A Personality Analysis of Britney Spears

Running head: A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 1 On December 2, 1981, Britney Spears was born in McComb, Mississippi. Since, she has become one of the most famous musicians of her time. She has lived the majority of her life in the public eye, as the subject of numerous magazine articles, paparazzi photos, and TV interviews. Her exposed lifestyle has allowed the public to get to know her personally, to the extent that one could analyze her personality thoroughly and from numerous perspectives. But, before doing so one should become familiar with Spears’ life thus far. Spears was raised in Kentwood, Louisiana as the middle of three children. Having an extroverted personality and passion for performing led her to pursue a musical career from a young age. By the age of 8 she was already auditioning for opportunities to showcase her talents. At the age of 11 she made her first public performance on the show Star Search and later that year was cast to be apart of The All New Mickey Mouse Club which she performed on for two years. Following its cancelation, she focused on her independent music career and by 1998 signed a contract with Jive Records. By the end of that year Spears had released her first album, and soon after her second, which were both well received. Despite being scantily dressed in music videos and public appearances, Spears became known for her overwhelming sweet demeanor and air of innocence. But by the release of her third album, it was clear that Britney had undergone a transition. Her newfound rebellious nature seemed to be an attempt to shed her innocent image. Her first public controversy involved a Vegas wedding and 48-hour marriage to childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander. That was quickly annulled and within several months Britney had become engaged to Kevin Federline. The two married in September of 2004 and by 2006 had had two sons together. Little controversies—such as an incident where paparazzi caught Spears A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 2 dangerously driving with her son Sean on her lap—lead up to what is now known as Spears’ notorious breakdown. About two months following the birth of her second child, Jayden James, Spears divorced Federline. Behavioral differences followed this divorce as Spears began partying at clubs with questionable celebrities, such as Paris Hilton. During this time, she supposedly checked in and out of rehab on multiple occasions. But her unusual behavior peaked in February of 2007 when she spontaneously shaved her head for paparazzi to see. After that incident Spears spent a month in rehab and Federline began a custody battle for their children. During this time, Spears kept out of the spotlight as best she could and continued to work on her music. She released a successful album, “Blackout”, but gave a disconcerting comeback performance at the MTV VMAs. Several months later she was forcibly taken to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after keeping her sons longer than her court-appointed visit permitted. Several other hospital visits followed and it was rumored that Spears was experiencing symptoms of bipolar disorder. During this time her parents gained the right to control matters involving her personal and professional life. After being released from the hospital Britney created and released her “Circus” album which received exceptional reviews. With her health monitored, Spears’ club-phase appeared to be over and her personal life remained private. In 2011 she released another successful album and became engaged to Jason Trawick, who she was with until their break-up in 2013. Later in 2013 she released her most recent album and signed a contract to perform continuously in Vegas through December of 2017. Since, she has appeared stable in interviews and at public appearances and has even regained primary custody of her children. One way to look at the unique personality of Britney Spears is through Alfred Adler’s theory of Individual Psychology. This theory explores the root of human motivation and the A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 3 personal importance of niches in society. It shares similarities with others of it’s time—the early 1900s—in that it is largely contemplative of the goal-directed nature of the human being. This theory also differs from others of its time in that Adler stressed the significant impact of social conditions on the individual (Adler, 1927). Terms deriving from this theory are commonly used today as they are still applicable to many individuals, such as Britney Spears. Two of the key terms within the theory of Individual Psychology that are very much interrelated to one another are the superiority complex and the inferiority complex. Adler firmly believed that every personality is oriented towards achieving superiority (Adler, 1927). If this achievement is interrupted by events that yield feelings of helplessness or powerlessness than this pursuit may be hindered and an inferiority complex may arise. Inferiority complexes are extremely detrimental to an individual in that they not only provide the person with feelings of incompetence but do so to the extent that the person loses their inherent motivation and seizes to try anymore. The contrasting term, the superiority complex, can sometimes arise as a reaction to the inferiority complex. Instead of embracing his/her senses of inferiority, an individual may maintain self-confidence, seemingly in an attempt to deceive and protect his/herself from his/her peers (Adler, 1927). Other terms which originated within Adler’s theory include organ inferiority, aggression drive, masculine protest, and perfection striving. Organ inferiority was Adler’s belief that everyone is born with at least one physical weakness which instills feelings of inferiority within them. A person is likely to be motivated by these inferior feelings and make certain decisions to compensate for their weakness (Adler, 1927). Aggression drive is a concept similar to Freud’s defense mechanisms, in that it was Adler’s belief that drives will either manifest purely or as opposite to what they truly are. Masculine protest is the theory that children, who feel more A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 4 inferior, protest to gain independence from their parents so that they gain a healthy sense of superiority. And lastly, perfection striving is a concept where people live their lives attempting to meet fictional goals which they have developed. In terms of social interactions, Adler believed that there were three basic social issues that people inherently feel the need to address. The first of these issues concerns occupational tasks, which involves a person picking a career for him/herself that he/she finds fulfilling. The second issue regards societal tasks, which include making friends and building community. The last issue is love tasks, which are a person’s need for finding a life-partner (Friedman & Schustack, 2015). Another popular concept presented by Adler was the importance of birth order. According to Adler, to an extent, personality types could derive from one’s birth order within their family. The first-born child undergoes the transition from being the only child to having a sibling, which will likely either motivate the child to prove independence and capability or bring out the nurturing qualities of the child, leading them to assist the parent in parenting the other children. The second-born child can either fulfill a life of confidence or develop inferiority, as they are born into a position of comparison and competition with their older sibling. The lastborn child may feel as though they need to achieve all that their siblings have, which may deter their motivations when they cannot fulfill unrealistic expectations (Friedman & Schustack, 2015). Many of the concepts Adler presented within his theory of Individual Psychology have since yielded empirically measured implications. For example, Tanwar (1979) analyzed 25 high school aged boys determined to have “intense inferiority complexes”. These students were studied to see if there were correlations relating intensity of inferiority complex to other relevant A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 5 factors such as their school’s reputation and socioeconomic status. The findings revealed that there were correlations between intensity of inferiority complex and both school reputation and socioeconomic status. Specifically, lower school reputation correlated with higher rates of inferiority complexes. As well, lower socioeconomic status also correlated with higher rates of inferiority complexes (Tanwar, 1979). Adler’s more specific concept of organ inferiority has also been explored and supported by empirical evidence. A study conducted by Coleman & Croake (1987) involved 26 visibly handicapped children, ages 9 to 15. These participants were matched with non-handicapped children, and both groups were given the California Test of Personality to determine their characteristics. It was found that handicapped participants had higher scores in categories measuring self-reliance and sense of personal worth than their non-handicapped counterparts. This study coincides with Adler’s belief that organ inferiority will results in overcompensation. Other studies have been conducted to look into the validity of Adler’s birth order theory. Rohrer, Egloff, & Schmukle (2015) had participants from the United States, Great Britain, and Germany to analyze effect of birth order on personality characteristics. While no correlation was found between birth order and characteristics such as extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and imagination, birth order was found to be indicative of intelligence scores, with first-born children scoring higher on intelligence tests than their younger siblings (Rohrer, Egloff, & Schmukle, 2015). A study by Barclay, Myrskylä, Tynelius, Berglind, & Rasmussen (2016) also found evidence of the effects of birth order. This study, conducted in Sweden, concluded that first-born siblings are hospitalized least for drug and alcohol use, with there being a “monotonic increase in the hazard of hospitalization with increasing birth order” (Barclay, et. al, 2016). Unlike the A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 6 previous study, which measured personality correlations with birth order through subjective surveys, the approach of this study measured objective implications of behavioral differences. The findings show measurable differences dependent upon birth order. Lastly, is an article regarding Adler’s theory of social interactions. There have been numerous findings supporting the claim that human behavior is, at least partly, motivated by social needs. An article published by Gabriel, Valenti, & Young (2016) develops this claim further and states that humans fulfill social needs in not just explicit ways, but implicit ways as well. For instance, a human may obviously be attempting to fulfill his/her social needs when they spend time with friends, but these authors claim that when people take part in certain activities alone—like watching TV—they are also attempting to fulfill social needs, through the indirect human contact provided by the TV. Adler’s theory of social interactions is one that can clearly be applied to Britney Spears. It was obvious from the young age that Spears began her career, that occupational tasks were something that she valued and prioritized. Her motivation to lead a fulfilling career path motivated her to audition for numerous shows as a child, until she finally was accepted to be apart of the cast of “The All New Mickey Mouse Club”. The friends that Spears appeared to make on that show—such as fellow celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling—revealed her motivations to fulfill societal needs. Throughout the rest of Spears’ life, fulfilling the need for friendship and community continuously appeared to be a priority. During even her darkest periods Spears was known to have companions, such as temporary manager Sam Lufti, who Spears kept in her life despite his manipulative behavior and her family’s disapproval (Dailymail.com). But family connections are something that Britney Spears has been known to value during her better times. A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 7 Her desire to maintain a relationship with her family after gaining fame appeared to motivate her to help her younger sister, Jamie Lynn, land her own TV show on the channel Nickelodeon. And Spears’ motivation to fulfill love tasks are obviously displayed through her numerous attempts at marriage. While her first marriage, to childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander, was supposedly a joke to Spears, she treated her second marriage to Kevin Federline more seriously, having two children with him and remaining married for three years (Lansky, 2014). After their divorce, Britney only took a brief hiatus from dating before engaging to Jason Trawick in 2011, and remaining engaged for over a year until the couple broke-up (Hallett). Another component of Individual Psychology that Spears exemplifies is Adler’s idea of perfection striving. After achieving what she has, one could assume that Spears’ achievements were once merely fictional goals. The confidence that Spears has displayed throughout her career may be due to another one of Adler’s concepts—birth order. As was mentioned previously, Spears is the middle child of her family. Being born into this position may have motivated her and given her the confidence she needed to strive for perfection. While Individual Psychology allows for exploration of Britney’s unique qualities, it fails to explain her persisting nature. Individual Psychology gives no explanation for why Britney— initially a sweet and stable girl—underwent significant behavioral changes throughout 2007, only to eventually revert back to her normal self. Britney’s development makes it evident that there is some persisting quality to personality. A theory which aims to explain this quality, and people like Britney, is Gordon Allport’s Trait Psychology. This theory explains both consistencies in personality over time as well as temporary variations in personality. It is founded on the presumption that personality is something that is integral to a person, and therefore obtains persisting qualities, known as traits (Allport, 1961). A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 8 According to Allport’s view, each personality is unique and therefore should be examined through an idiographic lens. However, Allport did acknowledge that certain traits appeared as components of many peoples’ personalities. Allport termed these traits as common traits. To analyze a person only through their common traits and ignore their unique complexities would yield a shallow understanding of his/her personality. As Allport visualized them, personalities contain a core—the proprium—which is overlapped by layers of other qualities (Allport, 1961). Amongst the traits defined within Trait Psychology are personal dispositions. These dispositions vary depending on individual, but commonly are one’s typical neurophysic organization. There are specific types of these dispositions, including cardinal dispositions, which strongly impact one’s behavior, and central dispositions, which “succinctly portray an individual” (Friedman & Schustack, 2015). A study published in the Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity Journal studied if participant childhood characteristics shared a relationship with personal dispositions towards sexually compulsive behavior later in life. The study looked at young adults specifically and found that sexually compulsive behavior was strongly connected with specific childhood characteristics, much more so than sexual sensation seeking behavior (Perera, Reece, Monahan, Billingham, & Finn, 2009). Another published version of this article added the component of substance use to the original study to investigate how it was related to risky sexual behavior. It was found that substance use was strongly associated with sexual sensation seeking behavior. These findings insinuate that these behaviors result from similar personal dispositions (Perera, Reece, Monahan, Billingham, & Finn, 2009). A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 9 Another study investigated Allport’s theory of common traits, by investigating whether impulsivity can be determined as a common trait amongst participants suffering from bipolar and unipolar disorders. After having participants complete the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale the results of bipolar, unipolar, and unaffected participants were compared. It was found that participants with bipolar and unipolar disorders scored much higher than the unaffected participants on every portion of the test aside from that which regards attentional impulsivity, where there were no differences. These results insinuate that there is the presence of a predisposition towards impulsivity amongst sufferers of bipolar and unipolar disorder (Henna, Hatch, Nicoletti, Swann, Zunta-Soares, & Soares, 2013). With so much empirical evidence supporting Allport’s theories, Trait Psychology has gained popularity. An article published by Church & Katigbak (2000) discussed the popularity of Trait Psychology in the Philippines. According to the article, this personality theory is demonstrated in the Philippines with Filipinos using trait terms to define and comprehend the behaviors of others and themselves. However, while Trait Psychology has been successful in individual cultures, psychologists are still working to develop a generalized Trait Psychology that can be applied cross-culturally. Church also wrote an article on this topic, and determined that both Trait Psychology and Cultural Psychology “can be synthesized…resulting in an integrated cultural trait psychology perspective” (Church, 2000). When it comes to analyzing Britney Spears according to Trait Psychology, the theory’s benefits and flaws are illuminated. The fundaments of the theory successfully account for important qualities of personality—like both it’s variations and consistencies. However, once these traits are defined, one still has no explanation for what warrants a person’s behavior. While Adler’s theory of Individual Psychology explains behavior as a result of motives originating A PERSONALITY ANALYSIS OF BRITNEY SPEARS 10 from either an instance of powerlessness, a physical weakness, or a fictional goal, Trait Psychology can tell you no more than that Britney Spears appears to be persistently sociable and thoughtful, and occasionally impulsive and moody. Nonetheless, both Individual Psychology and the theory of Trait Psychology yield insights into personality that are helpful for understanding a person. As can be seen through Britney Spears’ biography and through applying these theories to her, personalities are very dynamic and to gain a thorough understanding of one may require the application of more than one personality theory.