those who are low in Agreeableness are more likely to rise to the top of their fields.

The ten patterns I described come from psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, which was designed to identify them in their full-blown and maladaptive forms, called personality disorders. But these patterns also exist in milder forms that need not be maladaptive.

improvement. Instead of simply singing the praises of a series of virtues, Franklin wrote out a personal to-do list and a step-by-step plan for upgrading one virtue at a time.

most Americans who lived in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries shared the view that character was the most significant part of personality—and the part that could be improved through conscious effort.

The narcissistic pattern has other dark sides. One of the most common is

Why is this so? Why do traits with a moral quality have such a powerful effect on us? Is this just a reflection of the cultural influences that Allport emphasized?

Many of us find it difficult to articulate our views of personalities—not only to others, but also to ourselves. There’s so much to consider, and it’s hard to convert what we know in our minds into a useful verbal picture.

Scores of genetically unrelated children who were adopted and raised in the same family also show no effect of this shared environment.

these trappings of success, Franklin was grateful for “that evenness of temper, and that cheerfulness in conversation” that he attributed to his devoted practice of “the joint influence of the whole mass of virtues, even in the imperfect state he was able to acquire