A new Big Five: Fundamental principles for an integrative science of personality.

Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships across Issue Domains and Political Contexts

“…They are commonly thought of as "core" personality traits (Asendorpf and van Aken 2003) 3 because they "are based on genetic differences and/or early childhood experiences, with limited susceptibility to social and contextual influences later in life" (Ekehammar and Akrami 2007, 900;see also, Bouchard and Loehlin 2001;Plomin and Caspi 1999). They are therefore the-orized to be causally prior to traits that are influenced by both core personality traits and contextual factors, which are instead often referred to as "characteristic adaptations" (McAdams and Pals 2006;McCrae and Costa 1996;Olver and Mooradian 2003). These characteristic adaptations, that is, individual-level differences "contextualized in time, situations and social roles" (McAdams and Pals 2006, 208;also see McCrae andCosta 1994, 1996) encompass an array of aspects of human individuality such as values, attitudes (including political attitudes such as ideology), expectations about one's role in society, and personal goals (McAdams and Pals 2006;McCrae and Costa 2003).…”

“…They are therefore the-orized to be causally prior to traits that are influenced by both core personality traits and contextual factors, which are instead often referred to as "characteristic adaptations" (McAdams and Pals 2006;McCrae and Costa 1996;Olver and Mooradian 2003). These characteristic adaptations, that is, individual-level differences "contextualized in time, situations and social roles" (McAdams and Pals 2006, 208;also see McCrae andCosta 1994, 1996) encompass an array of aspects of human individuality such as values, attitudes (including political attitudes such as ideology), expectations about one's role in society, and personal goals (McAdams and Pals 2006;McCrae and Costa 2003). In the McAdams and Pals model, these characteristic adaptations, such as RWA and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO; a measure of group-based discrimination), are a product of dispositional traits, such as the Big Five (see Akrami and Ekehammar 2006;Ekehammar et al 2004), and the environment (see Sibley and Duckitt 2008).…”

“…We utilize a theoretical framework for studying how personality affects political attitudes and behavior. Building on recent work in psychology, we argue that political attitudes should be thought of as characteristic adaptations-"middle-level units"-that are the product of essential dispositional traits and environmental factors (McCrae and Costa 1999, 145; also see McAdams and Pals 2006). McCrae and Costa (1996) describe characteristic adaptations as "acquired skills, habits, attitudes, and relationships that result from the interaction of individual and environment" (69).…”

Above and Below Left–Right: Ideological Narratives and Moral Foundations

“…These "ideological narratives," as we call them, are clearly like life stories in some ways, but different in some ways, too. Ideological narratives incorporate a reconstructed past and imagined future, often telling a story of progress or of decline, like the redemption and contamination narratives that McAdams finds are common in the individual life stories of adults in midlife (McAdams & Pals, 2006). But life stories cannot be shared; each person must have her own, and each person must be the first author of that story.…”

Modest systems psychology: A neutral complement to positive psychological thinking

“…For example, rather than simply talk about personality traits and characteristic adaptations (McAdams & Pals, 2006), positive psychologists point to 'positive' personality traits. These include a collection of psychological strengths labelled as dimensions of human character --creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective, bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality, love, kindness, social intelligence, citizenship, fairness, leadership, forgiveness and mercy, humility and modesty, prudence, self-regulation, appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, and spirituality (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).…”