So there’s this test you can take. About your need for drama.
It’s all very scientific and published. Totally evidence-based and meant to assess that thing dramatic people have inside them. You know, that inner tendency to make chaos a routine occurrence in their daily lives.
Psychologist Scott Frankowski really wanted to know what that was all about.
So, he gathered a research team and got to it. And now, well, now there’s that aforementioned drama test, really a scientific survey, that could come in handy the next time that dramatic person you know has a bad break up, or gets so sick, or needs to be picked up in the middle of the night.
With a series of carefully constructed questions about behavior, the survey was designed to get to the bottom of why Jack would need to tweet that his boss was a jerk, knowing that his boss would see it. Or how it was that Jill was constantly experiencing some random, upsetting call, visit, or event… to the point that her dramatic turn of events was no longer random, but pretty darn cyclical.
When all was said and done, the survey and the compiled data became the basis for the article “Developing and Testing a Scale to Measure Need for Drama,” published in the January 2016 edition of “Personality and Individual Differences.”
What did the research find? Does chaos really roil inside dramatic people? Or are they just magnets for bad luck and continual crises? It turns out that drama in a person’s life is something real and measurable, all you need is a sort of drama scale. Once again, developed by Frankowski and friends.
They call it NFD.
What in the world is NFD?
Frankowski and his colleagues surveyed 500 volunteers and rated their answers according to reactivity. People who scored high on questions like, “I say or do things just to see how others react,” “Sometimes I play people against each other to get what I want,” or “I always speak my mind but pay for it later,” also showed high scores on certain unrestrained behaviors most of us recognize as a dramatic person’s general MO.
These behaviors include:
- Unfiltered responses, social media commentary, or speech
- Forceful or highly opinionated interactions in person
- A tendency to just blurt out whatever he or she is thinking
In essence, this type of person finds or creates the drama through impulsive behavior. They actually kind of crave it. Again, Frankowski and company call that NFD or Need for Drama.
Do dramatic people realize where their drama really originates?
Nope. At least that’s what the data indicates.
And, really, that makes a lot of sense. Dramatic people are impulsive and not particularly self-aware when it comes to filtering themselves or recognizing how their behavior is perceived. So, determining what is within their own internal control and what is happening to them from the outside often gets skewed.
They tend to overreact to the world and operate from a “position of perceived victimhood” the study notes. Every comment is a dig at them, every delayed text-back or tweet is a slight, and anything more serious is depicted as the end of the world. Again.
So what’s the take away regarding dramatic people?
Well, for one thing, once these traits are identified, those that love, live with, or work alongside dramatic people can know a bit more about what to expect and how much time and energy to invest in that person’s seeming never-ending list of crises.
Furthermore, according to Frankowski and his colleagues, manipulation, gossip, neuroticism, and a somewhat disagreeable attitude are part of what characterize this maladaptive personality trait and drives the drama. So, going forward, the research team hopes their NFD data will be useful in predicting “counterproductive workplace behaviors and other maladaptive interpersonal interactions” as well as supporting various other types of social research.
And, in case you were wondering, with respect to gender, you might be surprised.
Despite the fact that there are very few cultural references to “drama kings” anywhere to be found, the study’s findings indicate that there are just as many of them as there are “drama queens”!
