The Positive Emotion OCEAN

My recent writing has covered:

1. BIS/BAS,
2. The emotion of awe,
3. The fixedness of personality (OCEAN),
4. Openness to new information, experience, and
5. The value of goal achievement.

A 2007 study by Michelle Shoita¹ (et al), covers these topics with bonus coverage of attachment (another of my favorite psychology subjects). It is a great read and provides valued insight into the topics covered on this website.

...the different positive emotion dispositions... appear to predict orientation toward different kinds of rewards in different life domains. There are many different kinds of reward in the environment, just as there are many different kinds of threat. A functional response in the presence of chocolate differs, quite obviously, from the functional response to a newborn infant. Conscientiousness² was only associated with positive emotion derived from agency in the environment. Agreeableness was only associated with positive emotion derived from intimate social bonds. Openness was most strongly associated with positive emotion experienced during complex gathering and manipulation of information, although it also strongly predicted compassion (suggesting that Openness to Experience facilitates perception of others as valid claimants of one’s caregiving), and significantly predicted joy and love.

The study highlights the value of priming Openness to Experience before the process of confronting a Fury (i.e. a trauma-object). Confrontation triggers compassion, and the willingness to accommodate a harsh, unintegrated experience.

Self-compassion, the impulse to heal one’s own emotional pain, is the sense of providing comfort, safety and guidance for the anticipated experience. Accommodation, rather than assimilation, is the sense of updating beliefs, internal models and personal stories to allow for a previously unassimilatable experience.

A priming step before the confrontation could be a valuable enhancement to the process. This step would create an experience of curiosity, amusement or awe to enhance a sense of Openness to Experience. Possible priming actions:

1. Contemplating scene of natural beauty and vastness,
2. Mediation to consider divinity,
3. A moving experience from music or art, or
4. Other triggers for the emotion of awe.

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1. Shiota MN, Keltner D, John OP. Positive emotion dispositions differentially associated with Big Five personality and attachment style. 2006;1(April): p61-71. ↩

2. The Big Five personality traits are Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism (colloquially, OCEAN). The qualities of personality, as suggested by this study, strongly link to the quality of a person’s experience of the emotions of Joy, Contentment, and Pride (achievement emotions); Love and Compassion (social emotions); and Amusement and Awe (information emotions). For more discussion on OCEAN and personality stability, see my essay Stuck In A Mobile. ↩