Big 5 Personality Test and Spiral Dynamics

[Wyze]

Do you think there might be correlations here? For example, specific personality traits allow people to access the levels quicker?

[Bluebird]

Openness is going to be a very helpful trait for moving up stages, not to mention a high Openness score is going to increase your likelihood of seeking out information like Spiral Dynamics.

Other than that you can be Neurotic, Extraverted, or Conscientious at any stage.

Perhaps high Agreeableness could hold you back to the stage of your culture and the surrounding environment, but it could also play to your advantage if you find yourself in the right environment. I don't think disagreeableness is likely to help though, as it tends to just be reactionary to whatever you are told rather than integrative.

[Wyze]

@Bluebird I also think openness is a very interesting trait. To break away from Orange way of being, requires a certain amount of "ability to handle the unusual".

I've also noticed that the higher the Spiral, the less "emotional" but at the same time the more empathetic the person becomes. Its almost like if the person can handle their Neurotic traits, they can move up the Spiral. They also become more Agreeable.

I feel like the Big 5 and SD are more similar due to their fluid nature.

[Bluebird]

@Wyze Big Five isn't really that fluid, and it doesn't have a built-in mechanism for growth or evolution. So I don't think they're too similar, but seeing both and integrating them into a more cohesive mental model is certainly useful.

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if the person can handle their Neurotic traits

I agree with this, I think the moving up the spiral comes not from handling their neurotic traits, but in trying to find out how to handle them. For example, a miserable orange banker wants to figure out why money hasn't made him happy and so searches around. In this search he finds green values and in his desperation tries them on for size.

Also psychedelics have been shown to increase trait Openness, so give someone some psychedelics and watch them evolve up the spiral

[Wyze]

@Bluebird I guess I see it as personality traits are more adjustable, because it depends on your environment and context. I find on my results, it changes over time.

Say for example: If you were born in an agreeable family but live in a dysfunctional society, then in order to survive; you take on disagreeable behaviour but you cover it up. (I think here I differentiate between real agreeableness and covered-up-agreeableness). I think Big 5 is a closer measure of neuroplasticity, even tho the model doesn't allow "growth"

Its interesting that you differentiate between Neurotic traits and ability to handle neurotic traits. Isn't it the same thing? I see it as to understand and handle one's neurotic traits means lowering the chance of reacting due to them? So those same neurotic traits will no longer be "neurotic"? Hence lowering it on the Big 5 tests over time. And as a result increase true agreeableness due to empathy?

I find the dynamic between Conscientious and Openness also interesting. Can high in Conscientious be also high in openness?

 

[Bluebird]

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Its interesting that you differentiate between Neurotic traits and ability to handle neurotic traits. Isn't it the same thing? I see it as to understand and handle one's neurotic traits means lowering the chance of reacting due to them? So those same neurotic traits will no longer be "neurotic"? Hence lowering it on the Big 5 tests over time. And as a result increase true agreeableness due to empathy?

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Sure, we're just arbitrarily dividing the point at which it happens differently. We're fundamentally agreeing though.

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Can high in Conscientious be also high in openness?

Can be, but not necessarily, and it's often the opposite.

I see what you're saying about the neuroplasticity, I think you have a default mode, and situations (or your own will) can certainly force you into a new set of traits. In that sense you can grow, but unlike SD growth in Big Five is not evolution necessarily, just change.

However, I think that contra-directional growth, that is, being able to temporarily embody the other side of the trait is definitely a form of growth.