Introduction
There is an endless debate on Nature v.s Nurture or in other words, whether we act under the influence of who we internally are or of the environments. Does the fish swim because it is a fish or because it is in the ocean? This short paper will take a brief look at a few influential personality theories, discuss the case of Internet Addiction Disorder and wrap up with some original insights. There are two main purposes. First, by observing how Internet Addiction Disorder can be analyzed by using personality theories that were formed way before the Internet went mainstream, the paper aims for a quick evaluation of such theories’ consistency over time. Second, the paper hopes to inspire original thoughts on how to predict and understand human behavior developments in five to ten years from now, under expectations of deeper human-machine integration, more popular Artificial Intelligence deployment, and much greater risks of cyber-physical attacks.On Personality Models
The "Big Five Personality Traits" theory of Neuroticism (N), Extraversion (E), Openness (O), Agreeableness (A) and Conscientiousness (C) (Costa & McCrae, 1999) can be referred to as the "OCEAN" model. A high "N" means less emotional stability, and less capability to control impulses. A high "E" means high sociability of emotions, more friendly, and more interactive with others. A high "O" score indicates high openness of thinking and emotions, more imaginative and more intellectually curious. A high "A" means high level of co-operative as well as other pro-social behaviors. A high "C" means high level of thoughtfulness and self-controls. Within each category of traits, there are pairs of scales. For example, there are conscientious v.s negligence, hardworking v.s lazy, well-organized v.s disorganized, punctual v.s late, ambitious v.s aimless, and persevering v.s. quitting. Exceptional people lean more towards one end of the pairs while the majority stay at the middle of the bell-curve. Heavily based on empirical principles and factor analysis, the Big Five theory arranged the human behavior domain into building blocks of: basic tendencies, biological bases, characteristic adaptations, self-concept, objective biography, and external influences. Those components are linked together by dynamic processes. This taxonomy recognizes both hereditary and environmental influences. The stability of personality, however, appears to be more under environmental influences.Eysenck’s biologically based factor theory (Eysenck H. J., 1965) has only three factors of personality: extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), and psychoticism (P). This model can be referred to as the "PEN" model. Extraversion and Neuroticism are respectively similar to the E and N in the OCEAN model. A high score in P means higher possibility of engagement in irresponsible behaviors,and more needs for immediate gratification. Eysenk organized his theory into hierarchical structures with specific acts or cognition are at the lowest level, habitual acts or cognition are at the second level, while traits are at the third level. Several interrelated traits will form a "type". All items in this hierarchical structure are strongly based on biology with DNAs as the genetic personality determinants, limbic system arousal as the biological intermediaries.
Buss’ evolutionary theory of personality (Buss, 1991) is based on the evolutionary process whether it is natural or man-made; resulting in three distinct outcomes of adaptations, by-products, and noise (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, n.d.). While "adaptations" are relevant adjustments to challenges from the environments, "by-products" are "non-functional" traits and "noises" are the "accidental" ones. Often, differences in personalities can be interpreted as "noise" or "by-product" of evolution. This theory puts an equal focus on both heredity and environmental influences as specified in its two main classes of mechanism: the physical mechanisms and the psychological mechanisms. There are five general strategies for solving adaptive problems: Surgency/extraversion/dominance Agreeableness Conscientiousness Emotional stability (opposite of neuroticism) Openness/intellect. There are four origins of individual differences: environmental sources, heritable sources, non-adaptive sources (such as neutral genetic variations), and maladaptive sources (such as genetic defects, environmental trauma).
On Internet Addiction Disorder
Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) is an obsessive/compulsive disorder of the newinformation age, involving overuse of the network and its associated technologies (Salicetia, 2015). Variations of IAD include: cyber-sex addiction, cyber relational addiction, online-gaming addiction, online-information addiction, and computer addiction. It is known to cause mood swings, impulse dyscontrol, human relation problems, online loneliness syndrome, self myths, distorted perceptions, low self-confidence, sleep disturbances, bad eating habits, and so on (Salicetia, 2015). Besides the fact that IAD is an important emerging problem worth studying, using different personality theories to analyze IAD will also shed lights onto the topic of nature v.s. nurture on which the strengths of each theory are based.
In a study of 204 IAD patients at the General Hospital of Beijing Military Region and 100 normal people, Xiuquin et. al. found a strong relationship between parental rearing practice and IAD in children (Xiuqin et al., 2010). The methodology employed the Symptom Checklist-90-revision (SCL-90-R), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (EPQ-R), and Egna Minnenav Barndoms Uppfostran (EMBU) questions. From SCL-90-R results, IAD can be predicted by high scores of obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity,depression,anxiety, hostility, and paranoid ideation. From EPQ-R results, IAD can be predicted by low extraversion, and high psychoticism. From EMBU results, IAD can be predicted by parents’ lacks of emotional warmth, over involvement, rejecting and punitive.
In another study of 400 students (m=288) in Kharazmi University (Iran), it was identified that IAD correlates well with high neuroticism, low extraversion, low agreeableness and low conscientiousness with male IAD scores are much higher than that of females (Samarein et al., 2013). The methodology involved Internet Addiction test (IAT), and the NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Conscientiousness was found to be the key factor with non-IAD members were able to control their impulses, stay away from excessive internet use in order to achieve other goals.
Going into the sub-category of cyber-sex addiction, Egan et. al. identified eroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and obsessional checking as the contributing factors to compulsive behaviors that caused cyber-sex addition (egan1979chunking). The team recruited and studied 226 male participants with the mean age of 23.59 years using Theneo-Five Factory Inventory-Revised, Hemaudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI), HE’s Internet Addiction Test (IAT), The Sexual Addiction Screening Test - Revised, and The Cyber-Pornography Use Inventory with AMOS for path analysis. Beyond the scales described in the models, path analysis shows a more complex picture of the issue. For example, some people was a sex addict first while others became cyber-sex addicts after they became internet addicts. Neuroticism was found to be the key factor in cyber-sex addiction. Interestingly, neuroticism was also found to be the key factor in cyber behaviors susceptible to online phishing attacks (Halevi, Lewis, & Memon, 2013). The study also shown that women are more vulnerable to online phishing attacks than men, probably because women are more sensitive to emotional contents commonly found in phishing materials (Halevi et al., 2013).
Analysis and conclusion
From the above-mentioned IAD research works, the impact of Eysenck’s biologically based factor theory was not strongly evident except for the differences between men and women. Some interesting questions awaiting Eysenck theory’s psychologist such as: Were some of us biologically programmed to choose iPhone over Android? Do some of us have certain brain structures that unconsciously push us towards more excessive internet use? Are men more prone to cyber-sex addiction while women are more prone to online-shopping? At the moment, the paper holds a hypothesis that Eysenck’s biologically based theory is not effective in predicting online behaviors, especially when cyber environments change rapidly, and when a lot of internet users act differently online. Going deeper into the future where humans will have deeper integration with machines, this theory might even become less effective. For example, Neuralink has demonstrated a very robust solution for interfacing biological brain with artificial systems, including Artificial Intelligence (Musk & Neuralink, 2019). Despite genetic influences causing irregular brain structures/functions, systems like Neuralink will at least be able to predict certain brain-related issues and engage corrective mechanisms at the neuron level.The OCEAN model (Big Five) was used frequently and found to be best consistent in predicting IAD. It is notable that the theory was formed before the Internet became mainstream and way before cyber hacking became popular. Conscientiousness as the key factor might even be used in the future where external environments change dramatically, such as living on the Moon, traveling to Mars, Artificial Intelligence becoming mainstream, and so on. On this trend of technology evolutions and how they affect human behaviors, Buss’ theory of personality evolution may have the best potentials for explaining and predicting future humans’ behaviors some of which do not even exist yet. Going back to Buss’ example of unconscious and natural selection of members with "best-fit" qualities, it can be used to explain why many young adults jump onto cyber platforms like Instagram and Tinder to look for potential mates. Such platforms can provide benefits such as: "explore mode" (exposing members to a much larger pool of candidates) and "photo filter" (artificially enhancing "best-fit" qualities, making the members more appealing).
The fact that all of the papers used more than one type of inventory for their IAD analysis prompts the need of integrating different personality models. Of no doubt and probably due to greater familiarity, the OCEAN model has been used by many research groups but it has to be integrated with other models and methods. For example, "C" was found to be the key factor regarding IAD while "N" was found to be the key factor in cyber-sex addiction, a sub-category of IAD. While it could be very tempting to put stronger emphasis on external factors especially when external environments evolves with a much faster speed than human biology, integration should be done in a manner that embraces both "nature" and "nurture". Even in the future where cyborg becomes the norm, where humans significantly enhance their bodies with artificial parts, it is still impossible to replace the human brain. Since Buss’ evolutionary theory offers a unique perspective on human behaviors with respect to both internal and external evolutions, it could be integrated with the OCEAN model and the PEN model as well as others.
More importantly, with Buss’s evolutionary theory at the core, we may be able to predict human behaviors in a complex future environment that does not exist yet. One possible application may include modeling human living conditions in Mars missions and predict possible complications in order to pro-actively construct safe mission plans. Manned Mars mission was scheduled for launch no later than 2040 (Space.com, n.d.).
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