Autism, ADHD, and the 5 Big Personality Traits: Know Your Reward Systems
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Before I knew anything about neurodivergence, I could not figure out why I was constantly feeling pulled towards contradictory things — usually, things no one else seemed so strongly attracted to.
Once I learnt about autism and ADHD, which I both meet the criteria for, things became a bit more clear. But still — the labels feel impersonal, and somewhat superficial in explaining the actual workings of a mind. At the end of the day, everyone is different, and the most important thing is to know how you work, as an individual.
One thing that has been helpful for me is to reflect on internal reward systems, i.e. what creates a good feeling for the brain? What creates the motivation (and hence the ability) to do something? Reward systems are not really conscious processes, or particularly modifiable through thought, but rather structures built deep in the brain that govern a lot of our functioning. In other words, reward systems govern how we charge and spend our energy, what we react to, what we feel is important to us.
Over time, I realized that I have parallel reward systems that work differently from each other. These reward systems can be connected to the “Big 5 Personality Traits”: Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Openness to experience, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness (I suggest keeping open on the side while reading).
A disclaimer: I have no formal studies in psychology, neuroscience, and the like. This is purely the imperfect fruit of my own reflections and observations.
Here are what I see as 5 essential reward systems, and their relationship to the “5 big personality traits”, with a focus on how that manifests for many neurodivergent minds:
- The Social Reward System (SRS): This is a major reward system for neurotypical people. By social reward system, I mean the interiorization of social norms as ego-syntonic (aka they feel aligned with your sense of self), spontaneous behavioural imitation, as well as a sense of belonging to social identities and positive feelings from spending time with people. Seeking social status for the sake of it would also be a manifestation of this reward system. Many neurodivergent, particularly autistic people, don’t have much access to this. Conforming to social norms can feel very ego-dystonic (including when it comes to partaking in the job market) and spending time with people often doesn’t recharge energy. On a brain level, I would say oxytocin (or lack thereof) is a major neurotransmitter involved in feeling this “reward”. The personality traits of Extraversion is governed by the SRS.
- The “Rightness” Reward System (RRS): This is often a major reward system for autistic people. For many of us, there is nothing like the satisfaction of getting something right to make us feel good. “Right” may be defined according to many things: external rules, sense of justice or ethics, religion, routines we have chosen, or even arbitrary rules our brain has come up with. This can manifest in a variety of ways, including for example, loving to solve problems of some kind, figure something out, act right, do something well for the sake of it, etc. For what I know, a part of the brain called Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC) may be particularly implicated in this. The ACC is a brain area responsible for error detection, as well other things like guilt, and emotional and physical pain — which may hit when things feel “wrong”. High Conscientiousness as a personality trait may be linked to a strong RRS.
- The Novelty/ Curiosity Reward System: This is particularly salient for people with ADHD. ADHD being mainly a dysfunction of dopamine (the “let’s do stuff” neurotransmitter) in some brain areas, it takes very exciting things to make an ADHD person stimulated enough to be motivated or able to do something — and beginnings are exciting. Some things may naturally be more stimulating than others, like exercise (or drugs, but that’s not recommended). But the curiosity reward system is also what leads someone, for example, to become a researcher, or to try out a new restaurant, or to invent a new technology. The personality trait of Openness to experience may be linked (though somewhat loosely) to this reward system.
- The Self-Preservation Reward System: This one sounds obvious. Of course we want to self-preserve. But as people with profound depression could tell you: as humans, it is possible to sometimes lose a sense of our own self-preservation, even to the point of loss of life. It is a given to most people, but just like everything, it depends on the right brain processes. In order for this reward system to work, there needs to be an inherent feeling (as opposed to simple rational belief) of goodness from simply being alive. That has been mostly associated with serotonin (of course, everything is in balance, and a lot of other neurotransmitter and chemical processes play a fundamental role as well). The right functioning of the medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC) and the amygdala are both heavily implicated in this reward system. The personality trait of Neuroticism may be linked to this.
- The Sense of Justice Reward System: This is surely linked to the RRS, but it’s not quite the same thing. The sense of justice reward system is essential for many neurodivergent people. Normalizing injustice can depress someone with a strong sense of justice even more than getting angry about it. Helping others, advocating for oneself or others, being a truth-teller, working towards equality and justice, learning about important issues, are all expressions of this reward system. The personality trait of Agreeableness may be generally connected to this.
Thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you like.
