Different strokes for different folks
Exploring personality in professional translation
Until recently, the translator’s personality was a relatively unexplored area of research, but growing evidence points to
the influence of personality on the translator’s decisions. Although findings are not always statistically significant, empirical research
indicates that professional translators’ profiles differ from that of the local population, and that certain personality types are more
likely to make creative translation choices. This article explores the relationship between personality traits as defined by
the Big Five Inventory (
Costa & McCrae 1989), and translation choices as defined by
Baker
(2018) and
Molina & Hurtado (2002). The findings indicate that professional translators with a dominant neurotic personality
trait are the most creative, whereas those with a dominant conscientious personality trait prefer literal translation choices. However, the
findings also indicate that age and experience are competing variables, both indicating a preference for literal translation.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 3.Method
- 4.Results and discussion
- 5.Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
References (49)
References
Appiah, Kwame. 1993. ”Thick Translation”. Callaloo 16 (4): 808–819. 

Ashton, Michael, and Kibeom Lee. 2008. “The HEXACO Model of Personality Structure.” In The SAGE Handbook of Personality Theory and Assessment. Volume 1: Personality measurement and testing. Edited by G. Boyle, G. Matthews, and D. Saklofske, 239–260. Los Angeles: SAGE. 

Baker, Mona. 2018. In Other Words: A coursebook on translation. 3rd edition. London: Routledge. 

Briggs, Katharine, and Isabel Myers. 1998. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Carl, Michael, Moritz Schaeffer, and Srinivas Bangalore. 2016. “The CRITT translation process research database”. In New Directions in Empirical Translation Process Research: Exploring the CRITT TPR-DB. Edited by M. Carl, S. Bangalore and M. Schaeffer, 13–54. Cham: Springer. 

Cattell, Heather, and Alan Mead. 2008. “The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF).” In The SAGE Handbook of Personality Theory and Assessment: Volume 2—Personality measurement and testing. Edited by G. Boyle, G. Matthews, and D. Saklofske, 135–159. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Cattell, Raymond. 1933. “Temperament Tests: II. Tests.” British Journal of Psychology 241: 20–49.
Cattell, Raymond. 1946. The Description and Measurement of Personality. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
Cattell, Raymond. 1986. “The 16 PF Personality Structure and Dr. Eysenck.” Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 1 (2): 153–160.
Cifuentes Férez, Paula, and Javier Fenollar Cortés. 2017. “On the Impact of Self-esteem, Emotion Regulation and Emotional Expressivity on Student Translators’ Performance.” Vigo International Journal of Applied Linguistics 141: 71–97.
Cornelis, Ilse, Alain Van Hiel, Arne Roets, and Malgorzata Kossowska. 2009. “Age Differences in Conservatism: Evidence on the mediating effects of personality and cognitive style.” Journal of Personality 771: 51–88. 

Costa, Paul, and Robert McCrae. 1989. The NEO-PI/NEO-FFI Manual Supplement. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Costa, Paul, and Robert McCrae. 1992. NEO Personality Inventory–Revised (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Dillan, Jared. 2017. “With Oil Plummeting, the Stock Market is the Biggest Loser.” Forbes. [URL]
Even-Zohar, Itamar. 1991. “Polysystem Theory”. Poetics Today 11 (1): 9–276.
Even-Zohar, Itamar. 1978/2012. “The Position of Translated Literature within the Literary Polysystem.” In The Translation Studies Reader. 3rd edition. Edited by L. Venuti, 162–167. London: Routledge.
Eysenck, Hans, and Sybil Eysenck. 1964. The Eysenck Personality Inventory. London: University of London Press. 

Furnham, Adrian, Joanna Mouttafi, and John Crump. 2003. “The Relationship between the Revised NEO-Personality Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.” Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 31 (6): 577–584. 

Henderson, John. 1987. Personality and the Linguist. Bradford: Bradford University Press.
Hickey, Raymond. 2010. “Language Contact: Reconsideration and reassessment.” In The Handbook of Language Contact. Edited by R. Hickey, 1–28. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 

Hubscher-Davidson, Severine. 2009. “Personal Diversity and Diverse Personalities in Translation: A study of individual differences.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 17 (3): 175–192. 

Jakobson, Roman. (1959/2012). “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation”. In The Translation Studies Reader. 3rd edition. Edited by L. Venuti, 126–132. London: Routledge.
Jakobsen, Arnt. 2005. “Investigating Expert Translators’ Processing Knowledge.” In Knowledge Systems and Translation. Edited by H. van Dam, J. Engberg, and H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast, 173–190. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 

John, Oliver, and Sanjay Srivastava. 1999/2008. “The Big Five Trait Taxonomy: History, measurement, and theoretical perspectives.” In The Handbook of Personality: Theory and research. 2nd edition. Edited by L. Pervin, and O. John, 102–138. New York: Guilford Press.
Jouberts, Daan. [s.d.]. Property Sale Agreement Full-Title. [URL]. Accessed 19 March 2020.
Karimnia, Amin, and Mahsa Mahjubi. 2013. “Individual Differences and Quality of Translation: A personality-based perspective.” Psychology of Language and Communication 17 (1): 37–64. 

Klapicová, Edita Hornáčková. 2005. “Composition of the Entry in a Bilingual Dictionary.” Skase Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 2 (3): 57–74.
Lehka-Paul, Olha. 2015. “Do translator’s personalities matter in translation performance?” [URL]. Accessed 19 March 2020.
Lehka-Paul, Olha, and Bogusława Whyatt. 2016. “Does Personality Matter in Translation? Interdisciplinary research into the translation process and product.” Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 52 (2): 317–349. 

Lehr, Caroline. 2013. “Influences of Emotion on Cognitive Processing in Translation: A framework and some empirical evidence”. Paper delivered at the International Online Workshop on Affected Factors in Translation Process Research: To feel or not to feel? That is the question, Aston University, 6 December.
Moe, Rondald. 2003. “Compiling Dictionaries Using Semantic Domains.” Lexikos 131: 215–223. 

Molina Martínez, Lucía, and Amparo Hurtado Albir. 2002. “Translation Techniques Revisited: A dynamic and functionalist approach.” Meta 47 (4): 498–512. 

Myers, Isabel B. 1962. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. 

Muñoz Martín, Ricardo. 2014. “Situating Translation Expertise: A review with a sketch of a construct.” In The Development of Translator Competence: Theories and methodologies from psycholinguistics and cognitive science. Edited by J. Schwieter, and A. Ferreira, 2–56. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Newmark, Peter. 1988. A Textbook of Translation. New York: Prentice Hall.
Núñez, Alonso, Juan Luis, and Alicia Bolaños Medina. 2018. “Predictors of Problem-solving in Translation: Implications for translator training.” The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 12 (3): 282–298. 

Pirouznik, Mehrnaz. 2014. “Personality Traits and Personification in Translators’ Performances. Report on a pilot study.” In Translation Research Projects 51. Edited by E. Torres Simón, and D. Orrego Carmona, 93–112. Tarragona: Intercultural Studies Group. [URL]. Accessed 2 December 2019.
Rojo López, Ana María. 2017. “The Role of Creativity.” In The Handbook of Translation and Cognition. Edited by J. Schwieter, and A. Ferreira. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 350–368. 

Schmitt, David, Jüri Allik, Robert McCrae, and Veronica Benet Martínez. 2007. “The Geographic Distribution of Big Five Personality Traits.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 38 (2): 173–212. 

Shaki, Reza, and Masood Khoshsaligheh. 2017. “Personality Type and Translation Performance of Persian Translator Trainees.” Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics 7 (2): 122–132. 

Silber, Gus. 2011. “In Hot Water”. Your Family (July 2011): 70.
Soto, Christopher. 2018. “Big Five Personality Traits.” In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development. Edited by M. Bornstein, 240–241. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 

Tiselius, Elisabeth. 2019. “The (un-)Ethical Interpreting Researcher: Ethics, voice and discretionary power in interpreting research.” Perspectives: Studies in translatology 27 (5): 747–760. 

Van Hiel, Alain, and Lieven Brebels. 2017. “Conservatism is Good for You: Cultural conservatism protects self-esteem in older adults.” Personality and Individual Differences 50 (1): 120–123. 

Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Shelestova, Tatyana Yu., Anna N. Kalizhanova & Marina V. Bedelbayeva
2024.
Personality-based intercultural awareness in undergraduate translation students via postcrossing.
Cogent Arts & Humanities 11:1

Qiu, Guanghua
2023.
Towards the effects of translators’ emotional intelligence and anxiety on their translation quality.
Heliyon 9:9
► pp. e19276 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.