Hello all.
In an earlier series of posts, I put on my Psychology Professor Hat and talked a bit about the psychology of horror fiction (Part One, Part Two, Part Three). Today I turn to Personality Psychology.
I am a fan of the Dresden Files series of books by Jim Butcher, and one of the most central things that keeps me reading is the complex and believable personalities Jim has created for his characters, with emotional lives and interpersonal relationships that feel genuine.
Below is a description of the main character (Harry Dresden) using the most robust and influential approach to current personality research: the Five-Factor Model. I created this profile to serve as an example paper in my class syllabi, so that students can see what a properly-written and formatted paper looks like. I also created it because it was fun. I hope that you find this an interesting take on a beloved character, and be sure to leave a comment below if you agree, disagree, or want to expand on my analysis.
Harry Dresden and the Five-Factor Model
Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden (conjure by it at your own risk) is a fictional wizard and detective in the long-running Dresden Files series of novels, written by Jim Butcher. In this urban fantasy series, Harry is a hardboiled private eye on the mean streets of Chicago, tracking clues and protecting his clients while dealing with gangsters, informants, thugs, thieves, underworld bosses, hitmen, and femme fatales (not all of whom are human, and many of whom wield magic more powerful and dangerous than Harry’s own). In this profile, I will be describing Harry’s personality in terms of the Five-Factor Model (McCrae & Costa, 2003). For those readers who are planning to start the series, or who are only a few books in, I offer this warning: I will be discussing events in the book series. Take this as your spoiler alert.
The Five-Factor Model of personality has roots in the work of Raymond Cattell (1945), who used the statistical technique of factor analysis to analyze the English language, searching for common themes in the words that we use to describe ourselves and others (McAdams, 1997). While attempts to determine how many traits are needed to accurately describe human personality have produced a variety of lists with a variety of lengths, the approach that has emerged as the most important and enduring in trait psychology centers around a list of five factors (McCrae & John, 1992). The Five Factor Model (also called the “Big Five”) has been supported by several decades of research, and although it was first developed using the English language, analyses of languages as widely-varied as Dutch, Japanese, Hebrew, Tagalog, and Czech have produced the same factorial structure (John, 2021).
The five factors of personality are “dimensions of individual differences in tendencies to show consistent patterns of thoughts, feelings, and actions” (McCrae & Costa, 2003, p. 25), and the unique personalities of individuals are described in terms of their relative placements on these dimensions. One person might display more of a given trait, while another might show less of it. These five factors are Extraversion, Neuroticism, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness (McCrae & John, 1992). After a brief description of each of the five factors, I will present my argument for the degree to which Harry Dresden displays each of the five.
The first factor is Extraversion. People who display a high degree of extraversion would be described as active and assertive, energetic, gregarious, and poised in social situations. Those with a low degree of extraversion (sometimes called “introverts”) tend to avoid social activity, show submissiveness rather than assertiveness, have less interest in sensation-seeking activities, are less impulsive, and may be described by others as “emotionally bland” (McCrae & Costa, 2003, p. 53). Those with a high degree of extraversion are often playful and skilled at humor (McCrae & John, 1992). While Harry does have a sarcastic sense of humor, the majority of the evidence from the series points to a very low level of extraversion. He is by no means socially skilled, to the point that his friend Karrin compared his awkward demeanor with that of a person on the autistic spectrum (Butcher, 2010a). Harry’s lifestyle is one of near-reclusiveness, preferring to spend his days tinkering in his basement laboratory, walking his oversized dog, and reading books, and he finds loud music annoying (Butcher, 2012). Harry’s half-brother taunts him for being dull, as does his apprentice Molly. The only reference that we get to Harry having a social life is a regular roleplaying game in which he participates with a few friends (Butcher, 2009).
The second factor is Neuroticism. People with high neuroticism scores are nervous, hostile, prone to guilt, and may be described by others as worriers and as “thin-skinned” (McCrae & Costa, 2003, p. 53). They tend to be self-pitying, brittle, and concerned with issues of adequacy (McCrae & John, 1992). Those with a lower degree of extraversion are calm and relaxed, emotionally stable, objective, and feel more satisfaction with the world and themselves (McCrae & Costa, 2003). Emotional calm does not come naturally to Harry; he rather identifies with Tolkien’s adage about wizards being quick to anger (Butcher, 2010), he displays a pessimistic outlook on multiple occasions, once summarizing it by saying “I believe that there’s a cloud for every silver lining” (Butcher, 2005, p. 487), and his temper has led him into trouble on more than one occasion. His guilt interferes with his ability to reach out to his daughter, and he is prone to bouts of self-pity, both of which are called out by Michael Carpenter, one of Harry’s closest friends. Although Harry is not the most neurotic worrier of the series (that honor goes to the nervous coroner-turned-knight Waldo Butters), his hostility and self-consciousness show a fairly high degree of neuroticism.
The third factor is Openness. People who show high levels of openness are introspective and intellectual, valuing nonconformity and beauty, while those with lower scores prefer conventionality and moral conformity, and are uncomfortable with complexity (McCrae & Costa, 2003). Those with high levels of this trait tend to be artistic, curious and insightful (McCrae & John, 1992). Openness scores have been shown to predict higher educational attainment (Goldberg et al., 1998) and a wide range of musical interests (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006). This trait is the one in which I would argue Harry shows the highest level. Harry’s intellectual tendencies and curiosity are seen in his constant research into new and interesting forms of magic, which he finds more delighting and rewarding than any of the thrilling heroics that he gets up to as a detective (or in his later role as Winter Knight). “Unconventional” could be considered a defining feature of this character. He is the only wizard to openly advertise his services, and the only wizard to carry a revolver. Harry specializes in outmaneuvering his opponents by discovering creative solutions to problems. Perhaps the two pinnacles of this characteristic are his defeat of a cadre of necromancers by means of a zombie dinosaur (Butcher, 2005), and his elaborate outwitting of Nicodemus Archleone in the raid on Hades’ vault (Butcher, 2015).
The fourth factor is Agreeableness. People with high agreeableness scores are warm and generous, trusting, considerate and compliant. Those with lower disagreeableness scores tend to be critical and skeptical, pushing limits and feeling free to openly express their feelings of hostility (McCrae & Costa, 2003). Harry shows below-average levels of this trait. He is not a particularly warm individual, often described by friends and family as grouchy and ill-tempered, and a lifetime of disappointment and betrayal has ingrained in him a pattern of habitual suspiciousness. Once a person gets through that outer layer of distrust and distance, though, they find a man who is generous and considerate. Harry often gains an advantage over his enemies, not by blasting them with magical fire, but by relying on support from his friends. Examples include his longstanding connection to a pack of werewolves, his alliance with Toot-Toot Minimus and the wee folk, and his relationship with his vampiric half-brother Thomas.
The fifth factor is Conscientiousness. Conscientiousness carries with it a preference for order, planfulness, and a strong sense of duty (McCrae & John, 1992). People who display high levels of this trait are responsible and dependable, adhering to ethical standards, preferring order above disorganization, and working hard toward their aspirations. Those with lower levels of conscientiousness tend to lose themselves in daydreams, have difficulty delaying gratification, and indulge their desires (McCrae & Costa, 2003). Conscientiousness scores predict success in a number of different domains of life, including physical health (Friedman & Hampson, 2021) and the workplace (Mount, Barrick, & Stewart, 2011). Harry shows signs that would point us both in the direction of high and low levels of this trait. Gosling and colleagues (2002) found that people with high conscientiousness cores tend to have well-organized, uncluttered working spaces; Harry’s basement laboratory is cluttered with piles of books and random objects, which is contrasted with the tidy and meticulously-organized lab space of his apprentice Molly (Butcher, 2010b). Harry’s relationship with structured organizations and authority are such that he is regarded as nearly a personification of chaos by the police, and by the White Council of wizards. While this would argue for low levels of conscientiousness, Harry is also consistently shown to have an intensely strong sense of duty and loyalty, doing what is right rather than what he desires. Examples include sheltering Morgan, his most vicious enemy on the White Council, when Morgan is falsely accused and hunted by the Wardens (Butcher, 2009), and protecting his friend’s daughter, who has committed magical acts that carry the death penalty (Butcher, 2006). He also shows the planful meticulousness to construct a perfect scale model of Chicago (which he uses for magical surveillance purposes). I would argue, then, that Harry shows moderate levels of conscientiousness.
Taken together, these five factors shed light on the complexity of Harry Dresden’s character. The usefulness of this approach in helping us to better describe this character also shows the value of the model itself, and demonstrates one of the reasons for the robust longevity of the FFM.
References
Butcher, J. (2005). Dead beat. Roc.
Butcher, J. (2006). Proven guilty. Roc.
Butcher, J. (2009). Turn coat. Roc.
Butcher, J. (2010a). Side jobs. Roc.
Butcher, J. (2010b). Changes. Roc.
Butcher, J. (2012). Cold days. Roc.
Butcher, J. (2015). Skin game. Roc.
Cattell, R. B. (1945). The description of personality: Principles and findings in a factor analysis. The American Journal of Psychology, 58(1), 69-90.
Friedman, H. S., & Hampson, S. E. (2021). Personality and health: A lifespan perspective. In O. P. John & R. W. Robins (Eds.), Handbook of personality theory and research (4th ed.) (pp. 773-790). Guilford Press.
Goldberg, L. R., Sweeney, D., Merenda, P. F., & Hughes, J. E. (1998). Demographic variables and personality: The effects of gender, age, education, and ethnic/racial status on self-descriptions of personality attributes. Personality and Individual Differences, 24(3), 393–403. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-8869(97)00110-4
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John, O. P. (2021). History, measurement, and conceptual elaboration of the Big‑Five trait taxonomy: The paradigm matures. In O. P. John & R. W. Robins (Eds.), Handbook of personality theory and research (4th ed.) (pp. 35-82). Guilford Press.
McAdams, D. P. (1997). A conceptual history of personality psychology. In R. Hogan, J. Johnson, & S. Briggs (Eds.), Handbook of personality psychology (pp. 3-39). Academic Press.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T. Jr. (2003). Personality in adulthood: A five-factor theory perspective. Guilford Press.
McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An introduction to the five‐factor model and its applications. Journal of Personality, 60(2), 175-215. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1992.tb00970.x
Mount, M. K., Barrick, M. R., & Stewart, G. L. (1998). Five-factor model of personality and performance in jobs involving interpersonal interactions. Human Performance, 11(2-3),145-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959285.1998.9668029
Rentfrow, P. J., & Gosling, S. D. (2006). Message in a ballad: The role of music preferences in interpersonal perception. Psychological Science, 17(3), 236–242. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01691.x