As a continuation of my previous post on Happiness, I’ll talk a little bit about Positive Psychology (PP) and the lessons we can learn, as writers, from this emerging field (perhaps in a way you might not predict, though.)
In 1998, the American Psychological Association’s then-president, Martin Seligman, used the term “Positive Psychology” to describe a new trend in Psychology research: the study of how humans become and stay happy. Dr. Seligman was tired of mental illness being the sole purpose of Psychology research and practice; He wanted Psychology to study more of what makes and keeps people happy instead of only mending the sick. PP has been the trending topic in Psych since then. Graduate students are clamoring to study topics like resiliency, decision-making, sense of control, character strength and uplifting traits. Journals publish more and more studies about the effects of “learned optimism.” Books like Stumbling on Happiness by Dan Gilbert are topping New York Times’ bestseller lists.
Like with all emerging fields, PP has its critics. The biggest and strongest critique of PP is that the field isn’t regulated. Any person can stick the term “Positive Psychologist” on the end of their name and claim to know how to apply the concepts that certified scientists and counselors developed. This means that every “life coach” kook is all over the Web promoting themselves as a “PP Counselor,” and no law or national certification program is barring them from doing so.
Another critique that is of lesser strength but more relevant to us as writers is the type of personality PP seems to attract. Those kooks on the internet and late-night infomercials are the most slimy of the bunch, but from an outsider’s view it does seem that the PP people have drunk the kool-aid. PP people are very gung-ho and tend to be exuberant evangelists for the field. The majority of them are do-gooders at heart; they want people to be happy and they think they’ve found science that can help.
Do you know a person like that? A person who stresses the positive so adamantly that it becomes unbelievable or in the very least, annoying? Your answer to this question will probably have more to do with your own place on the cynical scale than with the PP-type you’re remembering, but nonetheless let’s take a look at that character more closely. This person isn’t a snake-oil salesman; they are what I call a Believer. For reasons they usually aren’t too familiar with themselves, Believers truly feel that their solution is the answer to many people’s problems. How does a first encounter with a person like this go? What are you thinking? What would by-standers think as they listened to your conversation?
One thing about people who are enthusiastic about life is that they are usually magnetic. They light up a room, they are always surrounded by a crowd. People naturally gravitate toward other people who are happy and seem in control. But what happens when you get close enough to see that they are just trying a tiny bit too hard to be legitimate? What if the consistency or substance isn’t there? How does that character keep up the charade? How do you see it? How, if there is truly no substance, do you as a reader discover it? Will it be in the Believer’s frayed pant leg or missing button? Will it be in the quick glance down she makes after every human encounter? Just like the emerging field of PP, every character must have cracks in the armor. Even the Truest-Happiest-Believer-of-All-Things-Positive has a ding in the shield. What is it? Does the critique of that person’s belief-system hold water? Could the character make a journey over time to mend the damage?
You need both positive and negative forces in opposing characters for your novel or work of fiction to be memorable. Chart which side, positive or negative, your character will fall on. No middle ground. You can make a sliding scale (using a common measurement tactic from Psychology), but you still must divide the scale into two halves. The scale can have two of any extremes (e.g. Grape Jelly Fan vs Strawberry Jelly Fan), but you need to put each of your characters on that spectrum.
If PP had its way with your characters, they would test them on a variety of scales to diagnose current states and predict future behaviors. PP would look at self-efficacy (which is like “agency” – the ability and belief that one can accomplish tasks and goals on their own), resiliency (the ability to bounce back from trauma) and perhaps even sense of humor and daily laughter rates. The science behind PP is the same as a lot of Personality, Developmental, and Behavioral Psychology, they are just choosing to measure different traits. As writers, we tend to go into the dark sides of characters; It’s almost easier to write drama than it is to write pleasantries. But having no happy characters, or people who are optimists that promote achievement and satisfaction in others, isn’t giving your novel the opportunity for some significant conflicts.
Have no fear if your IQ score in 2nd grade was less than ideal! Don’t worry if your main character is a dud! Below are some interesting skills that can liven up any party, fictional or non!
My husband Gary and I have a friend (who we haven’t seen in a while) named Dave. We met Dave in college. Dave was a very short and slight guy with a personality bigger than a house. Dave was bubbly and he loved everything and everybody. Besides the incredible penchant for enjoying life, Dave seemed like your typical college student. He hung out with us, drank beer, played pool (and lost miserably but never cared) and stressed over term papers. Everything was copacetic.
Until one day Dave announced that he was getting a part-time job at the McDonald’s on campus. That in itself didn’t seem so bad, but then Dave enthusiastically announced that he asked for the first shift. A cry of disbelief rose from the room of friends. “DUDE! That means you’ll have to get up at like, 4 AM in the MORNING!” Dave brushed off our warnings of sure failure and happily started his job at MickeyD’s, sometimes leaving the house before the sun rose. We all gave him a week.
For three years, I lived in a third floor walkup apartment in a lovely 7-unit brownstone building at 18th and Pine. Most of us renters were in our twenties and early thirties except “Ellen”, a woman in her late 50’s. Ellen seemed a bit strange but she was friendly and a good neighbor. We all knew each other pretty well.
Ellen, like me and half of Philadelphia, worked at the University of Pennsylvania. One night we both had worked late and ended up on the same Center City shuttle. I sat down with her and began chatting away. Ellen was more shy and reserved than normal.
Our stop came and Ellen hustled to get out of the shuttle (which, I understood perfectly – those shuttle drivers think South Street is the Autobahn). After tugging my bag free from the overstuffed masses on the shuttle, I had to jog a bit to catch up with paunchy, middle-aged Ellen, who was booking it and clutching her purse the same way I hold Peeps at Easter. Just quirky Ellen being Ellen, I thought. It was pretty dark. To help her feel more comfortable on the 2 block walk home, I continued chatting in lower tones. Ellen would nod nervously.
We arrived at the front door. Ellen’s knuckles were white around her keys. I could feel her anxiety skyrocket when I stepped up behind her, readying myself to hold the very heavy door for her. That’s when she said it.
It’s been a long day. After carting the kids around town on errands, you hope to do a quick return at the department store. You are about to pull into a prime parking space when you are cut off by a man in a Mercedes. You finally get into the store and are standing in line for 15 minutes when the same man cuts in front of you in line. This is Mr. N. You protest to Mr. N, firmly, but he ignores you. Trailing behind Mr. N is a frazzled store clerk, pleading with him that he is going in the wrong direction. Mr. N loudly insists that the customer service return desk is where he needs to be. Mr. N acts like his is the King of the Store. In fact, he is so utterly rude that you wonder if he isn’t a regional manager of some sort. Upon listening to his totally random and unrelated request, you realize Mr. N is not a manager of anything. In fact, he’s just a self-centered jerk. You have no choice but to sit and wait for Mr. N to leave.
Mr. N has what Sigmund Freud termed “Narcissism.” Based on the mythology character Narcissus who was said to fall in love with his own reflection, Freud characterized narcissism by extreme conceit and self-centered behavior. Narcissists also relentlessly seek admiration and are prone to a dramatics.
From Words Mean Things: Do you tend to be late or on time? I am pathologically on time – even when I don’t try, I’m there five minutes before I’m supposed to be. My friends, on the other hand, are almost always late. This infuriates me.
Perennial lateness inhibits success. It’s annoying. It slows progress. And yes, it is disrespectful. Someone once told me: “Being late is one of the most selfish things you can do.” Many people share that opinion. And if it happens to be someone you work with, work for, or sell to—you’re doomed.
Passive-aggressive personality disorder (also called negativistic personality disorder) is a controversial personality disorder said to be marked by a pervasive pattern of negative attitudes and passive, usually disavowed resistance in interpersonal oroccupational situations. It was listed as an Axis II personality disorder in the DSM-III-R, but was moved in the DSM-IV to Appendix B (“Criteria Sets and Axes Provided for Further Study”) because of controversy and the need for further research on how to also categorize the behaviors in a future edition. On that point, Cecil Adams writes:
Merely being passive-aggressive isn’t a disorder but a behavior — sometimes a perfectly rational behavior, which lets you dodge unpleasant chores while avoiding confrontation. It’s only pathological if it’s a habitual, crippling response reflecting a pervasively pessimistic attitude.[1]
A behavior like habitual lateness seems to divide the populace. Some believe that it isn’t any big deal, that’s why people add (or subtract?) 15 minutes to the REAL schedule, so the latecomers can settle in. Others become supremely annoyed at any sign of tardiness by anyone, no matter what the circumstance. I personally say that flexibility is key, a great personality trait for anyone to have. Some people aren’t capable of returning that flexible favor, though, when you are the late one.
Kids especially. Routine-mongers that they are, any crink in the expected schedule can send almost any child into rage. Thankfully, most of us grow out of it. But what if your character hasn’t gained the flexibility one needs to “roll with the punches” in life? On the other hand, what if your character is habitually late? What if these two polar opposites were related? An on-time employee and an always-late boss? An on-time wife and a lagging husband?
Your personal approach to being on-time to things is fantastic fodder for your character building. Make sure to write the opposite approach into at least one character. Everyone knows this tension; I myself have a friend that I will never drive with again, because she made us to whatever functions we were attending. It’s quite a dodging dance when I think up excuses as to why we can’t carpool. It seems rude and accusatory to actually tell her the truth, so I have to come up with plausible reasons why I want to destroy the environment and take two cars. I’m sure you have similar experiences you can draw upon. The Late/On-Time debate is built-in tension.
Ask yourself, why is my character always ten minutes (early or) late for everything? Are they early because they fear they’ll “miss” something? Doesn’t looking overeager matter to them? Or, is my character trying to avoid a situation? Who at this party does she hate and not want to see and why? Does my character come from a different culture that disregards schedules (Latin America) or sticks to schedules like white on rice (Germany?)
So don’t feel blocked by character traits. As an observant citizen of the world you already have enough knowledge of the inner workings of human personality on which to build great characters.
Sorry for my late post. I’ll try not to make a habit of it!
There are a ton of sites on the web offering scaled-down versions of famous personality tests, like Myers Briggs or the MMPI.Lots of sites offer free tests, but they aren’t reliable ones; in fact, most of the tests are just plain fake. Still, I think you should go and take a few.
Why take a unreliable personality test? Well, I want you to channel your character. Answer like the character would. If you can’t finish the test because you get stumped, then write down the question and think about it. Form that character firmly in your mind so you’d be able to answer typical personality test questions. Do this for many different characters. If your characters are based on real people (loosely, of course!) then answer as that real person would. This exercise will help you put real meat onto your strawman; that background investigative work will come through in your writing.
But I must emphasize again: USE THESE TESTS AS A TOOL FOR CHARACTERS ONLY. If you want reliable information about your own personality, you must see a professional who is licensed to administer the tried-and-true tests. Only those tests (that take hours to fill out, by the way) and the skilled interpretations of a professional will give you information you can count on. There. That’s my very serious disclaimer.
Now go pretend to be your characters and find their most intimate motivations!
One of my characters likes to collect antiques. What does this say about her? Characters with a collecting habit can be pretty interesting. The plotline can go so many different ways.
My background is in psychology. Now I’m a writer. And I blog. Why not bring those three interests together? Introducing WACKO WEDNESDAYS!
Every Wednesday, I’ll introduce a personality trait/disorder writing meme. Use the info to add interesting facets to your characters. We all have little behaviors/beliefs/superstitions/pathology that make us unique. Your characters are the same way. Make them memorable, give ‘em a small disorder or related personality flaw.
Since it’s raining here on this chilly Fall day, let us start Wacko Wednesdays simply with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
I’m sure you’ve heard of SAD. In a nutshell, it is depression in the winter months. Experts debate on its causes, origins, treatments and whether or not it should even have a name other than “depression,” but SAD has been publicized enough that you can write it into your novel and assume most readers can follow along (the controversy can help make things interesting, too).
Here is an academic article explaining SAD. The article goes into detail about the symptoms and behaviors of a person with SAD. Here’s a link from that page that leads to an end-user pamphlet explaining SAD, which contains enough information for you to get the gist, including this:
Not everyone with SAD has the same symptoms, but common symptoms of
winter depression include the following:
A change in appetite, especially a craving for sweet or starchy
foods
Weight gain
A heavy feeling in the arms or legs
A drop in energy level
Fatigue
A tendency to oversleep
Difficulty concentrating
Irritability
Increased sensitivity to social rejection
Avoidance of social situations
Symptoms of the summer depression version of SAD are poor appetite,
weight loss and insomnia. Either type of SAD may also include some of the
symptoms that are present in other kinds of depression, such as feelings of
guilt, a loss of interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy, ongoing
feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, or physical problems such as
headaches and stomach aches.
Symptoms of SAD keep coming back and tend to come and go at about the
same time every year. The changes in mood are not necessarily related to
obvious seasonal stressors (like being regularly unemployed during the winter).
Simply write these things into a character’s profile, and have the character (and plot) act accordingly. This type of research for personality quirks can be done easily on-line. A developmental or adolescent psychology textbook also has a wealth of information that can help you build believable, “real” characters.
Do you have any questions or suggestions for the WW meme? Please comment here or email me at yahoo(dot)com with username ccp6867.
Come back to PC on Wacko Wednesdays for the next personality quirk meme!
As a continuation of my previous post on Happiness, I’ll talk a little bit about Positive Psychology (PP) and the lessons we can learn, as writers, from this emerging field (perhaps in a way you might not predict, though.)
Tags: annoying optimist, book, character, fiction, how to write, is positive psychology a cult, learned optimism, novel, posi, positive psychology, Right-in, writing character, Writing Exercises 
Entries (RSS)