on genetics, leaving up to 50% able to be impacted in a positive or negative way. If so, being able to enhance resilience by up to 50% offers remarkable potential. I have added that dynamic to my research list to investigate.<\/p>\n

Overlaying The Big Five with the Enneagram<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In addition to relating personality theory with my research topic, I am also curious how The Big Five correlate with the Enneagram (my personal area of expertise). After a cursory review of related literature, I found a research study that explores that very thing. The OPQ32, a widely used measurement tool for personality, was given to 241 voluntary participants from various countries and their Big Five traits were compared to their Enneagram profiles.[4]<\/a> \u00a0The study found a strong association between Enneagram personality type and OPQ32 and found that \u201cit is possible to correctly classify the personality of around 70-75% of people in terms of their independently identified type.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

The following diagram from the study shows how the 9 Enneagram types correspond to The Big Five.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Per the diagram, as an Enneagram 7, I would likely be high in extraversion, low in neuroticism, high in openness, lower in agreeableness and lowest in conscientiousness.\u00a0 In actuality, my scores on the Big Five were med-high extraversion, med-low neuroticism, high openness, high agreeableness, and med-low conscientiousness. It was fairly close!<\/p>\n

Leadership Guidelines for Personality Theory<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As demonstrated by my personal results above, while every individual is unique, it\u2019s the aggregate data that allows us to see trends and make predictions. There are positives and negatives to this approach that are important for a leader to understand. Understanding your team members\u2019 personality goes a long way in knowing how to uniquely motivate them, provide support and constructive feedback, however a leader must be careful not to make assumptions or predict future performance based on personality. In my coaching sessions, I advise people to consider the following guidelines when it comes to personality: 1) personality types should never be used a weapon 2) personality types should never be used as an excuse 3) all personality types are valuable.\u00a0 With these guidelines in mind, a leader can use personality theory to bring out the best in the people they lead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Nettle, Daniel. Personality What Makes You the Way You Are<\/i>. Oxford\u202f; Oxford University Press, 2007.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> https:\/\/store.gallup.com\/c\/en-us\/5\/books<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Nettle,\u00a0217.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Brown, Anna, and Dave Bartram. \u201c(PDF) Relationships between OPQ and Enneagram Types.\u201d Research Report. Surrey: SHL Group plc, January 1, 2005. https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/253435630_Relationships_between_OPQ_and_Enneagram_Types<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Brown, Anna and Bartram.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Brown, Anna and Bartram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For as long as humans have existed, personality has been studied. And yet a comprehensive understanding of what makes humans so different from each other has largely remained a mystery, especially when it comes to proving personality science. Daniel Nettle set out to solve this mystery in his 2007 book titled, Personality: What makes you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2723],"class_list":["post-32498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-nettle-dlgp01","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32498"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32502,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32498\/revisions\/32502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}