The Connection Between Personality Traits and Personal Narratives
One purpose of personality psychology is to understand the components of personality, including traits and life narratives. University of Minnesota Psychology alum Edward Chou and faculty members Moin Syed and Colin DeYoung examined the potential connection of personal life narratives to the Big Five personality traits and two subtraits or “aspects” within each of the Big Five in their study “Life Narratives and the Ten Aspects of the Big Five Across Open-Ended and Targeted Prompts.” The researchers found that there were several aspect-specific associations with motivational themes, including a positive correlation between trait Industriousness and narrative Agency and a negative correlation between trait Orderliness and narrative Agency.
This study helps advance an understanding of how traits are connected to life narratives, and how Big Five Aspect Scales can be used to measure this relationship.
Edward Chou, PhD (‘26), advised by Drs. Colin DeYoung and Moin Syed in the Personality, Individual Differences, and Behavior Genetics (PIB) area in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota.
Moin Syed, PhD, faculty in the Personality, Individual Differences, and Behavior Genetics (PIB) area of the Department of Psychology and director of the Narrative, Identity, Culture, and Education (NICE) Lab at the University of Minnesota.
Colin DeYoung, PhD, faculty in the Personality, Individual Differences, and Behavior Genetics (PIB) area of the Department of Psychology and director of the DeYoung Personality Lab at the University of Minnesota.
