Character Creation

Psychological Profiles for Writers.

Use psychological concepts as a foundation for building believable characters.

Craft believable characters by creating profiles based on real theories and disorders. This adds authenticity.

A psychological profile is an analysis of an individual’s personality, behaviors, motivations, and thought patterns. For writers, profiles provide realistic character development.

Areas of character psychology.

Personality traits

Cognitive processes

Emotional tendencies

Behavioral patterns

Past experiences

Coping mechanisms

Interpersonal relationships

Values and beliefs

To add realism, draw from established psychological theories. Here are a few popular theories to consider.

The Big Five Personality Traits: This model describes personality by five broad factors: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Use this framework to define your character’s core personality traits. A character high in Openness is curious, seeking new experiences. Someone low in Openness is resistant to change.

Attachment Theory: Early relationships with caregivers impact a person’s ability to maintain relationships later in life. Use this to inform your character’s intimacy issues. A character with a secure attachment style trusts others and forms bonds. Someone with an anxious attachment style fears abandonment in relationships.

Cognitive Behavioral Theory: Thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are connected. Use this to examine character thought patterns and how they influence actions. A character who thinks “I’m not good enough” avoids challenges, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Incorporate disorders to add conflict. Approach this with sensitivity and portray these conditions accurately. Some common psychological disorders.

Depression

Anxiety disorders

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Bipolar Disorder

Schizophrenia

Personality disorders (e.g., Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder)

Psychological disorders manifest differently in different people. Avoid stereotypes.

Creating a detailed psychological profile for your character.

Start with the basics: Define your character’s age, gender, background, and life experiences. These factors influence their psychological makeup.

Determine their personality traits: Use the Big Five model or other personality frameworks to outline your character’s core traits.

Explore their cognitive patterns: How does your character think? Are they logical or emotional? Optimistic or pessimistic? Do they have any cognitive biases?

Examine their emotional landscape: What emotions does your character experience most often? How do they express or suppress their feelings?

Identify their coping mechanisms: How does your character deal with stress, conflict, or trauma? Do they use healthy coping strategies or maladaptive ones?

Analyze their relationships: How does your character interact with others? Do they have a pattern in their relationships? What attachment style do they exhibit?

Consider psychological disorders: Research and incorporate any psychological disorders that affect your character.

Develop backstory: Create a detailed history, including life events that shaped their psychology.

Define their beliefs: What does your character believe in? What motivates them? What are their core values?

Identify strengths and weaknesses: Based on all the above, what are your character’s psychological strengths and vulnerabilities?

Use your detailed psychological profile to inform other areas of your character’s portrayal:

Dialogue: Your character’s speech patterns, word choice, and communication style should reflect their psychological makeup.

Actions and decisions: Your character’s choices and behaviors should be consistent with their profile.

Internal monologue: If using first-person narration or internal thoughts, these should align with your character’s cognitive patterns and emotional tendencies.

Character arc: Use your character’s profile to plan their growth and development.

Conflict: Psychological traits can be a source of both internal and external conflict.

Look at two examples:

Sarah, a 30-year-old software engineer, scores high in Neuroticism and low in Extraversion. She has Generalized Anxiety Disorder and tends to overdramatize. She’s about to give a presentation at work.

Sarah’s hands trembled as she clicked through her slides one last time. “What if I forget everything? They’ll all think I’m incompetent,” she thought, her heart racing. She took a deep breath, trying to remember the grounding techniques her therapist taught her. As her coworkers filed into the conference room, Sarah felt her anxiety spiral out of control.

Mark, a 45-year-old teacher, has Narcissistic Personality Disorder. He’s charming on the surface but deeply insecure. Here, he receives criticism from his principal.

“Your teaching methods are outdated, Mark,” the principal said. “We need to see some improvement.”

Mark’s smile never faltered, but inside, he seethed. How dare she criticize him? He was the best teacher in this school.

“I appreciate your input,” he said smoothly, “but my students’ test scores speak for themselves. Perhaps you should focus on other teachers who aren’t performing as well as I am.”

Using these profiles, you create characters that feel real.

Basic psychological profiles enhance your characters. Advanced techniques add even more depth to your creations.

Instead of relying on a single psychological theory, combine multiple theories to create a nuanced profile. Try using the Big Five personality traits as a foundation, then layer on elements of attachment theory and cognitive behavioral theory.

You’re creating a character named Alex.

Big Five: High in Neuroticism, low in Agreeableness

Attachment Theory: Anxious-avoidant attachment style

Cognitive Behavioral Theory: Tendency towards catastrophic thinking

Combine these elements to create a character who’s anxious and prone to negative thinking (Neuroticism), struggles to form close relationships (low Agreeableness and anxious-avoidant attachment), and jumps to worst-case scenarios (catastrophic thinking).

Consider your character’s entire life span when creating their profile. Developmental psychology helps understand how character experiences at different life stages shaped their current psychological state.

For Alex, consider

Early childhood: Inconsistent parenting led to anxious attachment

Adolescence: Bullying experiences reinforced negative self-image

Early adulthood: Failed relationships strengthened avoidant tendencies

This perspective is your character’s backstory. It explains their current psychological state.

Use psychometric tools as inspiration for creating detailed profiles. Some tools to consider.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Enneagram

HEXACO model of personality

Dark Triad/Tetrad

You decide that Alex is an INFJ personality type (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging) according to the MBTI, or a Type 6 (The Loyalist) on the Enneagram.

Your character’s cultural background, socioeconomic status, and current social environment all play important roles in shaping their psychological profile.

For Alex, consider.

Cultural background: First-generation immigrant dealing with cultural identity issues

Socioeconomic status: Middle-class upbringing, now struggling financially

Social environment: Works in a high-stress corporate job, limited social support

These factors add another layer of complexity to Alex’s profile and creates interesting motivations.

It’s tempting to focus on psychological issues and disorders. Don’t forget to include their strengths and positive traits. This creates balanced characters.

For Alex, you might include

High emotional intelligence

Strong sense of empathy

Resilience developed from overcoming past challenges

Everyone develops ways to deal with stress and protect their ego. Your characters should have these, too.

Some common ways include.

Coping mechanisms: Problem-solving, seeking social support, meditation

Defense mechanisms: Rationalization, projection, displacement

Alex uses overthinking as a coping mechanism (trying to solve problems by analyzing them excessively) and projection as a defense mechanism (attributing his own insecurities to others).

Our thinking isn’t always logical. Incorporate cognitive biases and mental shortcuts (heuristics) to make your characters more human.

For Alex, you might include.

Confirmation bias: Tends to notice information that confirms their negative self-image

Availability heuristic: Overestimates the likelihood of negative events because they recall past failures

Psychological profiles become interesting when they include internal conflicts. These create character arcs that drive your story forward.

For Alex, some internal conflicts might be.

Desire for close relationships vs. fear of vulnerability

Need for stability vs. self-sabotaging behaviors

Ambition to succeed vs. fear of failure

By incorporating these techniques, you create psychological profiles that are detailed with potential for character development. Use psychological concepts as a foundation for building believable characters.

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