Lwanda Jafta (18J8123)
Tutor: Nomzamo Matibe
Personality Psychology Semester Essay
The aim for the following essay will be to apply a specific personality trait theory, namely
The Big Five theory to Kendrick Lamar Duckworth. To achieve this, I will first introduce the
subject of the analysis by describing his background and the elements of his upbringing that
brought about the type of characteristics that he has. These factors of his early life and
adolescence have had an impact on his personality which is going to be the first part of the
essay. The next part will discuss what personality theories are, the way in which The Big Five
trait theory is applied and what it means. The final part being the application of the theory,
showing the reader how this theory is applied to a well-known individual, which in this case
is Kendrick Lamar.
Kendrick Lamar is a 31-year-old American Hip Hop artist, songwriter and producer (Eells,
2015). He grew up in the crime infested neighbourhood that is Compton, California (Eels,
2015). The area is known for gang violence, drug abuse and police brutality. He grew up with
his mother, Paula Duckworth and his father Kenny Duckworth (Eels, 2015). They struggled
financially, mainly living off the Section 8 and food stamps (Eels, 2015). This was a
government system that provided low cost housing and basic groceries. His mother worked at
a McDonalds and his father worked at a nearby KFC and had gang affiliations that also
compensated into their income (Eels, 2015). Like most of his friends and Black Americans
in general Kendrick dreamed of playing for the NBA but took this passion to the arts when
his seventh grade English teacher introduced him to poetry and literature (Eells, 2015). This
gave a young and curious Kendrick Lamar an outlet to express the inner emotions of all the
scary and confusing events that happened in Compton regularly. He speaks of witnessing his
first murder when he was five, and a second murder at the tender age of eight (Eels, 2015).
Because of the many gang ties that were in his family, he was frequently tempted into the life
of crime. Even in his early life Kendrick had to deal with major traumatic experiences that he
delves into in his music such as the shooting of his best friend’s brother, who bled to death in
Kendrick’s arms. Kendrick explores the various consequences and the chain reaction that this
one act of violence brought in the lives of those around him. From his own subsequent
substance abuse, to his best friend seeking revenge and ending up dead himself to the
, depression that these events push his mother into, seeing how close Kendrick gets to gang ties
and even death.
As much as Kendrick Lamar is an expert at portraying his emotions and self defining
experiences through his music, he also allows the listener to look at his personal day to day
experiences that he manages to draw inspiration from. An example of this is his The Art of
Peer Pressure song which takes you into a detailed Compton Saturday afternoon with his
friends who collectively participate in what begins with looking for girls to flirt with, leads to
them agreeing to rob a rival gang member’s apartment and ultimately a high-speed police
pursuit that they luckily evaded (Lamar, 2012). Growing up he had little hope of making any
success because everyone he grew up with either wanted to be a basketball player or a rapper,
this is a common trend among children in American ghetto neighbourhoods. He addresses
these insecurities on the song Black Boy Fly, where he explores the envy he had for the
children around him who were exceptionally talented at these arts (Lamar, 2012). Kendrick
manages to identify these people as now famous Aaron Affalo, an individual that we know as
an NBA player but who was also a classmate to Kendrick and someone who he identified as a
potential threat because he was under the assumption that statistically only one of them would
be able to make it. This mindset that he had motivated him to work harder at his craft. He was
in a place where if his art didn’t save him, he would either die of gang violence or go to
prison like many of the people around him.
This is one of the many traits that Kendrick has adopted from the situation of having to
succeed under such tough circumstances. To apply the Big Five trait theory though, I will
discuss what traits the theory explores then use relevant sources to find out what personality
Kendrick Lamar is predicted to have according to the theory. The basis of the personality
theory is to identify the personality differences between persons (Swartz et al, 2016). This is
specifically a trait theory, meaning it fundamentally relies on the idea that personality traits
can be used to understand the difference in behaviour and temperament between people
(McCrae & Costa, 2013). The trait approach to describing an individual’s personality is
dependent on the characteristics of a person (Swartz et al, 2016). The theory known as The
Big Five theory was one which was brought about by Robert McCrae and Paul Costa, it is a
derivative of earlier research which originally constituted of 18000 English words used to
describe individuals which came from Gordon Allport (Swartz, 2016). The Big Five trait
approach therefore uses five factors to describe personality. These factors are one’s openness
to experience, extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism (McCrae &
