(목요모임) [23 Feb. 2017]Thursday meeting topic

[주영이]

Topic 1) Personality Traits & Personality Types: What is Personality?

What makes you who you are as a person? You probably have some idea of your own personality type — are you bubbly or reserved, sensitive or thick-skinned? Psychologists who try to tease out the science of who we are define personality as individual differences in the way people tend to think, feel and behave.

There are many ways to measure personality, but psychologists have mostly given up on trying to divide humanity neatly into types. Instead, they focus on personality traits.

The most widely accepted of these traits are the Big Five:

• Openness
• Conscientiousness
• Extraversion
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism

Conveniently, you can remember these traits with the handy OCEAN mnemonic (or, if you prefer, CANOE works, too).

The Big Five are the ingredients that make up each individual's personality. A person might have a dash of openness, a lot of conscientiousness, an average amount of extraversion, plenty of agreeableness and almost no neuroticism at all. Or someone could be disagreeable, neurotic, introverted, conscientious and hardly open at all.  Here's what each trait entails:

Openness

Openness is shorthand for "openness to experience." People who are high in openness enjoy adventure. They're curious and appreciate art, imagination and new things. The motto of the open individual might be "Variety is the spice of life."

People low in openness are just the opposite: They prefer to stick to their habits, avoid new experiences and probably aren't the most adventurous eaters. Changing personality is usually considered a tough process, but openness is a personality trait that's been shown to be subject to change in adulthood. In a 2011 study, people who took psilocybin, or hallucinogenic "magic mushrooms," became more open after the experience. The effect lasted at least a year, suggesting that it might be permanent.

Speaking of experimental drug use, California's try-anything culture is no myth. A study of personality traits across the United States released in 2013 found that openness is most preval‎‎ent on the West Coast.

Conscientiousness

People who are conscientious are organized and have a strong sense of duty. They're dependable, disciplined and achievement-focused. You won't find conscientious types jetting off on round-the-world journeys with only a backpack; they're planners.

People low in conscientiousness are more spontaneous and freewheeling. They may tend toward carelessness. Conscientiousness is a helpful trait to have, as it has been linked to achievement in school and on the job.

Extraversion

Extraversion versus introversion is possibly the most recognizable personality trait of the Big Five. The more of an extravert someone is, the more of a social butterfly they are. Extraverts are chatty, sociable and draw energy from crowds. They tend to be assertive and cheerful in their social interactions.

Introverts, on the other hand, need plenty of alone time, perhaps because their brains process social interaction differently. Introversion is often confused with shyness, but the two aren't the same. Shyness implies a fear of social interactions or an inability to function socially. Introverts can be perfectly charming at parties — they just prefer solo or small-group activities.

Agreeableness

Agreeableness measures the extent of a person's warmth and kindness. The more agreeable someone is, the more likely they are to be trusting, helpful and compassionate. Disagreeable people are cold and suspicious of others, and they're less likely to cooperate.

Men who are high in agreeableness are judged to be better dancers by women, suggesting that body movement can signal personality. (Conscientiousness also makes for good dancers, according to the same 2011 study.) But in the workplace, disagreeable men actually earn morethan agreeable guys. Disagreeable women didn't show the same salary advantage, suggesting that a no-nonsense demeanor is uniquely beneficial to men.

Neuroticism

To understand neuroticism, look no further than George Costanza of the long-running sitcom "Seinfeld." George is famous for his neuroses, which the show blames on his dysfunctional parents. He worries about everything, obsesses over germs and disease and once quits a job because his anxiety over not having access to a private bathroom is too overwhelming.

George may be high on the neuroticism scale, but the personality trait is real. People high in neuroticism worry frequently and easily slip into anxiety and depression. If all is going well, neurotic people tend to find things to worry about. One 2012 study found that when neurotic people with good salaries earned raises, the extra income actually made them less happy.

In contrast, people who are low in neuroticism tend to be emotionally stable and even-keeled.

Unsurprisingly, neuroticism is linked with plenty of bad health outcomes. Neurotic people die younger than the emotionally stable, possibly because they turn to tobacco and alcohol to ease their nerves.

Possibly the creepiest fact about neuroticism, though, is that parasites can make you feel that way. And we're not talking about the natural anxiety that might come with knowing that a tapeworm has made a home in your gut. Undetected infection by the parasite Toxoplasma gondii may make people more prone to neuroticism, a 2006 study found.   

Other personality measures

Though personality types have fallen out of favor in modern psychological research as too reductive, they're still used by career counselors and in the corporate world to help crystallize people's understanding of themselves. Perhaps the most famous of these is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. A questionnaire based on the work of early psychologist Carl Jung sorts people into categories based on four areas: sensation, intuition, feeling and thinking, as well as extraversion/introversion.

Sensing and intuition refer to how people prefer to gather information about the world, whether through concrete information (sensing) or emotional feelings (intuition). Thinking and feeling refer to how people make decisions. Thinking types go with logic, while feeling types follow their hearts.

The Myers-Briggs system is rounded out with the judging/perception dichotomy, which describes how people choose to interact with the world. Judging types like decisive action, while perceiving types prefer open options.

The use of the Myers-Briggs is controversial, as research suggests that types don’t correlate well with job satisfaction or abilities.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience,Facebook & Google+.

questions!

• 1. What are some characteristics of your personality?
• 2. Are you happy with your personality?
• 3. Would you like to be different?
• 4. Are you shy ? In which occasions are you shy?
• 5. Do you consider yourself selfish ? Why?
• 6. Is your personality suited to your job?
• 7. In what way has your personality changed? Why has it changed??
• 8. Are you more introverted (focused on your inner world) or more extraverted (focused on other people and the outer world)?
• 9. Do you think you can change a major characteristic of your personality if you try?
• 10. What personality traits do you consider important in a good friend / a boss / a partner?
• 11. Do you think birth order makes a difference in your personality?

Topic 2. Talk nerdy to me

http://www.ted.com/talks/melissa_marshall_talk_nerdy_to_me/transcript?language=en

Five years ago, I experienced a bit of what it must have been like to be Alice in Wonderland. Penn State asked me, a communications teacher, to teach a communications class for engineering students. And I was scared. (Laughter) Really scared. Scared of these students with their big brains and their big books and their big, unfamiliar words. But as these conversations unfolded, I experienced what Alice must have when she went down that rabbit hole and saw that door to a whole new world. That's just how I felt as I had those conversations with the students. I was amazed at the ideas that they had, and I wanted others to experience this wonderland as well. And I believe the key to opening that door is great communication.

We desperately need great communication from our scientists and engineers in order to change the world. Our scientists and engineers are the ones that are tackling our grandest challenges, from energy to environment to health care, among others, and if we don't know about it and understand it, then the work isn't done, and I believe it's our responsibility as non-scientists to have these interactions. But these great conversations can't occur if our scientists and engineers don't invite us in to see their wonderland. So scientists and engineers, please, talk nerdy to us.

I want to share a few keys on how you can do that to make sure that we can see that your science is sexy and that your engineering is engaging. First question to answer for us: so what? Tell us why your science is relevant to us. Don't just tell me that you study trabeculae, but tell me that you study trabeculae, which is the mesh-like structure of our bones because it's important to understanding and treating osteoporosis.

And when you're describing your science, beware of jargon. Jargon is a barrier to our understanding of your ideas. Sure, you can say "spatial and temporal," but why not just say "space and time," which is so much more accessible to us? And making your ideas accessible is not the same as dumbing it down. Instead, as Einstein said, make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. You can clearly communicate your science without compromising the ideas. A few things to consider are having examples, stories and analogies. Those are ways to engage and excite us about your content. And when presenting your work, drop the bullet points. Have you ever wondered why they're called bullet points? (Laughter) What do bullets do? Bullets kill, and they will kill your presentation. A slide like this is not only boring, but it relies too much on the language area of our brain, and causes us to become overwhelmed. Instead, this example slide by Genevieve Brown is much more effective. It's showing that the special structure of trabeculae are so strong that they actually inspired the unique design of the Eiffel Tower. And the trick here is to use a single, readable sentence that the audience can key into if they get a bit lost, and then provide visuals which appeal to our other senses and create a deeper sense of understanding of what's being described.

So I think these are just a few keys that can help the rest of us to open that door and see the wonderland that is science and engineering. And because the engineers that I've worked with have taught me to become really in touch with my inner nerd, I want to summarize with an equation. (Laughter) Take your science, subtract your bullet points and your jargon, divide by relevance, meaning share what's relevant to the audience, and multiply it by the passion that you have for this incredible work that you're doing, and that is going to equal incredible interactions that are full of understanding. And so, scientists and engineers, when you've solved this equation, by all means, talk nerdy to me. Thank you.

Questions:

1. Are you interested in science and technology? Why or why not?

2. What efforts should be made for scientists to better communicate with the public?

3. What are some qualities of a good communicator? Do you think you are a good communicator? Why or why not?

4. Why do Korean youth avoid the study of pure sciences in college? What should be done to encourage students to study pure sciences?

토픽 제공 해 준 수잔나, 시에나 감사 드립니다.

[John Park]

재미있는 주제네여..

[Judy*]

Talk nerdy to me 두번째 topic을 위해 TED동영상과 한국어해석을 조기 위에 블로그에 올려놨으니 이해 안되시는 분은 참고하세요.