Colin G. DeYoung is a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota).University of Minnesota Website His research is in the field of personality psychology and personality neuroscience.Colin DeYoung Homepage
Background DeYoung earned his A.B. in the Mind, Brain, Behavior program of the History and Science concentration at Harvard University in 1998. He obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology in 2000 and 2005, respectively, at the University of Toronto where he studied under Jordan B. Peterson.
Research DeYoung's research in personality psychology has examined the theoretical structure of personality and the biological basis of personality.
Models of Personality In contemporary psychology, the most commonly accepted model of personality structure is the "Big Five" or "Five Factor Model."Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative "description of personality": The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 1216-1229.Costa, P. T.,& McCrae, R. R. (1992). Four ways five factors are basic. Personality and Individual Differences, 13,653–665. Research using factor analysis has suggested that the five domains of the Big Five have two higher-order factors, referred to as metatraits.Digman, J. M. (1997). Higher-order factors of the Big Five. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73,1246–1256.DeYoung, C. G., Peterson, J. B., & Higgins, D. M. (2002). Higher-order factors of the Big Five predict conformity: Are there neuroses of health? Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 533-552. The two metatraits are Stability, which is composed of Big Five factors of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Emotional Stability (the reverse of Neuroticism) and Plasticity, which includes the Big Five factors of Extraversion and Openness/Intellect (commonly referred to as Openness to Experience). Stability is defined by one's maintenance of stability and hypothesized to be related to the neurotransmitter serotonin, while Plasticity is seen in one's adaptability to novelty and hypothesized to be related to the neurotransmitter dopamine.DeYoung, C. G., Hasher, L., Djikic, M., Criger, B., & Peterson, J. B. (2007). Morning people are stable people: Circadian rhythm and the higher-order factors of the Big Five. Personality and Individual Differences, 43, 267-276. DeYoung has also proposed an expanded classification of the Big Five dividing each of the Big Five into two sub-dimensions. DeYoung, Quilty and Peterson (2007)DeYoung, C. G., Quilty, L. C., & Peterson, J. B. (2007b). Between facets and domains: 10 Aspects of the Big Five, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 93, 880-896. suggested the following aspects of the Big Five factors: Neuroticism: Volatility - irritability, anger, and difficulty controlling emotional impulses Withdrawal - susceptibility to anxiety, worry, depression, and sadness Agreeableness: Compassion - empathetic emotional affiliation Politeness - consideration and respect for others' needs and desires Conscientiousness: Industriousness - working hard and avoiding distraction Orderliness - organization and methodicalness Extraversion: Enthusiasm - positive emotion and sociability Assertiveness - drive and dominance Openness/Intellect (or Openness to Experience): Intellect - ingenuity, quickness, and intellectual engagement Openness - imagination, fantasy, and artistic and aesthetic interests The classification system utilizing these ten aspects allows for nuanced discrimination within the Big Five, which can reveal subtleties in differences in personality domains otherwise undetected.
Biological Basis of Personality DeYoung et al.'s (2010)DeYoung, C. G., Hirsh, J. B., Shane, M. S., Papademetris, X., Rajeevan, N., & Gray, J. R. (2010). Testing predictions from personality neuroscience: Brain structure and the Big Five. Psychological Science, 21, 820–828. research indicates that the sizes of certain brain regions are related to four of the five different domains of the Five Factor Model. The volume of the medial orbitofrontal cortex, which is responsible for coding reward values, was positively associated with Extraversion. Neuroticism was related to reduced dorsomedial prefrontal cortex and posterior hippocampus volume and increased mid-cingulate gyrus volume, which are areas sensitive to threat and punishment and associated with negative emotion and emotional dysregulation. Reduced posterior left superior temporal sulcus and increased posterior cingulate cortex and fusiform gyrus volume were associated with Agreeableness and have been shown to be involved in the interpretation of others' motives and beliefs. Increased volume in the middle frontal gyrus in the left lateral prefrontal cortex, an area responsible for maintaining and executing information and planned action, was positively correlated with Conscientiousness. Openness/Intellect (Openness to Experience) was the only member of the Big Five lacking a significant relationship to brain structure volume. However, other research by DeYoung et al. (2009)DeYoung, C. G., Shamosh, N. A., Green, A. E., Braver, T. S., & Gray, J. R. (2009). Intellect as distinct from Openness: Differences revealed by fMRI of working memory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 883-892. has shown that Openness/Intellect is related to brain function in the prefrontal cortex.
A helpful overview of 'Personality and the Brain' is provided by Glenn Wilson (2012) while Allen & DeYoung (2016) provide an overview article of 'Personality Neuroscience and the Five-factor model' in the Oxford Handbook of the Five Factor Model of Personality.T.A. Widiger (ed), The Oxford Handbook of the Five Factor Model, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017,
References
External links Colin DeYoung Homepage Complete list of publications University of Minnesota Website