You-Know-Who

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Arguably, the best part of the Harry Potter series is it's rich and diverse cast of characters. Although everyone can agree that the main antagonist, Voldemort, was evil, there is far more to his personality than what you see at the surface level.

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Openness: moderate-high

Voldemort scores high in this area in the sense that he is extremely smart and intellectual. He was hungry for knowledge and power, and not afraid to go to the darkest corners of the world to find what he wanted. However, he has a deep-seated hatred for muggles, showed him to be close-minded.

Conscientiousness: very high

Voldemort had great self-discipline and went to great lengths to plan every detail of his schemes. Although he had no regard for the rules, while a student at Hogwarts he showed he was able to achieve great academic success and to follow the rules carefully, even rising to the role of prefect.

Extroversion: low

In public, Voldemort may have seemed extroverted. However, most of his plans were known only to himself. Because he hated others, he did not enjoy their company, and spent much of his time scheming alone. His most prized possessions were his horcruxes, which in fact were extensions of his own self.

Agreeableness: very low

When it suited his way, Voldemort was able to act agreeable in order to manipulate others. However, he was actually a very cold and calculating person. He had no regard for others' feelings, and treated them as disposable objects. In this sense, Voldemort was almost on the level of a psychopath.

Neuroticism: moderate-high

Voldemort was usually able to keep his emotions well hidden from others. However, he was prone to bursts of rage when things did not go his way. He also often let his true fear slip, especially during times when Harry Potter got the upper hand.

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This is a pretty good assessment of Voldemort using the OCEAN personality traits. The only thing I would like to add may be that in the extroversion paragraph, I agree that he is low in extraversion, but most of his plans were not kept entirely to himself because he had his Death Eaters and even Draco Malfoy carry out most of his deeds for him, so they were all well-informed of most of his plans. Other than that, I liked it and it was an interesting read!

This was a very good idea; I think Voldemort is an excellent example of the OCEAN personality traits. I think you summed up his personality extremely well with the five traits, which is impressive seeing as Tom Riddle was an extremely complex person.

I really think it is interesting how fictional characters can be developed so deeply! As we learned in lecture, cartoon characters are predictable and hilarious because of their exaggerated personality traits. Very cool!

This is a great assessment of Voldemort using the OCEAN traits. I think it is so interesting that the traits are even applicable to fictional characters from books, and that it is quite easy for people to assign the traits to the characters. I definitely agree that he is low in agreeableness (obviously) and I thought it was interesting that you would assign him low extraversion. After reading your defense of it though, I completely agree.

This was very interesting! It is always fun to assess movie characters using the OCEAN analysis. Voldemort was a good candidate due to his distinct personality. I agree with what you rated him in all of the categories, especially your point about his extraversion. Nice job!

I think that Voldemort is a great example of the five traits of personality. He not only exhibits many traits that can fit into these categories, but he's more of an evil character which is interesting to categorize alone. He is for sure low in agreeableness. He is a dominant character that doesn't take orders from anyone. A few of your points I was not agreeing with at first but reading why you wrote them made me also agree with you. they were nice points about why he would be high or low in each category. It is interesting how a character can fit into so many different categories and be the evil character he is.

I love Harry Potter and my favorite field of psychology is personality so when I saw this entry, it instantly engaged my interest. I thought that this was a great assessment of Voldemort's personality traits. Fictitious characters, whether from books, movies, or television series, are always a great example to analyze using OCEAN because their characteristics are usually exaggerated, or at least highlighted.

Great assessment on the personality traits of "you know who".
It made me realize all the background character work an author has to do on their fictional cast to deliver captivating stories such as Harry Potter. Sometimes I think that we forget all the character development that has to happen within books AND movies to make a plot line convincing. For this to happen, a character's personality cannot be so black and white, just as how people in real life are NOT so black and white at all. Seeing Voldemort as more than just the "bad guy", but a young man who had his own troubles, gives audiences more to hold on to.

Wow. Great idea for a blog post. To be honest, I have to agree with *almost* all of your ratings on the OCEAN scale. However, I might personally give Tom Riddle a lower score on Openness. You're correct that his constant experimentation and willingness to dabble in new dark magic defines his personality, but I also consider "being mindful of other opinions" as integral to Openness. Being open to me means being willing to listen to the voices of others; in Voldemort's case, this only occurred through confirmation bias of his dedicated followers.

This was very interesting and a creative way to put psychology into such a great movie. I agree with all the ratings given.

As an avid Harry Potter follower, I particularly enjoyed this post, and I completely agree with how his traits were considered. This was overall really entertaining to read, and I loved the application to a character I am very familiar with.

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This page contains a single entry by degro050 published on April 22, 2012 1:02 PM.

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