From the Big Five to the General Factor of Personality: a Dynamic Approach

Abstract

AbstractAn integrating and dynamic model of personality that allows predicting the response of the basic factors of personality, such as the Big Five Factors (B5F) or the general factor of personality (GFP) to acute doses of drug is presented in this paper. Personality has a dynamic nature, i.e., as a consequence of a stimulus, the GFP dynamics as well as each one of the B5F of personality dynamics can be explained by the same model (a system of three coupled differential equations). From this invariance hypothesis, a partial differential equation, whose solution relates the GFP with each one of the B5F, is deduced. From this dynamic approach, a co-evolution of the GFP and each one of the B5F occurs, rather than an unconnected evolution, as a consequence of the same stimulus. The hypotheses and deductions are validated through an experimental design centered on the individual, where caffeine is the considered stimulus. Thus, as much from a theoretical point of view as from an applied one, the models here proposed open a new perspective in the understanding and study of personality like a global system that interacts intimately with the environment, being a clear bet for the high level inter-disciplinary research.