I had
earlier written about Predicting
relationship success through the use of personality types. While I had
read about multiple models none of them seemed quite right.
In the
Myers Brigs (MB) model, three parameters Sensing, Thinking and Judging seemed
to overlap.
When I
discussed this with my friend Guruji, it struck us that both MB and Five Factor
Personality (FFP) models missed important factors like passion or
fairness. These two attributes are important parts of a person's personality.
Additionally
we had problems with the definitions of two of the attributes in the FFP:
Openness (O) and Neuroticism (N). We took the definitions of the 5 attributes
or factors from http://instantpersonalitytest.us/Personality-Ebook/Types.pdf. The five factors are
We will define the factors here so there is no ambiguity:
Conscientiousness (C) is the trait of being painstaking and careful. It includes such elements as self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, organization, deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting). Conscientious individuals are generally reliable. This definition was adapted from Wiki.
We will define the factors here so there is no ambiguity:
Conscientiousness (C) is the trait of being painstaking and careful. It includes such elements as self-discipline, carefulness, thoroughness, organization, deliberation (the tendency to think carefully before acting). Conscientious individuals are generally reliable. This definition was adapted from Wiki.
Neuroticism (N) talks
about control of mood and negative emotions. And whether people are calm
usually. Now how does one interpret this? Is a person who gets into conflicts
often with others often high on N? I thought not since this is already covered
under Agreeableness (A). So I would prefer to define N as the ability to remain
calm, unworried, controlled and not depressed when not interacting
with another individual, typically when the person is alone.
Other factors A, E, O will have the same meaning as in http://instantpersonalitytest.us/Personality-Ebook/Types.pdf.
Coming
to Openness, it is defined as how a person is open to new ideas, actions,
feelings and values. Here I sensed a problem. None of the attributes O, N,
A, Conscientiousness (C) and Extraversion (E) talked about passion,
intelligence and conviction to own thought or fairness.
We
hence have a problem here. We are missing an attribute which would include
passion, intelligence and conviction to own thought. A person with that attribute would explore more and more, he develop a better understanding, he would create. Other things do not matter. Lack of rewards does not matter. He would see rewards as being incidental. Let's call this Purpose
(P). Persons like
Hitler or Roark would have a very high P. King Harischandra would
have a high P, he would not compromise.
Initially I wondered whether O and P are inversely correlated and hence basically whether the two factors were at opposite ends of the same attribute. I thought people would either want to experience new things or create new things. But I realized this is not so. I have seen people who have high O and P as well as people with low O and P. O and P are hence independent factors.
Initially I wondered whether O and P are inversely correlated and hence basically whether the two factors were at opposite ends of the same attribute. I thought people would either want to experience new things or create new things. But I realized this is not so. I have seen people who have high O and P as well as people with low O and P. O and P are hence independent factors.
There
are people who consistently do a great job but take up nothing new nor explore
but do the same things exceptionally well. I would say these people are low to medium in
P and high in C. An example of such a character may be Eddie
Willers.
Again,
none of the five attributes deals with Fairness (F), knowing right from wrong, to
not ask for something that is unfair. Fairness has to do with purpose in life.
What is our aim or philosophy? What do we expect from others in order to
achieve this aim?
Do we want special consideration (Yes)? Do we like to operate in a "free market"? Do we deserve what we want (No)? Do we think our needs give us a right to certain things (Yes)? Do we like to follow the same rules we expect others to follow (No)? If the answers to the questions are as mentioned in the brackets then we are low in F. We included Fairness as a 6th attribute while also redefining O and N. With this we believe that we may have a comprehensive set of minimal factors that define a person's personality. Hitler, Ellsworth Toohey and Gail Wynand would both rate low in F.
Do we want special consideration (Yes)? Do we like to operate in a "free market"? Do we deserve what we want (No)? Do we think our needs give us a right to certain things (Yes)? Do we like to follow the same rules we expect others to follow (No)? If the answers to the questions are as mentioned in the brackets then we are low in F. We included Fairness as a 6th attribute while also redefining O and N. With this we believe that we may have a comprehensive set of minimal factors that define a person's personality. Hitler, Ellsworth Toohey and Gail Wynand would both rate low in F.
Thus we have the taken the basic FFP model and we have modified the definitions of C and N, we added two new factors P and F. We retained A, E and O as they were.
Henry Cameron in Fountainhead would have low O, A, E, N and high P, C, F initially. When his career was over he felt defeated, his P would have been low and N high. I believe P and N are negatively correlated.
We
propose to see whether we can use this Modified Factor Personality (MFP) to
define people well. And this means that two people who have the same scores in
all the factors (P O N A C E F) cannot be different in their personalities. I
would assume that these factors are independent of each other and having a high
value in any one factor does not mean that the person would hence have a
high/low value in another factor. To that extent N is a derived parameter. One wonders whether N should be retained or removed from the list of factors.
The
next step is to see which factors when mismatched between two people will cause
the maximum conflict between them.
Additional reading: http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2010/09/big-five-personality-test.html
Additional reading: http://vbala99.blogspot.in/2010/09/big-five-personality-test.html
