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One of the ongoing controversies for a lot of the early part of the 20th Century was how we measured personality, and different theorists came up with radically different numbers of scales of personalities; some with as little as two, others with, say, sixteen.
But just in the last ten or fifteen years there’s been a lot more consensus, we seemed to have converged around five as a number that works well.
Again, there’s nothing magic about that number. Some people are arguing we could add one in, but now there is this idea that we do seem to capture the core essence of people’s personality using those five dimensions.
Brendan Burchell on personality
Is personality the only factor in how we behave?
Kat B photography under CC-BY-NC licence
Personality type isn't the only influence on how we behave, explains Brendan Burchell. Read more : Is personality the only factor in how we behave?
Does your personality influence your career?
Kat B photography under CC-BY-NC licence
There's more than one reason why your personality might influence the job you do, explains Brendan Burchell. Read more : Does your personality influence your career?
Find out more
What's your personality profile?
mosoma under CC-BY-NC-ND licence
What's your personality type - and how does it compare with other people? Find out with our family-friendly personality profiler. Read more : What's your personality profile?
Personality: A user guide
BBC
Daniel Nettle discusses some of the differences in our personalities and behaviour Read more : Personality: A user guide
Predicting personality
Production team
The Next Big Thing guests debated if personality is fixed at birth - and if genetics might allow us to choose our children's temperament. Read more : Predicting personality
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