Our Personality Is One of the Four Types, Shows Northwestern University Study
Scientists just discovered there are only four personality types, and everyone falls into one of them. It seems that people can be average, reserved, self-centered or role models.
Experts at the Northwestern University did a massive survey, questioning 1.5 million people in the world to come to this conclusion.
Four Personality Types – Guided by Five Personality Traits
The co-author of the study, William Revelle, stated that these results would change the current ideas in psychology:
“People have tried to classify personality types since Hippocrates’ time, but previous scientific literature has found that to be nonsense. Now these data show there are higher densities of certain personality types.”
There are four types of personalities in relation with five traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. According to how high, low, or balanced these traits are, a person falls into a category.
The Role Model Type – these people have a high score in all traits but neuroticism. They make great leaders on which you can depend and are always open to new ideas.
The Reserved Type – emotionally stable, but not neurotic or open. They’re not extroverted but are agreeable and conscientious.
The Self-centered Type – the highest score is in extraversion, with a below average in openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness.
The Average Type – these people have high neuroticism and extraversion, but low openness, a common type.
This research combined data from four questionnaires with more than 1.5 million people around the world responding. The questionnaires had 44-300 questions, and people took them online, volunteering to see what their personalities were.
Luís Amaral, the lead author of the study and a professor of chemical and biological Engineering, stated that:
“Personality types only existed in self-help literature and did not have a place in scientific journals. Now, we think this will change because of this study. A study with a dataset this large would not have been possible before the web.”
However, unlike limited research, which needed undergrads on campus (and got about 100 people to volunteer) – which usually happened before the web, the online resources available today and data being shared helped in finishing this massive study, concluded Amaral.
Doris’s passion for writing started to take shape in college where she was editor-in-chief of the college newspaper. Even though she ended up working in IT for more than 7 years, she’s now back to what he always enjoyed doing. With a true passion for technology, Doris mostly covers tech-related topics.
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