Another key dimension is extraversion or positive emotionality (E). This is commonly used to mean sociability, but to psychologists it means something broader. The mind also contains systems for identifying rewarding things in the environment – food, comfort, mates, kin – and seeking them out. It is thought that brain circuits using the chemical dopamine function to make these positively rewarding stimuli ‘attention grabbing’ (you know the attention grabbing potential of a piece of chocolate cake or a nice looking person). Now these systems seem to be a little more responsive in some people than others. So some people (high E scorers) are strongly diverted towards intrinsically rewarding things, and others (low E scorers or introverts) can get on just fine without them. High E scorers, not surprisingly, go out more, talk more, want to be famous more, have more sexual partners, and drink and take more drugs than low E scorers. Low E scorers are often more content with relatively quiet, self-contained jobs or hobbies whose rewards maybe longer coming. Extraverts generally describe themselves as happier than introverts, though there is a significant group of happy introverts who have strong, self-contained interests and vocations.

Extraversion and neuroticism are the two most broadly accepted dimensions of personality. Other influential proposals include Openness (with high scorers interested in art and abstract ideas, low scorers practical and down to earth), Conscientiousness (with high scorers methodical and dutiful, low scorers more distractible), and Agreeableness (with high scorers cooperative and trusting, and low scorers more aggressive and hostile). Together these make up the ‘big five’, or OCEAN (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism). The OCEAN system is the subject of an online study that we are currently carrying out here at The Open University.

People often ask what is the optimum personality profile to have. There is no simple answer to this question. It is certainly true that some extremes carry some risks. Low agreeableness is associated with violence, whilst high neuroticism is associated with the risk of depression and anxiety. However, all the systems whose operation is reflected in personality differences are there for a reason. Anxiety and fear are good things to have (at least a little), because the world actually is full of dangerous things. There is evidence that at least some high N scorers do well at college because they strive hard to avoid failure, and people who get convicted of traffic offences may be less neurotic than those who do not (and therefore, presumably, less fearful to the danger of getting caught). The balance between the different systems is probably all. If you are an extreme introvert, you might want to challenge yourself to experience the rewards of greater spontaneity and exchange; if you are an extreme extravert, you might want to teach yourself to undertake a long and lonely project that will ultimately be very rewarding. As human beings, we have the unique ability to look in at our personality from the outside and decide what we want to do with it.

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