The big five and beyond - Many Minds
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- Title
- The big five and beyond
- Description
- <p class="p1">If you've heard anything about the study of human personality, you've probably heard about the “big five.” This is a framework that attempts to characterize human personality in terms of five broad factors or dimensions—neuroticism, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. The big five framework has been enormously influential, generating heaps and heaps of data, and study after study on the stability of personality, on the factors that shape our personalities, on how our personalities predict success and satisfaction. But is the big five really the best we can do? What does it miss? What does it mask? Where should the science of human personality go next?</p> <p class="p1">My guest today is <a href= "https://edwebprofiles.ed.ac.uk/profile/rene-mottus"><span class= "s1">Dr. René Mõttus</span></a>. René is Professor of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, and a leading researcher the scientific study of human personality. He’s also one of the hosts of the <a href= "https://personalitypsychologypodcast.com/"><span class= "s1">Personality Psychology Podcast</span></a>.</p> <p class="p1">Here, Rene and I talk about about the history and colossal success of the “big five.” We consider whether personality is ultimately rooted in our biology—and, if so, how. We dwell on each of the five factors and dig into discuss the facets and nuances within them. These are, actually, technical terms in the field for the more granular aspects of personality that sit within each of these broad dimensions. We talk about personality change across the lifespan, and what factors seem to be driving it. We talk about personality and occupation, personality and birth order, personality and gender. Along the way, René and I touch on the Myers-Briggs; an alternative to the Big 5 known as the HEXACO model; the power of explicit questionnaires over experiments; the concept of "personality age"; the social investment theory; honesty, humility, humor, jealousy; life satisfaction; gene-environment correlations; and why evolutionary stories about personality seem to fail.</p> <p class="p1">Alright friends, I think you'll like this one. On to my conversation with Dr. René Mõttus. Enjoy!</p> <p class="p3"> </p> <p class="p4">A transcript of this episode will be posted soon.</p> <p class="p2"> </p> <p class="p1"><span style= "text-decoration: underline;"><span class="s2"><em>Notes and links</em></span></span></p> <p class="p1">5:30 – For a popular discussion of the Myers-Briggs and other personality tests, see <a href= "https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/most-personality-quizzes-are-junk-science-i-found-one-that-isnt/"> <span class="s3">here</span></a>. For a book-length treatment of the history of the Myers-Briggs test, see <a href= "https://www.merveemre.com/paraliterary"><span class= "s3">here</span></a>.</p> <p class="p1">11:30 – For Dr. Mõttus’s preprint on “personality age,” see <a href= "https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=5dm650AAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=5dm650AAAAAJ:M0jDNLgoRFEC&inst=13098912254855678857"> <span class="s3">here</span></a>.</p> <p class="p1">17:00 – For our episode on animal personality with Dr. Kate Laskowski, see <a href= "https://disi.org/the-point-of-animal-personality/"><span class= "s3">here</span></a>.</p> <p class="p1">18:00 – For Dr. Daniel Nettle’s book on personality, see <a href= "https://global.oup.com/academic/product/personality-9780199211432?cc=us&lang=en&"> <span class="s3">here</span></a>.</p> <p class="p1">22:00 – See Dr. Mõttus’s <a href= "https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-unexplained/202210/why-personality-is-not-genetically-hardwired"> <span class="s3">blog post</span></a> on the genetic basis of personality.</p> <p class="p1">25:00 – For our episode with Dr. Erik Turkheimer about IQ, see <a href= "https://disi.org/how-should-we-think-about-iq/"><span class= "s3">here</span></a>. For Dr. Turkheimer’s “phenotypic null hypothesis” about personality, see <a href
- Publication Date
- 2025-05-29T05:23:00+00:00
- Status
- completed
- Website
- https://manyminds.libsyn.com/the-big-five-and-beyond
- Length
- 106:38
- File
- /podcasts/Many Minds/1748496180-5071.mp3
- Size
- 146.44 MB
- Bitrate
- 187-CBR
- Channels
- 1
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