Guest Post: Neuroticism in YA Characters (OCEAN #5)

This is the last in the OCEAN series of guest posts about personality traits from Najela of Brave New Adventure! She's talked about openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness in her previous posts.

Neuroticism is one of the more interesting personality traits. Neuroticism refers to the ability to cope with negative emotions, such as anger, sadness, guilty not exactly how often you experience these emotions. This is also known as emotional stability. It would be unrealistic to say that people never experience these emotions, it's a human emotion, but the spectrum can deal with people who don't know how to cope with negative emotions and people who can cope with emotions with little to no upheaval of their everyday lives.

There are many books that describe characters and their varying degrees of neurosis. There are characters like Sophie Mercer from Rachel Hawkin's Hex Hall Series and Jamie from Sarah Rees-Brennan's Demon's Lexicon Series tend to resort to humor to deal with fear and other negative emotions.

Small things such as having strange tendencies to cope with anxiety inducing situations. These are just quirks and and everyone has them, but there are varying degrees of neuroses. There are a few stories out there that deal with neurotic tendencies that interfere with every day life. Things like Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or severe phobias interfere with the daily lives of people and characters in fiction stories as well. In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda goes nearly mute from PTSD after being date raped at a party. Other characters such as Christopher from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time who due to his unique form of autism has social phobias. These aren't bad negative ways of dealing with life altering events, people can only react. In other stories such as C.J. Omololu's Dirty Little Secrets, the main character Lucy has to deal with her mother's own neurosis as a severe hoarder after a bitter divorce.

The conflicts of these novels either deal with a character overcoming a certain neurotic tendency (i.e. Melinda learns to speak up for herself, Christopher learns to overcome his fears to solve a mystery) or the dealing with parents who have trouble coping with stress such as Janie's alcoholic mother from Lisa McMann's Dreamcatcher series.

So knowing this, how do you think those traits interact with the traits of other characters in your stories. Mixing and matching these various traits can bring out some very interesting plot twists and character developments. Think of character with a high level of neurosis and low on openess. How would they fair in a dystopian novel for example or a contemporary story? What about a character who is high on agreeableness and low on conscientiousness? How would they fair in a paranormal romance or a thriller?

In my opinion, putting a character with traits that you wuold expect in an extraordinary circumstance yields for a chance to show strong character development as the character adapts to their surroundings. Just think about how the traits your character has and the situation they are in? Do they fit the circumstances? How do their traits grow over time? Certain situations can cause other tendencies to become stronger and others to fade away.

Thanks for reading. I hope this gets the creative juices flowing and thinking of characters in a different way. Happy writing.

Najela is a recent graduate from UC Riverside with a dual degree in Psychology and Creative Writing. She is actively trying to combine the two majors while working as a Behavioral Interventionist for children that have autism. She is current pursuing a Master's Degree in Exceptional Student Education and working on an illustrated college guidebook set to release hopefully by (late) November 2011. You can follow her at her website or her tumblr. 

Thank you so much, Najela, for putting together this interesting and informative series of posts!

Guest Post: Agreeableness in YA Characters (OCEAN #4)

This is the fourth in the series of guest posts about personality traits in YA characters from Najela of Brave New Adventure! She's talked about openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion in her previous posts.

A stands for agreeableness which refers to people who are pleasant and friendly, and well, agreeable. Agreeableness, like extraversion, seems to be incredibly varied and situationally based. People who are on the opposite end of the spectrum tend to be less pleasant and friendly, but that doesn't mean that they aren't or can't be. In nearly all of the personality traits, these are just the natural tendency that people tend to fall into. None of these are fixed.

Agreeable characters in young adult novels are typically going  to the generally nice and relatable characters, pleasant to be around, relatively sociable, and fun to be around. They might be the people pleasers, the ones who can never say no, or sacrifice themselves for other people in the story. Most characters in young adult novels have to have a certain level of agreeableness, not many people want to read about overtly rude or unpleasant people. Not to say that characters can't be rude, but most people read characters that could be real people. So they can have their moments, but if a characters were unexplicably rude for no reason, a reader might be turned off and ultimately put the book down.

Characters who don't start off agreeable, the crux of their conflict is to be more aggreeable. And vice versa. Some of my favorite examples of this trait are shown in Bianca from The Duff and Anna from Anna and the French Kiss.


I chose Bianca because she's cynical, sometimes rude and mean, and definitely not always agreeable as far as traits are concerned. She's been burned by love before and is hesistant to start a new love. She's not very nice to anyone, but experiences with her parents divorce, using sex as a distraction, and taking her friends for granted allow her to mature and see the error of her ways. She's still not completely aggreeable, nor does she have to be, but she is more aggreeable to the people in her inner circle-- her parents, her friends, and a certain special someone.


I choose Anna because she is generally aggreeable, pleasant to be around, friendly and charismatic (when she finally gets comfortable with everyone), but she goes through periods of time when she closes herself off to people who care about her and doesn't see the people who are willing to talk with her about her problems (there's one scene in particular where Anna is confronted by her other friends that she ignored during some of her rough times that sticks out to me). After Anna survives her ordeal and *spoiler alert* gets the guy, she is back to her old self, but wiser, and more mature.

As with the previous post, think of how this trait would interact with other traits. What about a character who is low on conscientiousness but high on agreeableness? How do you think they would act? Think about some of your own characters or your favorite characters in books? How do you think they'd fair on the agreeability scale? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Najela is a recent graduate from UC Riverside with a dual degree in Psychology and Creative Writing. She is actively trying to combine the two majors while working as a Behavioral Interventionist for children that have autism. She is current pursuing a Master's Degree in Exceptional Student Education and working on an illustrated college guidebook set to release hopefully by (late) November 2011. You can follow her at her website or her tumblr. 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on agreeableness as a trait in YA characters, Najela!

Guest Post: Extraversion in YA Characters (OCEAN #3)

Najela from Brave New Adventure has stopped by previously to discuss the personality traits of openness and conscientiousness in YA characters, and today she's back to talk about extraversion!

E stands for Extraversion and is probably one of the most varied in terms of YA characters. Extraversion refers to personality traits of people who are outgoing, sociable, and more assertive. Introversion refers to people who prefer to keep to themselves and are more reserved. Most people tend to be ambiverts, people who have both traits of extraversion and interversion. According to Wikipedia, most people tend to be ambiverts (up to 68% of the population) with extraversion and introversion being the extremes.

I believe that most characters in YA tend to be ambiverts with leanings closer to either side of the spectrum when the situation calls for it. For example, characters in a new setting, while they may be originally outgoing and sociable maybe be a little reserved when encountering new people. They may have to warm up to the new group before returning to their usually outgoing self. Conversely, a character who is usually reserved may be forced to be sociable and outgoing in the same situation. One could never know how they would act in an unknown situation. Essentially in writing, this is what the point of the entire story would be about.

The best examples of Extraversion, Introversion, and essentially Ambiversion are novels involving an ensemble casts. One the best known, in my opinion would be The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series by Ann Brashares in which each girl invokes a different trait. For those who are unfamiliar with the Sisterhood series, the books follows the friendship of four girls, Carmen, Tibby, Bridgette, and Lena and their journey through their teenager years and their subsequent adulthood. The most vivid characterization in my opinion would be from the first book where you can see the range of girls go from and everything inbetween. Bridgette, who seems popular and outgoing becomes reserved and dispassionate after a situation crushes her emotions.

As with the last post, many characteristics interact and enhance or dimension each other. Imagine a character such who is high on agreeableness(which we'll discuss in the next post) and extroversion such as June, an eager to please young girl from The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, and June. Or characters such as Katniss from the Hunger Games who I'd say is high on conscientiousness, but more of introvert? Especially in the case where a character is put through a situation they had never gone through before? In the case of Katniss, even though I see her as being introverted, she was forced into a situation where she had to be more extroverted, yet she still had to be smart about who she allied herself with.

What about your characters? What do they classify as? Intorverted? Extroverted? Or something inbetween? Share in the comments.

 Najela is a recent graduate from UC Riverside with a dual degree in Psychology and Creative Writing. She is actively trying to combine the two majors while working as a Behavioral Interventionist for children that have autism. She is current pursuing a Master's Degree in Exceptional Student Education and working on an illustrated college guidebook set to release hopefully by (late) November 2011. You can follow her at her website or her tumblr. 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the extraversion-introversion spectrum in YA, Najela!

Guest Post: Conscientiousness in YA Characters (OCEAN #2)

Najela from Brave New Adventure is stopping by the blog today with her second guest post on personality traits! To read the first post on openness in YA characters, go here.

In continuing with the psychology of character or OCEAN, today is for C. C stands for conscientiousness, which refers to attention to detail, conscious decision making (thinking before they act) . Someone who is high on conscientiousness may be a perfectionist, but have a good work ethic and dependable. Someone who is low on conscientiousness probably jumps into situations without thinking through them.

In my opinion, I do not think many characters in YA novels are high on conscientiousness. The prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain involved with decision making, is not fully developed at this age. This is why teenagers tend to make poor choices. It's really inevitable that a character will make a bad choice. Characters should make bad choices, it makes them flawed, it makes them human. Just because a character is high on conscientiousness doesn't mean they still don't make bad choices. They may be more inclined to think the situation over beforehand and still go ahead and make the wrong decision.

Characters low on conscientious may not think through there actions. The conflict of this character may be learning to think of the consequences of their actions or to be come more self-aware. A character who is high on conscientiousness may think too much on their actions. The conflict of this character may be to learn to not analyze situations and jump in. There are many characters that fall on the range.

In looking through my reviews for a character that represents this trait, I thought of Marcelo from Francisco X. Stork's Marcelo in the Real World. Marcelo, in my opinion, is highly self-aware and is incredibly perceptive and particular about the way he keeps things and goes through his routine. He knows what he can do, but in this course of the story he learns his limitations and his strengths. I think its an interesting look at conscientiousness because we have a character who is thought to have a condition that affects his level of self-awareness (the book never explicitly says but it's a form of autism/aspergers). And yet, it turns out, he is one of the most conscientious characters in the novel because he constantly thinks through his actions and the implications of what he does. The struggle of the novel is whether he is going to do what is right or do what is easiest. I chose Marcelo because he seems to embody the trait, but also subvert it by being subjected to situations that is not black and white.

As mentioned in the last post, think about Tolstoy's theory of shading. How would conscientiousness play with other traits such as extraversion or agreeableness? How do these traits play out in the course of the story? Does it help or hinder your characters?

Discussion: Do you know any characters in books that are high or low on conscientiousness? What about your characters, how would they rate? Share your thoughts!

Najela is a recent graduate from UC Riverside with a dual degree in Psychology and Creative Writing. She is actively trying to combine the two majors while working as a Behavioral Interventionist for children that have autism. She is current pursuing a Master's Degree in Exceptional Student Education and working on an illustrated college guidebook set to release hopefully by (late) November 2011. You can follow her at her website or her tumblr. 

Thanks, Najela, for this interesting look at conscientiousness (or the lack thereof!) in YA characters.

Guest Post: Openness in YA Characters (OCEAN #1)

 I'm happy to welcome Najela from Brave New Adventure to the blog today for a Psychtember guest post! This is the first of 5 guest posts from Najela, each discussing a different personality trait of the "Big Five" in YA novels.

The Big Five Personality Approach

The Big Five Approach is a way of studying various aspects of personality. The five traits in this personality category are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (Emotional Stability). Together these words make the acronym OCEAN (or CANOE, if you're old school according to my teachers.)

Openness to experience refers to the ability to think creatively or imaginatively and to be open to new experiences. The testable measures of openness are fantasy, values, aesthetics, feelings, actions, and ideas.

Someone who is high on openness may be impulsive and sensation seeking. Someone who is low on openness maybe reserved and withdrawn. However, this trait alone isn't the end all or be all of your characters. My creative writing teacher refers to Tolstoy's idea of shading your characters. All of these traits interplay with each other and give your character depth. Try exploring how these traits would play off one another. What would happen to someone who is high on openness and high on neuroticism?

Some characters that speak out to me as being high on openness tend to be teenagers. In fact, I feel that most teenagers in YA books need to have some degree of openness. That's one reason why I read YA novels because these characters are open to experience as ultimately most teens are. These experiences shape their identities and that's the interesting part to me. Whereas in adults, openness tends to decline with age and unless there are extremely well-written and/or can have me invest in the characters, are not as open to new experiences as teenagers tend to be. Most young adult novels deal with changes that usually can't be controlled (moving, losing a best friend, romance, etc...)so they have to find some way to cope. That is the conflict.

What happens when you get too high on the spectrum? One character that comes quickly to mind would be Alaska from John Green's Looking for Alaska. When you read the novel, you can see that all the characters are sensation seeking and impulsive, but not to the point where its an overall problem. Except for maybe, Alaska, who's openness interacts with other traits (neuroticism?) to cause the conflict to come into play.

A character who has a decent balance of openness would be typically most teenagers in YA fiction. They can sometimes be a bit apprehensive, but at the same time willing to try new things. When I was a teenager, I was a bit reserved, but could be prone to being impulsive when the mood struck me. Others I know were constantly doing something impulsive, possibly even reckless, and they had to deal with consequences. Others I know hardly took any chances and as a result didn't have to deal with the consequences of their own actions, but the actions of others. That can make for great tension and a good read. Characters from books like this would be Caleb and Corinne from Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles who have to deal with the consequences of their friend's actions. Also Clay Jensen from Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Each of these characters are a balance of control and impulsiveness, but ultimately they are paying for the consequences of the others around them. (Ellie and Josh from Jumping Off Swings and Hannah from Thirteen Reasons Why)

Very rarely will you find a character that is low in openness. They may start off that way, but for the story to work and be compelling, the conflict comes when they pushed into the open and need to start dealing with the situation. Most urban fantasies and paranormal romances start off like this. An inciting incident or encounter with paranormal, a disbelief, another encounter, belief, then action. One book that follows this pattern is The Iron King by Julie Kagawa. At the beginning, Meghan does not believe in faeries. Ultimately, a character needs to overcome that problem to protect the ones they love. A story about a character who isn't inclined to experience anything makes for a boring novel and a passive character.

So readers: Do you know any characters that would rate high, low, or balanced in a novel? What about your own characters, how would they rate on the openness scale? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Najela is a recent graduate from UC Riverside with a dual degree in Psychology and Creative Writing. She is actively trying to combine the two majors while working as a Behavioral Interventionist for children that have autism. She is current pursuing a Master's Degree in Exceptional Student Education and working on an illustrated college guidebook set to release hopefully by (late) November 2011. You can follow her at her website or her tumblr.  

Thanks, Najela, for sharing your insights on openness in teens and how this is reflected in YA novels!