Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are

by Daniel Nettle

Book Overview

It is one of the great mysteries of human nature. Why are some people worriers, and others wanderers? Why are some people so easy-going and laid-back, while others are always looking for a fight?
Written by Daniel Nettle--author of the popular book Happiness--this brief volume takes the reader on an exhilarating tour of what modern science can tell us about human personality. Revealing that our personalities stem from our biological makeup, Nettle...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0199211434
• ISBN13: 9780199211432
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.54 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

The big 5 (or 3 or 18 others say) - psychobabble or science?

Scientists have considered psychology to be a very soft science at best and quackery or psychobabble at worst. But psychology is finally making scientific strides with the testable theories generated by evolutionary biology, brain imaging equipment, being able to measure genetic variation between people, and animal studies - critters also exhibit what in humans we call personality traits. Daniel Nettle has written a book for the public explaining the latest scientific research on personality. He explains how it's measured, what the measures mean or predict, and why we vary in personality traits. He defines personality as: * Consistent patterns in our lives across love, career, and friendships, often repeating the same sorts of triumphs or mistakes. * Even smaller, less significant patterns in everyday life tend to have patterns - how we dress, whether we talk to strangers, etc * Basically, everyone's nervous system is wired up differently. Nearly all psychologists agree on a Big Five model of personality dimensions, consolidating decades of research. Before this, different researchers used different varying traits. For example, 4 main types (thinking, feeling, sensing, or intuiting), or just reward vs harm avoidance. Each study had results that appeared to have no relationship to each other. The five factor model created order out of this mess, all previous studies can be fit into this framework because they either measured one of the big five or a sub-part of one of them, or perhaps a mix of several. Okay, it's not science entirely yet - to do that, this new approach needs to prove these traits are neurobiologically real, but this framework gives personality psychologists testable hypotheses. Until now, much of it sounded like psychobabble to me, and I do cringe at lumping people into categories. What makes the big 5 more plausible to me is that we all have all five traits to varying degrees, and we change over time depending on our genetics and our life experiences (which is why twins, even though totally the same genetically, can be quite different). Here's the list of the Big 5 (high scoring and low scoring descriptions): 1) Extraversion High: Outgoing, enthusiastic Low: Aloof, quiet 2) Neuroticism High: Prone to stress & worry Low: Emotionally stable 3) Conscientiousness High: Organized, self-directed Low: Spontaneous, careless 4) Agreeableness High: Trusting, empathetic Low: Uncooperative, hostile 5) Openness High: Creative, imaginative Low: Practical, conventional Eccentric About half of your score is out of your control - genetics is responsible. These traits have important consequences in life. High neuroticism in either partner is more likely to lead to divorce or an unhappy marriage. Divorce is also likely if the male is low in conscientiousness. Extraverts are the least likely to stay in an unhappy marriage. Other consequences, such as low agreeableness, have less dire consequences, but wil

Interesting

Gone are the old Meyer Briggs personality types. No longer are people thinking or feeling. Science has suggested five new personality types. These are: * Extraversion * Neuroticism * Agreeableness * Conscientiousness * Openness Even extraversion has a subtly different meaning from the old Meyer Brigg's scale. Rather than simply being socially self confident it means the attachment that a person has for new experiences, is social or adventurous. An examination of introversion suggests that rather than shyness being the driver introversion may simply be a lack of interest in new experiences or change. Extroverts will have life experiences which involve things like an interest in travel multiple relationships and a desire to do different things. Neuroticism is the most self evident of the definitions. It is the degree to which a person suffers from anxiety and negative emotions such as worry and resentment. Nettle makes the point that the various personality types are not only found in humans but also in other animals. He suggests that the personality types are useful in certain situations. Thus guppies will also have traits of extroversion and neuroticism. In some situations such as the lack of predators the odds are with the extrovert non neurotic guppies. They will seek out new feeding grounds and they will thrive. When predators are around extrovert non neurotic guppies become lunch and the introverts survive. Agreeableness is the extent to which a person is cooperative non-judgemental and good natured. The opposite is irritable abrasive and suspicious. The agreeable can do well in some situations but can be floored in competitive environments were they end up last. Conscientiousness is the degree of self discipline, preparation attention to detail. This may or may not be good. Conscientiousness can slow one down and lead to inaction. People with some intelligence can often get by with a low conscientiousness quotient. On the other hand you would want your accountant or treating doctor to have it in high amounts. Openness is the ability to accept or explore new ideas or concepts. The degree to which one is a conformist, imaginative or unimaginative. The problem with the Meyers Briggs table was that people produce different results over time on whether they fell within the categories. It wasn't scientifically consistent. It would seem that according to the proponents of these new personality types they are empirically verifiable and people have consistent results over time. In addition there is a consistent pattern across cultures. The book also has a slightly different spin on intelligence. It sees it is a sort of wiring issues. Thus people who are intelligent also tend to have better results in things such as memory and reflexes. The book has as an appendix a personality test so that you can see how you fit in with the new categories. Quick and easy to read a revelation.

Big Five

People have stable traits that allow us to predict their behavior over time. This much seems to be unchallengeable. We all have friends whose behavior we can predict much more accurately than they can their own. This leads to two obvious questions: 1) what underlies these life-history patterns we see? 2) why does natural selection preserve such variation when it should select the optimal personality profile and weed the rest out? Nettle answers both of these questions with aplomb and alacrity. What is underlying personality? Brain wiring. Why doesn't one personality predominate? There are pluses and minuses to each personality. Thus, selective pressures keep diversity. Take, say, extraversion. Now, you might think being outgoing and pleasure seeking would be an unalloyed benefit from the view of the selfish gene. Indeed, studies have shown that extraverts have more lifetime mates and more EPCs than introversts. Well then, why are we not all extraverts? Simple, it has a cost. Extraverts also go to the hospital more for stupid injuries due to their pleasure seeking hedonistic ways. They live a little on the dangerous side. Every EPC is a risk, especially if the person you are having a liasion with is married! So, it makes sense that we are not all so aroused by the carnal and material pleasures of the world. I find Nettle's book to be very satisfying. Unlike Tooby & Cosmides, or other evolutionary psychologists, Nettle does not think personalities are stochastic froth over a core of panhuman adaptations. He thinks they are very important adaptations in their own right, and they deserve to be studied as such. It is hard to disagree. Yes, all cars have wheels, transmissions, and engines, but does it make sense to ignore the difference between a Ford F150 and a Ford Escort? I recommend this book to all personality buffs, or to anybody who just wants to know why they feel the way they do and why their friends are so predictable!

Excellent, approachable update on the subject of personality

I've always known I'm not like my family and friends. In our circle I'm definitely the odd man out. And I've known this since I was 19 or 20 years old. So fairly early in my life I was interested in why I was different, why I didn't mind being different, and why I always struggled when I tried to just fit in. I've read Myers-Briggs and other "modern" models of personality and took interest in them. And in them I usually found some nuggets of explanatory wisdom. So I had largely stopped reading about personality. But I casually glanced at Nettles' book one day and found myself thinking, "A new model of personality? One with widespread support and evolutionary underpinnings? Damn. I'm going to have to read it." And I'm glad I did. First, this book fills a void. Most psychology books for a consumer audience are so watered down and trite they fail to really teach anything. They're usually worse than the drivel you find in Cosmopolitan or Men's Health. Try searching for psychology books with a more intelligent bent to them and you quickly find yourself shoulder-deep in academic, jargon-laden prose. Nettles' book is a brilliant bridge between these two worlds. Personality: What Makes You The Way You Are is an excellent presentation of a newer model of personality theory. It is rich in back-story, supported by summaries of various experiments, bolstered by real statistical concepts instead of dumbing it down to "the average", and keeps itself wrapped in an evolutionary biology framework. And it does all of this without getting overly academic. For those who lean toward Cosmopolitan and Men's Health, Nettles includes a personality inventory you can self-administer, and it makes the content of the book more personally relevant. Personality is also a quick read (I read through it on two flights between Minneapolis and Salt Lake City). And the book is laced with humor throughout. For those who prefer academia, Personality is well-referenced and has a comprehensive bibliography and set of appendices. It is solid and honest academic work; it just reads better. About the only warning I'll make is this: Nettles is a Brit. If you get confused by British spellings, idiom, and geographical references, you may occasionally find yourself scratching your head. But all this tells me is you don't read enough Nick Hornby. Enjoy! I believe you will.

Personality with an Evolutionary Twist

If you are a fan of evolutionary psychology, be sure to check out this great little book on personality. It has a short personality test (12 questions) that you can take before you dive into the book, which I highly recommend taking. Then you'll learn about each of the "big five" components of personality. Each component is convincingly tied to biological systems in the brain, and the author explains how both high and low scoring individuals in each of the five areas could have thrived as humans evolved.