Achieve
Page 6
If you are low on Extraversion and Negative Emotions, you may not experience high levels of either positive or negative emotions. You’re pretty even-keel. When everyone else is getting frazzled by an upcoming deadline or big game, you’re likely cool as a cucumber.
If you have the low Extraversion and low Negative Emotions profile, you may still dislike too much external stimulation such as lots of socializing, but you probably don’t get too upset about it. You may have a hard time getting pumped-up before big games or important events. Others may perceive you as a little bland or cold. So if you are in a situation where you need to display some passion, like when trying to pitch your new script for a TV series to a potential backer, you’ll have to work a lot harder to get psyched up to impress the backer with your passion for the project.
Concluding Thoughts
Knowing where you fall in terms or Extraversion is essential for your success. Once you have a clear idea of your values, strengths, passions, and purpose, then you will be better able to decide whether you should learn to accept your natural personality tendency or change it. Like your Negative Emotions threshold, whether you can change your set point will depend on having a growth mindset.
Key Takeaways
Extraversion contrasts those who are social, energetic, attracted to excitement and stimulation, and quick to feel positive emotions with those who are more reserved, comfortable and interested in working alone, and less turned-on by excitement and stimulation.
Where you fall on the Extraversion dimension is related to your brain’s ability to handle external stimulation before getting overwhelmed. Those of you who are high on this dimension enjoy and can tolerate high levels of external stimulation. Those of you who are low will function best with measured doses of stimulation followed by recovery periods.
Your standing on this dimension is also related to how easily your brain is attracted to, and turned on by external rewards. Those high on this dimension will be easily attracted to and rewarded by things in their environment. Those low on this dimension will be less affected by external rewards.
You can think of Extraversion in terms of needs. If you are high, then you’ll have a strong need for socializing, experiencing fast-paced, stimulating and exciting things, or expressing your positivity. If you don’t, you will be vulnerable to boredom and low moods. If you are low, then you will have a strong need for times when you are alone or in relatively quiet environments or you run the risk of feeling overwhelmed and burning out.
Both high and low levels of Extraversion can be helpful and unhelpful when it comes to success. Knowing the benefits and pitfalls of your specific personality is key to your success.
Chapter 6
Openness to Change/New Experiences
Openness to Change/New Experiences:
I tend to be:
Extremely High Very High High
Creative
Artistic or very interested in the arts
Imaginative
Curious and interested in new and diverse subjects or people
Highly attuned to and valuing emotions and gut feelings
Willing to experiment and try new and exotic things
Intrigued by and open to different points of view
OR
I tend to be:
Low Very Low Extremely Low
Down-to-earth
Practical
More interested in logic than gut feelings and emotions
Focused on a narrower or more predictable range of interests
Traditional
Conservative in my perspectives
Clear with what I believe is right and wrong
Recall, Openness contrasts those of us who are creative, interested in the arts, imaginative, curious, willing to try new and exotic things, and interested in new and diverse subjects, things and people, with those of us who are more down-to-earth, practical, focused on a narrower range of interests, traditional, and clear about what we believe is right and wrong.
Of the 5 Basic Personality Tendencies, Openness has the least amount of agreement among personality researchers in terms of its importance and measurement.
If you fall somewhere in the middle on Openness, some of the benefits and pitfalls of both high and low levels of this dimension may apply to you. In terms of achievement and success, you’ll likely do best by alternating between a focus on change, creativity, and the big picture, and sticking to a tried-and-true routine and mastering it.
The Neuroscience of Openness
Like Extraversion, Openness appears to be related to the sensitivity of the brain’s dopamine reward pathways.19 If you are high on Openness, these reward pathways are likely highly sensitive. Your brain’s idling, inner focus or imagination network — known as the Default Mode Network — is likely more easily activated and efficient.20 EEG research by Con Stough and colleagues has found a positive correlation between high Openness and more of the slower — theta — brain wave activity across the brain.21 Theta activity has been associated with pleasure-seeking and tends to decrease with age. Because theta production is highest in childhood, Stough and his colleagues postulated that those high on Openness may have retained a somewhat childlike wonderment and open-mindedness about their world.
High Openness
If you are high on Openness, you’ll do better with variety in your life and will be bored by repetition. If you are training for a sport, you’ll likely stay most motivated when you change your training routine often. In a work environment, you will feel most motivated when you have opportunities to learn and try different strategies, routines, and environments. You’ll get off on being creative, using your imagination, and looking at the big picture. You will also probably be more open to less conventional ways of looking at or doing things.
However, having high levels of Openness can become problematic. You may have a tendency to come up with ideas or goals that are impractical. Your sense of direction in life, your career, your goals, or how you see yourself (your identity) may become easily swayed by new experiences, making it hard to stick with things long enough to accomplish anything.
You may also be so unconventional and non-conforming that you have a hard time working with teams or within organizations, since they may seem too constricting or conventional to you. At the extreme, you may also be prone to excessive daydreaming, fantasizing, or to eccentric ideas such as unsupported alternative therapies like healing with magnets, or unconventional beliefs like the existence of alien abductions. If you’re also low on Agreeableness, you may have a particular attraction to conspiracy theories.
Low Openness
If you are low on Openness, you’ll likely relish repetition, tradition, or practicality. You’ll feel most motivated with a no-fluff or no-nonsense approach that you can learn and then repeatedly put into action. You’ll probably feel most comfortable and motivated when you have a trusted coach or mentor giving you a tried-and-true plan of action to take your game to the next level.
Of course, this also can become problematic, as you may find it hard to adapt to changes in routine or other social or personal changes. You may have a hard time understanding and tolerating people with different points of view or lifestyles, especially if you are also low on Agreeableness.
At the end of your athletic career, or if you are forced into a sudden career change due to downsizing or technological advances that make your job obsolete, you may have a hard time finding something else you’re interested in because of your narrower set of interests. You may also struggle with using your creativity and imagination to come up with a new career path.
Combinations with Openness
It can be helpful to look at combinations of your Basic Personality Tendencies. For instance, where you fall on the two dimensions of Openness and Negative Emotions can shed light on some of the ways you may be hard-wired to handle problems and stress.
If you are high on Negative Emotions and low on Openness, you may prefer not to think a
bout problems and stressors when they arise. This may be below your awareness. You may also have a hard time describing your feelings. This style of coping can lead to problems building up before you are aware of them, which can then lead to a sudden breakdown. If this pattern describes you, then you must learn to identify when stress is building up and find ways to deal with it before it becomes a problem. Many of the strategies in the upcoming books in this series will be helpful for you.
If you are high on Negative Emotions and high on Openness, then you may be overly sensitive to problems and stressors, especially if you are also low on Extraversion. You likely have an active imagination that can backfire when problems occur, due to your ability to vividly imagine all the possible ways things can go wrong. If this sounds familiar, you will need to work hard to keep your stress to manageable levels or else you risk burning out.
If you are low on Negative Emotions and low on Openness, you may not experience strong negative emotions or get too caught up in them when faced with problems and stressors. You are more likely to either distract yourself or take practical steps to solve the problem.
If you are low on Negative Emotions and high on Openness and are faced with problems or stressors, you may spend time pondering what these bring up within you and use what you find to inspire you. This may emerge in the form of artistic inspiration and creativity, or in figuring out ways to harness this energy to help you achieve your goals.
Key Takeaways
Openness contrasts those who are creative, interested in the arts, imaginative, or curious about new and diverse things and people, with those who are more down-to-earth, practical, focused on a narrower range of interests, traditional, and clear with what they believe is right and wrong.
Openness is the most debated of the 5 Basic Personality Tendencies in terms of its importance and how to measure it.
If you are high on Openness, you’re going to do better with variety in your life and will get bored with repetition. You’ll likely stay most motivated when you’re learning new things or changing routines and environments. You’ll also feel at home when thinking creatively or “outside the box.”
If you are high on this dimension, then you may have a tendency to come up with ideas or goals that are impractical. You may have a hard time settling on one type of career or sticking to a set of goals, and have a hard time in overly traditional or conventional sport or working environments.
If you are low on Openness, you’ll do best in environments that call for repetition, tradition, or practicality. You’ll feel most motivated with straightforward and no-nonsense approaches to things that have stood the test of time.
Drawbacks of low Openness can be difficulties adapting to changes in routine or other shifts. You may also have a hard time understanding and tolerating teammates, colleagues, or superiors with different points of view.
Where you fall on the two dimensions of Openness and Negative Emotions can shed light on some of the ways you may be hardwired to handle problems and stress and how to overcome them.
Chapter 7
Agreeableness
Agreeableness
I tend to be:
Extremely High Very High High
Quite trusting
Open and revealing with my thoughts and feelings
Highly concerned with helping others
More interested in cooperation over competition
Lenient towards others’ shortcomings
Deferring to others
Modest
Highly sympathetic and easily moved by others’ pleas
OR
I tend to be:
Low Very Low Extremely Low
More skeptical and not easily duped
Guarded with what I share with others
Focused on my problems and goals
Self-protective
Competitive
Vocal about what I disagree with
Proud and not afraid to let others know
Tough-minded and objective
This Basic Personality Tendency dictates your general attitude towards others, from being trusting, open, altruistic, cooperative, modest, and sympathetic to being skeptical, guarded, self-protective, competitive, proud, and tough-minded. Keep in mind that this is different from your level of Extraversion, which has more to do with whether you are attracted to external sources of stimulation, be it social or other.
If you believe you’re in the middle with regard to Agreeableness, then you’re likely what work personality experts Howard and Howard call a Negotiator.22 You’re more likely to see both sides of the equation, especially in interpersonal situations. You will be able to call upon aspects of both high and low Agreeableness depending on the circumstances.
The Neuroscience of Agreeableness
MRI research by DeYoung and his colleagues (2010) has found that high Agreeableness is associated with a smaller posterior left superior temporal sulcus, which is the outer part of your brain just above and behind your left ear.23 This part of the brain is involved in the interpretation of other peoples’ actions and intentions. DeYoung noted that this suggests that people who are high on Agreeableness can use this area of the brain more efficiently.
DeYoung and his colleagues also found that high Agreeableness was associated with a larger posterior cingulate cortex, which is thought to control our ability to understand others’ beliefs and adopt their perspectives, which are important for empathy.
Lastly, DeYoung and his colleagues also found an association between Agreeableness and the size of a brain region known as the fusiform gyrus. This area of the brain is related to one’s ability to perceive and recognize faces.
Together, these findings support the idea that where you fall on Agreeableness shows up in your brain in areas responsible for processing social information.
High Agreeableness – What it Means for You
If you are high on Agreeableness, you’ll likely do well in team environments, given your tendency to trust and get along well with others. Coaches and managers may like you given that you are a team player and likely put the team’s interests above your own. This is especially true if you are also high on Motivation.
If this is you, then you are likely to work hard for the benefit of your team or company. You probably channel your motivation, persistence, and self-discipline in order to benefit others. Coaches, teams, managers, and companies love having you on board because of your willingness to take on and complete the hard tasks that nobody wants to do.
If you are also high on Extraversion, then you are warm and agreeable and probably well-liked by others. Others will be able to tell that you care about people, and are a warm and trustworthy friend. You’re probably easy to get along with and popular.
On the other hand, if you are high on Agreeableness and low on Negative Emotions, then you’re easygoing and unlikely to feel or express too much anger. You’re more inclined to let things slide, see both sides of an issue, and move on.
However, if you are high on Agreeableness, you may also be prone to being too cooperative and nice, which can lead others to take advantage of you if you’re not careful. You may also have a difficult time standing up to others or showing anger or disapproval when you should.
If you are high on Agreeableness and high on Negative Emotions, then you may be more on the timid side. You may feel a lot of inner conflict, as your feelings are likely easily hurt, but at the same time you’re probably reluctant to express your anger because you don’t want to offend others.
If you’re high on Agreeableness, then you might be too honest and revealing at times. This over-honesty can work against your own success by exposing potential weaknesses that can be taken advantage of in some situations, like when interacting with potential competitors in sports or business. Sometimes it’s good to lay all your cards on the table, and sometimes it’s best to keep your cards to yourself. The latter is especially true if the other person is low on Agreeableness.
Genera
lly having empathy for others is a good thing. But there is such a thing as having too much empathy which can happen with those who are really high on Agreeableness. This is especially true if you are also high on Negative Emotions, as you may feel others’ pain too strongly and over-identify with them. This can affect your objectivity. You may tend to sacrifice your own needs, health, and interests in an attempt to please others, or because you take on too much responsibility for the problems of others.
Agreeableness and Leadership
If you are high on Agreeableness and also low on Extraversion, then you may be too unassuming and not assertive enough for leadership roles in sports, business, or the military. You may also have a hard time accepting compliments or acknowledging your own strengths and talents, because you’re too modest. Research has generally found that where you fall on Agreeableness predicts leadership ability differently depending on the setting. It turns out that good leaders have a profile of:24
High Extraversion
High Motivation
High Openness
Low Negative Emotions
So, you can be either highly agreeable or disagreeable and still be a good leader. But most effective leaders like high levels of external stimulation, and are extraverted, motivated, self-controlled, open, and don’t experience too much negative emotion or get easily rattled by stress. If you want to be a leader and don’t have this profile, then you’ll have to work on these tendencies.
Low Agreeableness – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
If you are low on Agreeableness, you tend to be competitive, express your opinions and disagreements, and have an “I don’t put up with anything” attitude. You’re probably skeptical of others’ intentions and pride yourself on your ability to read people, especially their motives. You’re likely anything but naive. You probably love to win given your attraction to competition.