Psychology of Character Personality #1: the ABC Model
“Much of what we call emotion is nothing more or less than a certain kind - a biased, prejudiced, or strongly evaluative kind - of thought.”
In this post, we’ll analyze one piece of the puzzle of personality, why we are who we are and why we make the choices we make.
Human character and personality can be as mysterious and complicated of a topic as it can be its physical anatomy—everybody is unique in the details of the traits that define them. Our history, genetics, experiences, and culture, all become embedded in who we are and are expressed through our personality. In real life, we often try to understand who people truly are by analyzing their actions and behaviors. In writing fiction, we often try to decide a character's actions or behavior based on who we decided that character is. Imagining how an imaginary someone will act in a certain situation isn't always easy, especially if we want to keep that personality consistent and somewhat realistic. It can be useful to look at some of the psychological models used in real life with real people to help make sense of this thing we call personality. Today we'll examine how our history creates our beliefs and how those, in turn, are reflected in our actions. There is obviously way more content out there than I can fit in a single post, but we can start by taking a look at one of the easier ones. We will cover quickly some perspectives on behavior, personality, trauma, habits. Hopefully, it will take you on the right path of making sense of this big topic.
The ABC model
The ABC model is a somewhat basic (although widely used) model born from CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) describing how a particular event is processed and transformed into a personalized response to it. I describe this model as basic because it covers the general topic of behavior, without going into many details and complications of character development.
The premise of this model from CBT is that our response to any positive or challenging event that happens to us is not determined by the event itself but by our interpretation or elaboration of it. The same exact situation presented to two different people can have two different, sometimes completely opposite, consequences. In other words, our actions are not solely determined by what happens to us, but it's who we are in relation to what happens to us that determines our next actions. These actions or reactions can be either external (taking physical actions) or internal (creates an emotional reaction).
In the ABC model, we start our cycle even before stage A takes place. Before the activating event occurs, we exist in a stage of precondition where our ideas and beliefs lie dormant in us. This is the space that all our variables from genetic to memories shape in us. The believes and thoughts they create are very present and alive in our brain but didn't have a chance of being expressed yet, until, that is, a particular event happens that triggers them. The more extreme the belief is, the more specific situations can trigger big, irrational reactions.
Who we (or the fictional characters) are is created by our own unique belief system that will be expressed through our actions. Creating a clear and consistent belief system for our characters can make it easier for us to imagine how they will react to specific circumstances and challenges. Obviously, our beliefs and interpretations of the world can, and often are, irrational and unrealistic, which is what gets us in trouble. A specific event can spark irrational thoughts that create emotional responses: sadness, anger, disappointment, frustration, fear, guilt…
Beliefs are often the product of previous experiences that have been developed into the character through either learned behavior (repetition over time of a certain pattern) or defense mechanisms (coping behavior used to heal from hurt). That's where the history of the character or the person can be useful to understand the person they have become in the present. Chances are that even the most unhealthy behavior that the character present has been the most logical reaction they had to save themselves from an undesired situation. The more extreme the situation of the character, the more extreme would be their reactions to a similar event in the present. These learned behaviors can become maladaptive and damaging in the current situation.
For example, based on the beliefs that you or an imaginary character has, imagine how they could react to the following, somewhat uncomfortable, events:
Somebody you know doesn't say hello to you
You're not invited to a party where everybody is going
An important assignment is given to someone else at work
Based on these activating events (A), what conclusions will you or your character draw?
What thoughts will these events spark?
Are the thoughts positive or negative?
What actions will be derived from these thoughts?
EXAMPLES FROM FICTION
MEGAMIND
Example 1: Megamind himself expressed his belief: "It's me and minion against the world", and so he acted in accordance to it. He was trying to become part of the group and be appreciated. But people hurt him, and his response was to separate himself from them to eliminate those hurtful feelings. You can see clearly during the movie how he still wants to join the city and interact with the other citizens, although outwardly pretending not to care about them. Later in the story, he will be forced to revisit his own belief and resolve his hurt from the past in order to be accepted and become part of the same community he rejected many years before.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
Example 2: In the first movie of the series How To Train Your Dragon, the Vikings (and the audience) are presented with the "truth" that dragons are inherently dangerous and need to be fought through means of physical strength in order to keep the village and all its inhabitants safe. Even though from the information we have been presented at the beginning of the movie this looks like a logical choice, we will learn by the end of the story how much what they believe is making the Vikings’ life more difficult. As they change their beliefs about the dragons, they inevitably also change their relationships with them.
DEVELOPING INSIGHT AND GROWTH
Sometimes we get stuck in our own irrational beliefs forever, often making our life harder than it should be. Other times, however, we have a chance of escaping our irrational beliefs through a moment of insight. Sometimes we or our character can get lucky and something in the environment forces upon them a new perspective. Other times, although rarely, we are ready to see something we couldn't see before, we watch our own thoughts and realize the absurdity of them. The pursuit of insight and the development of new behavior, leading through the growth of the individual, is often the goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and can become the plot of an entire movie.
How to train your dragon is an example of exactly this type of story (big battles, cool dragons, and explosions aside). The characters start the plot with the belief that dragons are their enemies and act in alignment with that ideology, creating as a consequence a war between the two groups. A moment of insight is being forced upon Hiccup as he frees the night fury from his trap, and toothless, in return, does not harm Hiccup, revealing his peaceful nature. This forces Hiccup to question his previously held beliefs, also initiating the plot of the movie.
So the full picture should look something like this:
In short, characters and people reveal who they are by the action they take in response to events that happen to them. The beliefs and value system of a character are often determined by events that happen to them in the past and the coping mechanism they develop to deal with those situations. Not every movie plot is based on changing the beliefs of the character, some of them can have a more external, physical threat to overcome. Nevertheless, knowing and developing a rich character background will help make his choices more believable, realistic, and coherent.
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