User:Garethoo

Introduction: Hi there! I am passionate about anime character’s personalities. I hold a bachelor and a master in social science, with my main focus being in psychology and sociology. I took some classes in university on personality psychology. Therefore, I love editing the “Personality” sections of Gacha games. I really like the diversity of the characters and like to explore the depts of their personalities.

What are personalities?
A personality is a set of various stable traits that is stable over time, often throughout the whole life. Traits are stable tendencies to think, perceive, feel or behave in a specific way, regardless of external stimuli or situations. To put it differently: Traits describe the “default mode” of behaviors.

What doesn’t count as personality?
It is important to mention that a large proportion of human behavior is not determined by one’s personality. In fact, the majority of human behavior is rather 1) contextual, 2) situational, 3) socially/culturally influenced, 4) moods/emotion-based, 5), rationally assessing, 6) spontaneous, 7) habitual and 8) more. Therefore, the personality is an important, but not the single dominant factor.

How do Anime character personalities differ from human personalities?
Main characters in animes, mangas and japanese games show a diverse set of behaviors and reactions. Side characters with less screen time, however, often solely act based on their clear and predictable personality, also know as “Dere” types. I would argue that in Japanese animes the personality is over proportionately dominant in explaining side character’s behavior. That makes studying their personalities even more relevant, important interesting.

Who studies personality?
Individual level: Most contributions personality are from personality psychology (wikipedia). Please note that personality psychologist only focus on biologically based, human-universal traits that can be found in all cultures across the time

Social level: Sociologist and cultural scientist cover the “social” personality. Basically everything, that we internalize from our environment. Our social environment often has a lifelong lasting impact on our cognition, worldview, emotions, attitudes, life style and behaviors. Culture, socialization, habitus, internalization describe some main concepts of the social personality.

Since both dimensions describe stable traits of behavior, it’s important and recommendable to analyze both, the individual and social level.

Scientific and non-scientific diagnosis tools
Heads up! The majority personality test out there are non-scientific! By non scientific we mean, they don't pass the crucial tests of being valid, reliable and objective.
 * Scientific: Big-Five and Hexaco are the best scientifically proven models.
 * Non-scientific: Heads up: MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), horoscopes are not scientific personality test!

Recommended reading
Are you curious on the science of personalities? The following Wikipedia articles will give you a good introduction into the research of personalities.

Wikipedia articles (external):
 * Individual: personality psychology, trait theory, Big-Five, Hexaco, disposition
 * Social: culture, socialization, habitus, internalization