Thoughts for the Serious Reader of Harry Potter
I’d love to hear some responses to this recent column in The Chronicle of Higher Education. I expect our Headmaster has a different take on the Twilight series.
I will be the first to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of Twilight… my main motivation for reading it was to appreciate John’s Spotlight book more. And unlike Harry, Hunger Games and Divergent (all of which get a mention in the Chron article as well!) I never felt a need to re-visit Bella’s tale.
But the column is well worth discussing.
As promised, I hope to eventually get up a few posts about the neuroscience of Divergent. First up… mirror neurons.
Jeanine has her faults, of course, but she and her colleagues do a pretty good job of explaining what they are in Insurgent. First discovered in monkeys in the early 1990’s, mirror neurons are in the motor control areas that fired both when the monkey did a specific action (like reaching for a peanut) and when the monkey saw another monkey (or human reasearcher) perform the task. The first definitive recordings of mirror neurons in humans were made in 2010. In humans, mirror neurons appear to be both more numerous and more widespread, and have been credited with making everything from imitation, to language, to empathy to civilization itself possible in our species. For a brief overview of their potential importance, I suggest this 8-minute TED talk excerpt from neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran. Elsewhere, Ramachandran has been quoted as saying that the discovery of mirror neurons will do for psychology what cracking the DNA code has done for biology. A pretty tall order for a bunch of cells.
Spoilers ahead!
In Part One , I argued that four Factions of the Divergent series (Erudite, Abnegation, Candor and Amity) line up with four of the “Big Five” personality dimensions: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Agreeableness, respectively. That leaves Dauntless to be paired with Neuroticism, which seems a mismatch at first glance. But, by delving a bit deeper into both the place of Neuroticism within personality theory and to the reality of the past and present Dauntless Faction, we find that they really do line up as well as the other four.
Individuals with high Neuroticism scores are considered sensitive/nervous versus secure/confident. They are prone to irritation, rage, sadness, and anxiety, which puts them at risk for depression, phobias and panic. They often overreact to difficult circumstances and perceive adversity as harder than it actually is. For this reason, this domain is sometimes called by an alternate name, “Mental Instability.”
*If the following phrases accurately describe you, a personality psychologist would likely rate you high on Neuroticism.
As before, plot points will be revealed. Spoiler warning. [Read more…]
On her Harper Collins website, Divergent and Insurgent author Veronica Roth declares, “I’m interested in psychology, especially as it relates to personality, brain chemistry, and group dynamics.” Each of the five Factions of Roth’s dystopian society corresponds to one of the personality dimensions described in the Five Factor Model of human personality. This model has its roots in 1960’s research by Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal, through which they identified five measurable dimensions that could be used to describe most variations in human personality. Their work remained largely ignored for 20 years, but was rediscovered in the 80’s and 90’s by a variety of independent research teams. Today, the Five Factor Model is one of the main driving forces in personality research. The component domains, often called the “Big Five Factors,” are today known as Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Psychology students often find the mnemonic OCEAN useful for remembering them.
When the characteristics of the Big Five are held up against the traits typical of the five Factions of the Divergent world, a near-perfect correspondence is apparent. Many of the phrases listed in tests used by researchers to measure the different personality domains could just as easily be used by Roth to describe her Factions. Let us visit each Faction, and each Factor in turn. Spoiler note: I will discuss some of the key plot points of both Divergent and Insurgent; do not continue if you do not want them spoiled. [Read more…]
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