Personality types revisited–a literature-informed and data-driven approach to an integration of prototypical and dimensional constructs of personality description

Abstract

A new algorithmic approach to personality prototyping based on Big Five traits was applied to a large representative and longitudinal German dataset (N = 22,820) including behavior, personality and health correlates. We applied three different clustering techniques, latent profile analysis, the k-means method and spectral clustering algorithms. The resulting cluster centers, i.e. the personality prototypes, were evaluated using a large number of internal and external validity criteria including health, locus of control, self-esteem, impulsivity, risk-taking and wellbeing. The best-fitting prototypical personality profiles were labeled according to their Euclidean distances to averaged personality type profiles identified in a review of previous studies on personality types. This procedure yielded a five-cluster solution: resilient, overcontroller, undercontroller, reserved and vulnerable-resilient. Reliability and construct validity could be confirmed. We discuss wether personality types could comprise a bridge between personality and clinical psychology as well as between developmental psychology and resilience research.

Resilient entrepreneurs? — revisiting the relationship between the Big Five and self-employment

“…In other words, are there certain combinations of Big Five traits — labelled as prototypes — that are more likely to manifest themselves within the personality of individuals? The number of identified prototypes varies between three (Asendorpf et al, 2001 ; Meeus et al, 2011 ), four (Specht, 2014, Gerlach et al, 2018 ), and five (Kerber et al, 2021 ) whereas the empirical evidence tends towards the first number.…”

“…However, regardless of which solution was found, a particular personality type — labelled as the ‘resilient type’ (Asendorpf et al, 2001 ), also called the ‘role model’ (Gerlach et al, 2018 ) — has been clearly identified in all of these studies (for a literature review, see Kerber et al, 2021 ). This prototype is characterized by high values in all Big Five traits.…”

“…It refers to individuals who are ‘able to resourcefully adapt to changing situations and circumstances, to tend to show a diverse repertoire of behavioral reactions and to be able to have a good and objective representation of the “goodness of fit” of their behavior to the situations/people they encounter. This good adjustment may result in high levels of self-confidence and a higher possibility to experience positive affect’ (Kerber et al, 2021 , p. 3). Such a personality type can be expected to be likely to engage in entrepreneurial action.…”

Not the Master of Your Volitional Mind? The Roles of the Right Medial Prefrontal Cortex and Personality Traits in Unconscious Introjections Versus Self-Chosen Goals

“…Moreover, as introjection constitutes a conflict (i.e., between self-chosen goals and social expectations), the dorsal ACC, which is known as a conflict monitor and error detector beyond others (Carter et al, 1998), may additionally be activated in the representation of unconsciously introjected goals. Also, besides rumination and emotional self-awareness, we explored potential effects of neuroticism and introversion (i.e., low extraversion), as these factors are linked to many psychological conditions, such as depression and anxiety (Kotov et al, 2010), internalizing problems (Kerber et al, 2021), and rumination tendencies (e.g., Roelofs et al, 2008).…”

Whole-brain white matter correlates of personality profiles predictive of subjective well-being

“…However, a limitation of these studies is that they have focused on one personality measure at a time (see 58 ). A likely possibility is that some personality measures cluster more often together than others, giving rise to personality “profiles” or “types” 59 – 61 . For example, high extraversion and high conscientiousness tend to cluster together but are both separate from high neuroticism 60 , 62 .…”