Classifying people into different personality types is a favorite exercise among psychologists. Meyers-Briggs is a well-known model for this, though it’s scientific validity remains in question. The “Big Five” model of personality traits is currently considered the best supported system for this, as far as I’m aware. Assessments for this model are pretty frequently included in a lot of the autistic research surveys I participate in, but those don’t typically share your results with you.
Today, I decided to take such an assessment online and see what my scores were. I’m autistic, so it probably shouldn’t be surprising that I scored only 7% on the “openness to experience” scale. My autistic brain depends heavily on routine, familiarity, sameness, consistency in the world around me in order to function. As I’m writing this I am sitting at a desk that I made as a university student, and it’s old enough to drink. In a world that is so frequently impossible for me to predict, creating predictability in my daily routines and environments is essential. The 7% score there doesn’t surprise me.
But also, it does, a lot. When I go out to a restaurant with my partner, I always order the same thing, but when I’m feeling adventurous, I often try a bite of the random dish they choose. I am currently working for my 14th employer of my career, in part because I crave new technology to explore, problems to solve, and people to learn from. At this point in my educational process, I have spent more years in university than I did in grade school, and though I’m only a quarter of the way through this master’s program, I’m already thinking about what I’m going to study next. My backlog of books to read, educational youtube videos to watch, podcasts to listen to are each longer than my remaining lifespan can accommodate. Learning new things is my primary coping strategy for dealing with my depression. My ADHD brain craves the novelty.
The openness to experience score is intended to be a continuum. People who take the test are placed somewhere along its axis between craving pure novelty vs craving pure familiarity. But at least for me, I don’t feel like I’m anywhere in the middle. I definitely crave familiarity more than just about anyone I know, but I simultaneously crave novelty more than just about anyone I know. Somehow I am at both extremes on this scale at the same time. Figuring out how to leverage routine to maximize novelty is a strange idea, but that’s what I continue to strive towards.