When it comes to assigning personality types to characters there are a lot of methods to choose from. There’s Briggs Myers 16 personality types. There are the character archetypes that are found across all genre’s of literature. This is about a different scale. It’s less about assigning a name or role to the characters personality and more about developing the characters personality based on a handful of traits in varying degrees.
Robert McCrae and Paul Costa later developed the Five factor mode for personality study. They summarized that there are 5 basic aspects of personality. The aspects fall on a sliding scale rather than a binary, and the character’s reaction to events and other characters can change their scale when dealing with that specific character.
Each character in a story will have its own personality made of the same traits in differing amounts. You can create the same “Character” and utterly change their personality by adjusting where they fall on each scale.
Extroversion
The more extroverted a character is the more focused they are on the world outside of themselves. Most main characters are extroverted because they must be to move the story forward. That doesn’t mean your character can’t be an introvert. It just means the stakes of the catalyst event will have to personally affect them to pull them into the story.
Agreeableness
An agreeable character will get along with others easily. They are more willing to do things to help others and have a sunnier disposition. The more likely a character is to do someone a favor just because they ask the more agreeable that character may be.
Openness
How many secrets is your character keeping? Who do they let into their inner life? Who do they trust? An open character has few secrets. A secretive character doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s keeping a lot of secrets. Secretive characters can be perceived as mysterious, when they may have no secrets other than they don’t talk about themselves much.
Conscientiousness
How careful is your character? How much attention do they pay to what they are doing? How impulsive are they? Conscientiousness is a trait that is broad, there’s a lot about the trait that still needs to be studied, but for the sake of writing characters the more conscientious a character is the more they are aware of how their actions affect other. A conscientious character is unlikely to do something illegal simply because it would benefit them.
Neuroticism
The more neurotic a character is the more emotionally unstable they are. Highly Neurotic characters are more likely to be anxious and afraid, to have unpredictable mood swings and to react off emotion driven impulses.
