Spring 2020: HUMA 140 - Mr. Rogers Personality Analysis

This report presents a case study analyzing the personality of Mr. Fred Rogers based on the Five Factor Model (FFM). The analysis draws upon information from his New York Times obituary and his sister's obituary to assess his traits across the five dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The report examines Mr. Rogers' disposition, placing him on each dimension and identifying facets where he scored high or low. It explores the influence of both heredity and environment on his personality, comparing his traits to those of his sister. Furthermore, the report speculates on potential changes in Mr. Rogers' brain throughout his lifetime, considering biological maturation and environmental factors. The findings suggest that Mr. Rogers exhibited high levels of extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability, reflecting a combination of inherited traits and environmental influences. The report also references the potential for larger brain regions associated with his personality traits, such as the temporal lobe. Overall, the report concludes that Mr. Rogers' personality was largely shaped by a combination of nature and nurture, and that human personality is dynamic and subject to change.

Running head: A CASE STUDY ON BIG FIVE PERSONALITY THEORY
A CASE STUDY ON BIG FIVE PERSONALITY THEORY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1A CASE STUDY ON BIG FIVE PERSONALITY THEORY
The big five personality theory discusses the five factors that determine the behaviour of
an individual. The five factors are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion
agreeability and neuroticism. According to the scores derived from TIPI, the results show that
Mr. Rogers was an extraverted, open to new experiences, agreeable, emotionally stable and a
conscientious individual. The test showed that Mr. Rogers had scored high in the areas
concerning the areas of extraversion, and dependability. He was a self-disciplined individual. He
scored 6 on extraversion open to new experiences and sympathetic areas [1] He scored a 7 in
being emotionally stable. He scored low in the areas regarding quarrelsome nature, anxious, and
uncreative or conventional. As Mr. Rogers was a television celebrity, he can be said to be
extraverted. He was the host, the producer and the chief puppeteer of his television show [1]. He
was a thoughtful person who cared about the children. This is a sign that he was a
conscientiousness individual who believed in helping others. He was agreeable as his behaviour
towards the children showed that he was always ready to help them. He was ready to talk about
topics such as poverty, death and war and never shied away from them [2]. The different roles
that he played during his whole lifetime show that he was open to experience and was always
ready to take on challenges that came in his life. He was emotionally stable who believed in
helping others.
Therefore based on the big five model of personality, the psychologist would place him
the areas of extraversion, openness to experience, emotionally stable, conscientious and
agreeable. The traits that he possessed were a result of the combination of nature and nurture.
This means that he had inherited certain traits from his parents as the case study reveals that
these traits were also evident in his sister who wrote the obituary. The environment that he grew
up in was also responsible for his developing of traits [3]. The person was a songwriter and was

2A CASE STUDY ON BIG FIVE PERSONALITY THEORY
always ready to engage himself in a hearty conversation with the children to give hem updates
about the world and prepare them for the future.
Mr. Rogers developed stomach cancer. He never smoke and drank and as a vegetarian.
He had never put in weight for more than 150 pounds and had a good health that enabled him to
continue his taping shows. The case study reveals that Mr. Rogers was same on and off the
camera. There is no evidence in the case study that suggests that his brain might have suffered
any lesions during his lifetime as he maintained his health from the very beginning [2]. Though
there are evidences that suggest that his brain might have changed during the course of his
lifetime. With natural biological maturation and the local setting and environment, the structure
of the brain does get influenced [3]. Since it is revealed by the test that he had scored high in the
areas concerning extraversion and agreeability, it seems that the person’s brain was larger in the
temporal lobe. The lobe is concerned with the senses like auditory perception and it processes
information like speech and words into meaningful information.
The life of Mr. Rogers suggests that the human personality can be largely influenced by
the environment and heredity. The human personality can change during the course of years and
that can in turn change the way in which an individual looks at the world [3]. The urge to help
others and prepare them for the word remained the same for him. He remained the same across
all situations according to his wife. He was the same on and off the camera. The life of Mr.
Rogers thus teaches us that the human personality is extremely unpredictable and that it can
change according to different situations [2].

3A CASE STUDY ON BIG FIVE PERSONALITY THEORY
References
[1] Ames, D. R., Bianchi, E. C., & Magee, J. C. (2010). Professed impressions: What people say
about others affects onlookers’ perceptions of speakers’ power and warmth. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 152-158. doi: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.09.
[2] Giluk, T. L., & Postlethwaite, B. E. (2015). Big Five personality and academic dishonesty: A
meta-analytic review. Personality and Individual Differences, 72, 59-67.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.08.027
[3] Kluemper, D. H., McLarty, B. D., & Bing, M. N. (2015). Acquaintance ratings of the Big Five
personality traits: Incremental validity beyond and interactive effects with self-reports in the
prediction of workplace deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(1), 237–
248. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037810
Appendix
1. ___7__ Extraverted, enthusiastic. 2. _3____ Critical, quarrelsome. 3. ___6__
Dependable, self-disciplined. 4. ___2__ Anxious, easily upset. 5. ___7__ Open to new
experiences, complex. 6. ___2__ Reserved, quiet. 7. __7___ Sympathetic, warm. 8.
____1_ Disorganized, careless. 9. ___7__ Calm, emotionally stable. 10. __2___
Conventional, uncreative.