Personal project exhibition 10.1 Tanya

Psychology has a long history, but only a brief one. Research on human psychology has been conducted since ancient times, but in the early days, psychology was often associated with philosophy, theology, and even religion. Nowadays, psychology is always considered a branch of psychiatry. Actually, it is not the case. Psychiatry focuses more on the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses; Psychology, on the other hand, has a broader connection with our lives, such as consumer psychology, educational psychology, and so on. However, there are relatively few fields related to psychology and art, such as art psychology, color psychology, and so on. And they are all analyzing works of art from a psychological perspective, or using works of art to assist clinical treatment. There are almost no academic works or theories that use psychology to guide artistic creation, especially non-technical ones. Through this project exhibition, I believe I can simply prove that personality psychology has the potential to develop in the direction of assisting artistic creation.

Part 1

The first part is mainly used to introduce MBTI and the Big Five personality traits.

MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) and Big Five Personality Traits are two common personality assessment tools used to help people understand their personality traits and behavioral tendencies. Although they both aim to reveal individual personality traits, there are some differences in their methods and theoretical foundations. MBTI and Big Five personality traits each have their own advantages in evaluating personality. MBTI emphasizes individual cognitive and decision-making tendencies more, while Big Five personality traits focus more on individual performance in social, emotional management, and sense of responsibility. Both can help individuals gain a more comprehensive understanding of their personality traits, thereby better adapting and developing.

My main purpose in writing this short article is twofold: firstly, to compare the advantages and disadvantages of MBTI and Big Five personality in creative applications. 2、 Protest against MBTI's excessive entertainment.

Firstly, let me express my opinion: MBTI is more suitable for creating group portrait plots that require very distinct flat characters compared to Big Five personalities; And Big Five is more suitable than MBTI to ensure that creators have the opportunity to deeply explore the inner thoughts of characters, and to ensure that important characters do not experience a breakdown in their later behavioral logic.

Let's first learn about MBTI, a popular online psychology topic. Based on Jung's theory of psychological types, MBTI divides personality into four dimensions: introversion (I) and extroversion (E), sensation (S) and intuition (N), thinking (T) and emotion (F), judgment (J) and perception (P), with a total of 16 types of combinations. MBTI focuses more on describing individual preferences and tendencies, helping people understand their cognitive, emotional, and decision-making tendencies.If applied to creativity, it will inevitably lead to the phenomenon of flattened characters.There are two reasons for this phenomenon:One is the problem with the MBTI theory itself, and the other is the limitation of stereotypes on creativity.

Regarding the MBTI theory itself, firstly, it tends to help subjects "understand why they do things this way" or "help subjects understand why others do things that way". Although being able to clearly distinguish the psychological activity states of different people is a great advantage, it allows us to quickly draw portraits of characters. However, applying meticulous theories to every stroke can be fatal for literary creations full of unknowns, fantasies, and possibilities. It is not necessarily that the characters in artistic creation are chaotic and illogical. But the MBTI theory, while being meticulous, did not achieve "broad coverage". Indeed, if we only look at the 16 personality types in theory, the logical relationship between them is very consistent. But some scholars have pointed out that their MBTI theory is too one-sided. Can't cover the creative needs well: How to analyze characters with mental illness? How do people with post-traumatic emergency disorders be classified? What if it's a lunatic? What if it's a paranoid person? If what appears in front of you is not a human, but a deity, how can you analyze their personality and logic? In the book "Born Different", the explanation given by Myers and her daughter is that anyone with any MBTI personality can be either a paranoid or a lunatic. If there is a character at this point who is a mentally ill patient with XXXX personality, then the author needs to use double labels to locate this character.

However, the second reason why the current psychological community does not recognize Myers and her daughter is that they are not professional psychologists, and the process of proposing this theory does not meet the standards: existing personality theories are developed by first investigating and interviewing, collecting data, and then distinguishing possible personalities. On the contrary, Myers and her daughter first drew up a possible division method, then received sample data and nested it into their theory. During the nesting process, subjects are highly likely to be influenced by the Barnum effect (also known as the Fowler effect, astrological effect, a psychological phenomenon proven by psychologist Bertrand Fowler in 1948 through experiments). People often believe that a vague and general personality description accurately reveals their own characteristics. When people describe a person with ordinary, vague, and broad adjectives, they often easily accept these descriptions and believe that what is described is themselves, making it difficult to ensure the reliability of the data. This is a major reason why MBTI theory is not universally recognized in the field of psychology.

Next is the impact of stereotypes on creators.

The original intention of Myers and her daughter in creating this theory was simply to encourage everyone to accept and identify with themselves more. When collecting information from participants, they also summarized a small phenomenon called the "aha effect", which refers to the phenomenon where people will exclaim, "Aha, I used to do things for a reason." This "aha effect" predicts the current situation of MBTI. MBTI is now facing a huge problem, which is that stereotypes are extremely strong. We often hear people discussing MBTI in social or public places, but the comments are often: "I am an I/I am an E person, so I do what I do." This interpretation of the theory of putting the cart before the horse reflects the emptiness in the hearts of contemporary young people: they want to seek a sense of identity. It's not just about seeking recognition from the outside world, but more about wanting to identify with oneself. This phenomenon indirectly leads to creators who apply MBTI personality theory, causing their roles to become increasingly flattened, and characters will inevitably move towards popular stereotypes on the internet.

Compared to MBTI's classification of different personality preferences, the Big Five personality traits are divided into five dimensions: Extraversion, Agreeability, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. The Big Five personality traits focus more on describing an individual's scores in these five dimensions, which helps people understand their performance in social, emotional management, sense of responsibility, openness, and other aspects. Through the complex narration above, a major difference between MBTI and Big Five personality traits is evident: the former wants to determine a person's preference bias, or motivation; The latter focuses on comprehensively and comprehensively describing a person's traits.

Returning to the initial viewpoint:Compared to the Big Five personalities, MBTI is more suitable for creating group portrait plots that require very distinct flat characters; And Big Five is more suitable than MBTI to ensure that creators have the opportunity to deeply explore the inner thoughts of characters, and to ensure that important characters do not experience a breakdown in their later behavioral logic.

MBTI,the problem now lies in the influence of stereotypes, but conversely, when driving the plot, it can quickly and directly point out the areas where characters can create conflicts. When creating a cartridge, it is highly recommended to use it when unsure how to drive dramatic conflicts. For example, it can be a contradiction between reality (XSXX personality) and ideals (XNXX personality), or a misunderstanding caused by the difficulty of sharing the same rational functions of thinking (XXTX) and emotion (XXFX), and so on.

The Big Five personality traits are good for their professionalism and completeness, but conversely, no one has the energy to analyze the five dimensions of traits for all passersby, and they need to be precise to percentages. It is more suitable for determining a person's personality tone, while other aspects such as motivation and way of thinking will be very free. And when we empathize with this kind of OC, we feel that we are truly communicating with a "unique" soul, rather than with a certain personality code.

Part 2

The content of the second part mainly consists of some psychological notes I have taken about the Big Five personality traits and other factors that are helpful for creativity.

一、Big Five Personality Theory

（一） Firstly, the five factors of the Big Five personality traits are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness.

Extraversion represents a person who is proactive, outgoing, and frequently experiences positive emotions, while its opposite is introverted and shy.

Agreeability represents caring for others and being good at getting along with others, while its opposite is being argumentative, competitive, and self-centered.

Conscientiousness represents orderliness, progress, and strong self-discipline, while its opposite is disorder, aimlessness, and impulsiveness.

Neuroticism represents negative emotions such as worry and anger, with the opposite being calmness and emotional stability.

Openness to experience represents being willing to try new things, being interested in new ideas and concepts, while its opposite is conservatism and unwillingness to accept change.

（二） The essential meanings of the Big Five personality traits: 1. Before understanding the essential meanings, it is necessary for everyone to remember the following three points:

(1) There is no distinction between good and bad personality - each trait has its own strengths and weaknesses.

(2) Research is based on the average level. Not every person with a certain trait performs perfectly at the average level.

(3) Even if the names of different scales are the same, there are still some differences between them.

2、Introduction to the Big Five Personality Traits

Extraversion

Extraversion includes liking to be with others (compared to being alone), being willing to become a leader, loving sports, and experiencing more happiness and joy. Extraversion is one of the top five personality traits that best reflect positive emotions, such as happiness, happiness, and positive energy. Individuals with extraversion are more likely to experience positive emotions. This may be due to the association with positive emotions, as well as the association between extraversion and physical and mental health. Extraverted individuals are less likely to experience low mood, anxiety disorders, and most personality disorders.

agreeableness

Highly humane individuals trust others and have empathy for their needs and feelings. They enjoy cooperation, dislike competition, and tend to maintain honesty, honesty, modesty, humility, and obedience. The opposite of human nature is hostility or displeasure, including doubt, cynicism, deception, manipulation, arrogance, aggression, self-centeredness, and coldness.

Conscientiousness

Due diligence involves willpower: it can delay gratification, think twice before taking action, and strive for goals. Responsible people are organized and hardworking, usually able to overcome obstacles such as distractions, frustration, and boredom and complete their work. People with high sense of responsibility tend to have healthier mental health and longer lifespans. Higher willpower motivates people to exercise, follow reasonable dietary habits, eliminate drug abuse, and work hard to avoid financial pressure.

Neuroticism

Neuroticism is a tendency to experience negative emotions such as anger, depression, anxiety, shame, and self-awareness. Highly neurotic individuals frequently experience high-intensity negative emotions. People with high levels of neuroticism are prone to mental health problems, including depression, anxiety (such as generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, substance abuse, eating disorders), and personality disorders (such as borderline personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder, dependent personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder). People with higher than average neuroticism scores may not necessarily develop any of the aforementioned disorders, but they are indeed more susceptible than those with lower neuroticism levels.

Openness

People with high levels of openness tend to try new things (such as tasting unusual food, traveling to foreign lands, and facing new challenges at work), think about complex ideas (such as "what happens when a person dies"), and consider other possible perspectives and value systems (such as "living as a member of society in a collectivist society or an individualistic society is better"). Openness is also the least intuitive trait in the Big Five personality theory. You can easily think of many synonyms for the other four traits, such as extroverted individuals being outgoing, talkative, and sociable. But immediately coming up with vocabulary to describe openness is not that simple. It is also the personality trait with the lowest probability of appearing in other cultures and languages.

（三）The Dimensions of the Big Five Personality Theory

Another way to understand the Big Five personality theory is to break down the traits of these five dimensions into more detailed components, known as facets. The content of the Big Five personality theory is very complex, encompassing numerous grid sets of individuals. However, although almost all researchers acknowledge the importance of facet partitioning, the specific facets they divide are different. Below, we list one of the partitioning methods.

1. Extraversion: friendly, sociable, confident, level of activation, seeking stimulation, and happy.

2. Pleasant nature: trust, ethical, altruistic, cooperative, humble, sympathetic.

3. Diligence: self-efficacy, orderliness, sense of responsibility, pursuit of achievement, self-discipline, and thoughtful thinking.

4. Neuroticism: anxiety, anger, depression, self-awareness, impulsivity, and fragility.

5. Openness: imagination, artistic interest, abundant emotions, adventurous spirit, intelligence, and pursuit of freedom。

Remembering these facets can help you avoid common misunderstandings about these traits. Many people mistakenly believe that conscientiousness means caring for others, but now you understand that it actually refers to a person's diligence and orderliness. Caring for others belongs to agreeableness, although it sounds like describing a person who goes with the flow and doesn't want to argue.

（四）Summary

The Big Five personality trait theory is an extremely useful personality model. It covers many ways in which we discuss others and is also applicable in cross theoretical, cross-cultural, and even cross species environments. Extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness perfectly summarize most personality traits with a minimum number of factors. Since these traits come from the language people use to describe others, there is no doubt that they can be used to predict behavior and identify the traits of well-known individuals - whether they are real or virtual.

二、Maslow's hierarchy of needs :Maslow is an advocate of humanistic psychology, which focuses on free will and creativity, and understands the movement of human psychology from a holistic perspective. Maslow proposed that humans must satisfy their needs in a certain order. This order or hierarchy is generally presented in a pyramid form, with the most basic requirements located at the bottom, and each higher-level requirement built on its foundation.Main requirements: Maslow has defined these requirements as follows.

（一）主要需求：Main requirements: Maslow has defined these requirements as follows.

(1) Physiological needs, such as breathing, food, water, shelter, clothing, and sleep. If you haven't even met these needs, it's hard to think of anything else.

(2) Security needs, such as health, work, wealth, and social stability. If your safety needs are met, it indicates that you are in good health, have a job that can afford rent, and live in a place without (too much) violence and war. These are also basic requirements.

(3) Love and belonging needs, including friendship, family, intimate relationships, and a sense of connection. Once physiological needs (more or less) are met, humans need to establish relationships with others and feel a sense of belonging. A influential retrospective concludes that a sense of belonging is the fundamental motivation of humanity. This is similar to the need for belonging in self-determination theory. The need for a sense of belonging stimulates the motivation to maintain belonging with others.

(4) Self esteem needs, including confidence, achievement, and being respected by others. Self esteem refers to feeling proud in the workplace (not necessarily in paid jobs, volunteering or raising children is also possible). Self esteem also includes envy and respect from others. Maslow believed that self-esteem derived from actual achievements and behavior is the best, or "deserved," better than self-esteem obtained through guilt or deception and exaggeration.

(5) The need for self actualization, located at the top of Maslow's pyramid, is the need for self actualization, which means the need to realize or turn your unique talents and abilities into reality. Maslow once wrote a famous saying: "Whatever kind of person humans are, they will definitely become what kind of person they are." People must be loyal to their own nature. We call this need self actualization.

（二）

In a 35 year study conducted in 88 countries, the situation in developing countries is more in line with Maslow's developmental order of needs, with basic needs such as food (physiological needs) ranking first, followed by safety needs, belongingness needs, political democracy's self-esteem needs, and so on. However, in the process of developing at these levels, when the latter level begins to develop, the development of the previous level does not stop. Generally speaking, people living in safe and affluent countries are more interested in achievement and meaning than those living in countries where basic needs are difficult to meet.

三、External and internal goals

The goal is to understand the core of motivation. External goals refer to goals beyond oneself, generally manifested as wealth, success, fame, attractiveness, etc. Internal goals refer to things that we should value, generally manifested as personal growth, affinity, and community emotions;

四、Mindfulness

Mindfulness (flow) is a current state of awareness, aware of one's own thoughts and feelings but not attached to them, nor evaluating their quality. Mindfulness practice can be traced back to early Buddhist salvation psychology. This non judgmental focus also applies to thinking and emotions. Mindfulness is related to personality, as some people can maintain a more focused state than others most of the time. In terms of the Big Five personality theory, individuals with low neuroticism and high conscientiousness tend to perform better in mindfulness practice. Mindfulness can help people better perceive their implicit motivations and pursue the most important goals for themselves. The Mindfulness Concentration Awareness Scale helps you discover whether you have already experienced mindfulness or can further approach mindfulness.

Mindfulness can reach peak experiences - a state where people transcend themselves and integrate with the world. This state may occur when you are completely immersed in an activity, such as climbing, painting, playing or listening to music, and experiencing moments of inspiration flashing.

五、Flow

Peak experiences often trigger a state of flow - the psychological experience of time quietly passing when you are completely immersed in current activities. The process of reaching peak experience is full of challenges and not easy at all, but it is worth it because entering a state of flow requires a high level of focus, which can calm down our busy daily thoughts.

If you are in a flow channel, you will naturally do your current tasks well. For example, if you play tennis with a suitable opponent, your skill level will naturally improve with practice. You will gradually need more challenging opponents to maintain this flow state.

Part 3

The last part is about my subjective creative process and methods. Different people have different creative centers, not to mention their creative methods. Let me briefly share my general creative process:

Inspiration points (essay notes) - paragraph writing or short stories (often at the peak of the story) - try to deduce a reasonable beginning and ending - the story is roughly clear - find key events and analyze the character's personality model.

And I promise not to write off the key points that deviate from the characters, which is to create a table for each character:

It consists of three parts: pentagonal radar chart, important events, and settings.

Personality	Important events	Setting
Draw two radar charts using red and blue pens in the same chart. Red pen is the initial personality trait, while blue pen is the personality trait that may change later due to certain events. The larger the distance between the red and blue pens, the greater the impact of important events on the character. (The unit of the chart is self determined, which can be 1-3 or 0-100)	Key events that affect the direction, personality, and scenery of the character's story	Ethnicity, gender, height, appearance, etc