Four Personality Types, According To US Researchers

Throughout the ages, many theorists have developed their own theories regarding personalities, how they arise, and how we can categorize them. Recently, a group of researchers from Northwestern University in the United States carefully analyzed data. Their results challenged the already established personality paradigms. In this way, they discovered the four personality types.

This group of social psychologists wanted to find out if there are actually personality types. Personality traits are another matter. Personality traits “can be measured consistently over both time periods and cultures,” said Amaral, one of the study’s authors and professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering .

These researchers reviewed data collected from more than 1.5 million surveys and found that there are at least four different personality types: average, reserved, self-centered, and role model. These four personality types are based on five basic personality traits: neuroticism, extroversion, openness, compassion and planning. The new study was published in Nature Human Behavior magazine .

A controversial concept

William Revelle, professor of psychology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and co-author of the study, explained that “people have been trying to classify personality types since the time of Hippocrates, but previous scientific literature has found that it is only vague.” The data from this new study show that “there are higher incidences of certain personality types”.

The concept of personality types continues to be a controversial topic in psychology. This is due to the different and separate classifications that have received empirical support. The previous attempts to define personality types that were based on small research groups yielded results that often could not be replicated.

“ Personality types existed only in self-help literature and had no place in scientific journals. Now we think this will change, because of this study “, says Amaral.

Four personality types: A new focus

The new study combined a computational alternative approach with data from four questionnaires. The questionnaires were obtained from John Johnson’s IPIP-NEO. More than 1.5 million people participated in the survey. The MyPersonality project and the data from the BBC’s Big Personality had 120 and 300 elements, respectively.

The questionnaires, developed by the research community, have between 44 and 300 questions. Participants answered them voluntarily online. The opportunity to get new information about their own personalities is a big part of what makes them want to respond.

Based on this large data collection, the research team identified five characteristics that may have a higher degree of acceptance. These five qualities are as we mentioned earlier: neuroticism, extroversion, openness, compassion and planning. After developing new algorithms, they discovered four personality types, or groups.

Different personality types

• Average : Average is high in neuroticism and extroversion, but also low in openness. According to researchers, women tend to have a higher probability of having an average personality.
• Reserved : People with a reserved personality are emotionally stable, but not very high in neuroticism. They are not particularly outgoing (extroversion), but are human to a certain extent.
• Role model : These people cut low in neuroticism and high in all the other traits. According to researchers, these people are reliable and open to new ideas. They are good at taking and being responsible for things. Women are more likely to belong to this group.
• Self-centered : Self-centered people score high in extroversion, but below average in openness, compassion and planning.

Our personalities change throughout our lives

Researchers also explain that as people get older and more mature, their personalities change. For example, older people tend to have lower neuroticism, and at the same time higher planning and compassion than people under the age of 20.

“When we look at large groups of people, it is clear that we see certain trends. One such trend is that some people may change some of these characteristics over time, ”said Amaral.