A Toast to Five More Years of Howard

A few weeks ago for my Psychology of Personality class I had to write a paper assessing aspects of a celebrity's personality using different personality theories that we talked about. At first I thought I was going to write about Sarah Palin. I quickly realized that politicians are completely fake all the time, and assessing her actual personality would be nearly impossible. Then to my delight, my loving boyfriend Robby came up with a great idea and suggested I write about his radio hero, Howard Stern. What a perfect candidate. There is seriously no one more real or with more personality than this man.

With Stern's exciting announcement to extend his contract with Sirius for five more years, and because I got my graded paper back last night with an A, I thought it would be fitting to post it here. So if you are interested in reading a somewhat lengthy personality assessment of Howard Stern, read on.

Howard Stern: The King of All Neuroticism

Howard Stern, the outspoken and self-proclaimed “King of All Media” has been one of the most distinct and popular radio personalities for over the last 20 years. Known for his extremely honest yet controversial topics, Stern has made himself the highest paid disc jockey in history. His climb to the top was achieved by a combination of news-making antics, “inappropriate” guests and conversation topics (being fined by the FCC more than anyone else in history), and a talent for interviewing and telling great stories. Even with all of these unique aspects that are the Howard Stern Show, the one thing that really brings it all together and keeps him at the top, his loyal listeners glued to their Sirius radios day after day always wanting more: his personality. Unlike most other people in the lime-light who make their living pretending to be someone they are not, Stern uses his very real and very intense personality to his advantage. Attending counseling five days a week, Stern has a lot going on inside his brain. So what does it take to make a Howard Stern? It's slightly more complicated than taking a teaspoon of determination, a dash of narcissism, a sprinkle of genius and a cup full of wit, mixed in a bowl of “I don't give a damn.” Stern's unique personality can be explained using several different psychological theories including the Trait Approach, Social Learning Theory, and the Psychoanalytic Approach.

One of the most common ways we describe people's personalities in everyday life is by listing their obvious characteristics. A major theory in the study of personality that does this is the trait approach. Based largely on empirical research that mostly uses correlational designs, the trait approach focuses entirely on categories of individual differences in a single person and how the degrees of those traits compare to other people (Funder, 2010). In short, it attempts to predict and understand behavior across time and in different situations (Funder, 2010). More specifically, within this approach are four different methods of evaluation: the single-trait approach (which focuses on single personality traits that have been deemed important over the years and asks what do people with these certain personality traits do?), the many-trait approach (which focuses more on important behaviors by using lists of traits intended to correlate with specific behaviors), the essential-trait approach (which attempts to narrow down personality traits to the few most essential ones, including “The Big Five,”) and the typological approach (which tries to identify “types” of people by categorizing patterns of traits) (Funder, 2010). A logical approach to explaining Howard Stern's personality is the third method--the essential-trait approach.

Although Stern has been described as narcissistic, socially bold, anxious, dominant and blunt, yet determined, loyal, and honest, just to name a few--the characteristics that really stand out in his personality can be best shown using “The Big Five.” These personality traits are comprised along different spectrums of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. They have shown to be universally important in many different cultures according to the Lexical Hypothesis, which argues that important aspects of life will be labeled with words, and if something is indeed important and universal there will be many words for it in all languages. They are currently the most widely accepted grouping of essential traits (Funder, 2010).

Everyone has each of the Big Five traits to a certain extent. Scoring high on the openness scale means that the person has wide interests is imaginative, intelligent, insightful, curious, and sophisticated while scoring low on openness means that the person has generally narrow interests is simple, shallow and unintelligent. Someone who is high in conscientiousness tends to be very organized, thorough, efficient and responsible, while on the low end people tend to be careless, disorderly, and irresponsible. Those who score high in extraversion are likely to be talkative, assertive, energetic, outgoing, dominant and enthusiastic, while those who score low (introverted) tend to be quiet, reserved, shy, silent and withdrawn. Agreeableness affiliates are generally sympathetic, kind, appreciative, affectionate, softhearted and warm, while their low scoring counterparts tend to be fault-finding, cold, unfriendly, quarrelsome and hard-hearted. The last of the traits, neuroticism, includes those who are very tense, anxious, nervous, moody, worrying and touchy, in contrast with those who are stable, calm, contented and unemotional (Funder, 2010). While most people hang around the middle of the spectrum on each of the Big Five traits, few score very extreme in either direction. Howard Stern on the other hand rates very high or low in several traits including neuroticism, conscientiousness and agreeableness.

After listening to just one “Howard Stern Show” it becomes obvious just how much neuroticism Stern displays. He is constantly upset with at least one person or situation. He has a terrible time dealing with criticism and has very strong reactions to anyone who disagrees with him. He gets anxious in many situations (especially social ones), and is always worried and stressing out about something. His neurotic tendencies have led to several mental disorders including hypochondria and obsessive compulsive disorder, as is common among people of his nature. Something that makes his neuroticism worse and even leads over into his high conscientiousness score are his tendencies toward perfectionism, especially in his work.

“When you hire me, you hire a nut who is going to work 24 hours a day for you and never, ever burn his audience” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/howard_stern. html). Stern is a textbook workaholic, who takes what he does very seriously and does his best to succeed. This is typical of people who are perfectionists (Clark, Lelchook & Taylor, 2010). Self-oriented perfectionism and conscientiousness are highly correlated with each other, while socially prescribed perfectionism is highly correlated with neuroticism (Stoeber, Otto & Dalbert, 2009). This reflects not only in Stern's perfect attendance and punctuality (he hasn't missed or been late to a show in years), but also his need for order. If something is cluttered in the studio, if someone makes a mess and doesn't clean it up, or if one of his employees does something they are not supposed to, Stern responds rapidly and rigidly. Unfortunately, this type of unfriendly behavior exhibits his lack of agreeableness.

Although people who know Stern do say that overall they like him, he is far from being warm and inviting. His is not empathetic, far from optimistic, and definitely puts his own self-interests in front of getting along with others. He is unlikely to go out of his way to help others (his refusal to write anymore forwards for people's books is one example of this), and is very competitive. He likes to point out faults in other people, and is very quick to think people are trying to take advantage of him. “I seem to be some sort of lightning rod. I just really irritate people, you know? I really do” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/howard_stern. html). And it is true, he really does have a tendency to get under people's skin, but that (along with his amazing wit) is exactly what makes him so appealing.

The next useful theory in assessing Stern's personality is Dollard and Miller’s social learning theory. This learning theory focuses on the concept of the habit hierarchy. The behavior that is most likely to be performed at a given time is the behavior that is placed at the top of that individual's habit hierarchy, while the least likely behavior is placed at the bottom (Funder, 2010). According to Dollard and Miller (1941), humans have two distinct psychological drives. The first, the primary drive, include the need for food, water, physical comfort, sexual gratification etc., which everyone is born with, while secondary drives include positive drives for love, prestige, money and power etc., which everyone learns during socialization. They argue that in order for a behavior to happen, the reward that comes from it must satisfy one of these needs (Funder, 2010).

In the case of Howard Stern, love, prestige, money and power are all needs that are satisfied with his work, so it makes perfect sense that he would continue to behave in ways that allow those needs to be met. His controversial way of doing things gets ratings. Those ratings in return satisfy all his secondary needs, so in order to keep those positive feelings high he needs to keep working hard to make sure he is a success. Since his neurotic behavior only adds to his ratings, he is likely to keep exhibiting it over time.

If needs are not being met and are being blocked in some way, according to Dollard and Miller's frustration-aggression hypothesis that is where anger comes in (Funder, 2010). So for example, when Benji (one of Stern's writers) comes into the studio a few minutes late in the morning, disrupting the show, Stern expresses his anger and threatens to fire him. Why? Because Benji's disruptive behavior poses a threat to the success of the show. Because the Howard Stern Show is indeed Stern’s livelihood, a threat to the actualization of it is met with strong negative feelings.

The last personality theory that can be used to describe Stern's personality is the psychoanalytic theory, but more specifically neo-Freudian, Karen Horney's theory of neurosis. Horney argued that adult behavior is often based on efforts to overcome the basic anxiety acquired in childhood. This basic anxiety develops when a child feels “helpless...in a hostile world,” when their upbringing is overly harsh, emotionally barren, or stiflingly controlled (Hjertaas, 2009). Attempts to avoid this anxiety (either consciously or subconsciously) can cause what she called “neurotic needs” which constitute of what people think they need in life in order to compensate for their anxiety and then succeed (Funder, 2010). Horney maintained that there are three different types of people with neurotic needs: compliant types, hostile types and detached types. Compliant types generally move towards people and seek affection and approval. Hostile types move against people and have a need for power, social recognition and prestige, as well as personal admiration. The detached types tend to move away from people and have a need for personal achievement, independence, and perfection. Obviously Stern falls under the hostile type category, because he displays all of its necessities including the need to be in control and have power over others, while at the same time seeks their praise and recognition. If he isn't the center of attention he becomes very agitated and insecure of his role in society.

Stern has an uncanny need for power. He has to always dominate situations, and will never let someone walk all over him. This may stem from his experiences as a child growing up in a rough African-American neighborhood, where he was often bullied. Furthermore, Stern exploits others by using their talents to promote his own (by hiring writers, comedians and other people who make his show run smoothly), and craves social recognition and prestige. He needs people to admire him and confirm his excellence, and thinks very highly of himself (the term “King of All Media” did not come out of thin air), correspondingly scoring high on the narcissism scale. These needs of praise are an attempt to compensate for lack of praise and attention he received when he was younger.

Stern also shows some characteristics of the detached type but to a lesser extent. He focuses a great deal on personal achievement, definitely fears failure, and as mentioned in the other theories, he strives to be perfect. Stern is not self-sufficient however; as he is completely dependent on other people to do most things for him (including cleaning, cooking, shopping, etc.) both at home and at work.

Although Stern comes off as an extremely difficult and negative kind of guy, he is all-in-all just a man who is trying to do his best with what he has. Because it is so hard to define someone's “personality,” it is important to utilize many of these different psychological theories when analyzing the different characteristics and levels of people. By doing this, we can begin to understand a much more broad concept of what kind of person someone truly is, and begin to gain insight on what it is like to be in someone else's shoes. With a character like Howard Stern, it is very interesting to see the underlying reasons behind why might behave the way he does, and it will be interesting to see where he ends up next. Baba Booey! Baba Booey!