Meg Griffin Personality Traits

In today’s popular culture, most people would recognize Meg Griffin from Family Guy, and may have grown up hearing the ever-so-famous “shut up Meg” (MacFarlane, Zuckerman, 1999). Meg Griffin is known as the underdog in her family, and is often the target of many practical jokes from her father, Peter Griffin. Over the span of 21 seasons — or 402 episodes — one can gain a significant understanding of Meg Griffin’s personality, and witness the change and growth she experiences. In order to better understand Meg Griffin’s personality, analysis will be performed using the Trait, Psychoanalytic, and Neo-Analytic approaches to psychology.

Trait Approach

The Big Five — or the Five Factor Model of Personality — consists of five central characteristics

It measures one’s willingness to deviate from their usual routine (McCarron, 2023). People with a high openness to experience are more likely to take chances, and be

This can be seen in Season 16, episode 8, Crime and Meg’s Demeanor when Meg takes up a partying lifestyle after discovering she can pull-off a pretty cool party trick. Meg seems to disregard the consequences of her actions, and truly shows her carelessness in the moment.

Neuroticism

Meg indicates a high level of neuroticism, meaning she is more emotional and sensitive than most people. This trait is understandable given that she is somewhat of a ‘catch-all’ for the families jokes and abuse. Because she has to constantly keep her guard up and has not been able to trust even those who are supposed to be the most trustworthy people, it makes sense that Meg would have developed a high level of neuroticism.

Openness

Meg obtained an average score for openness. This indicates that she is somewhere close to the middle, meaning her willingness to try new things might fluctuate, and sometimes she might prefer to stick to the usual. It also states that Meg might appear to others as “well-educated… but not an intellectual” (Johnson, n.d.). This last aspect is proven true in Season 12, episode 19 when Principal Shepherd states that Meg is a “straight-B