Personality can be described by five distinct traits, and together they are known as the Big Five. Show
Share on PinterestWestend61/Getty Images Personalities contain the patterns of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make each person unique. Together, these aspects can play a role in every part of our lives, from friendships to careers, to hobbies. Throughout history, researchers have tried to simplify complex personalities by suggesting that most people fit into specific categories. By focusing on an individual’s characteristics and patterns of behavior, researchers can try and predict or explain behavior. Experts believe that there are five personality traits, known as the “Big Five” or the Five-Factor Model. Each trait reflects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. This model is one of the most widely used frameworks in personality research. According to a 2015 article, the Big Five model is one of the most recognized approaches to describing and measuring individual differences in one’s personality. It’s used to help people better understand themselves and how they compare to others. Companies use this model to predict how employees or potential candidates relate to others. Also, it can be used for understanding how employees might think and handle stress. The Big Five personality traits consist of:
Each of the five personality factors is composed of a range between two extremes. Most people score in between the two ends of each dimension. Extraversion, sometimes called extroversion, reflects how you interact socially. It describes your emotional expression and how comfortable you are in your environment. People who score high in extraversion may have tendencies to:
If you score lower on extraversion in the Big Five model, you might:
Agreeableness is a personality trait that describes how you treat your relationships with others. It’s how kind and helpful you are toward people. Overall, high agreeableness means you desire to keep things running smoothly and value social harmony. If you score high in agreeableness, you may be:
People with lower scores in this personality trait might be more:
Conscientiousness is a trait that refers to how thoughtful and goal-oriented you are. It’s how in control you are over your impulses and your level of organization and work ethic. If you score high in conscientiousness, you tend to be:
Scoring low in conscientiousness means you may:
Neuroticism is a personality trait that refers to your emotional stability. As a personality dimension, neuroticism is characterized by unsettling thoughts and feelings of sadness or moodiness. A high score in neuroticism means that you may:
People who score low in this personality trait might mean you:
Intellect, imagination, and openness describe your imagination and how creative you are. It refers to your sense of curiosity about the world and your willingness to try new things. If you score high in this personality trait, you may:
A lower score in openness means you might:
Personality tests can shed light on the various aspects of your personality and help you get to know yourself better. Though a test can’t fully describe you or define who you are as a person, it can help you recognize your strengths and weaknesses. The tests may even help you discover a new way to approach your problems. If you’ve discovered that one of your character traits has a negative impact on your life or relationships, you could consider discussing this with a licensed therapist. A therapist can help you understand your personality and suggest ways to make changes.
You’ve probably heard of them before: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. But how much do you really know about the so-called Big Five personality traits? This post is for anyone who wants a basic introduction to the Big Five. In this article, we’ll take a brief look at each of the five main traits, their strengths and weaknesses, and what they mean in practice. If you’re only just dipping your toes into the world of personality psychology, then this is the place to start! Big Five personality traits: definitionIf you were to ask someone to name the five most important personality traits, they’d likely mentions things like “confidence” or “shyness.” While these are certainly good guesses, they’re not actually part of the Big Five — a set of five personality traits that have been identified as the most important in influencing human behavior. These five dimensions describe human personality and temperament, and they also direct our thoughts and actions. These are broad constructs that group several related personality traits under a single heading. They were identified through a statistical procedure called factor analysis over the last several decades, and represent the largest dataset in personality psychology to date. Understanding the Big Five traits of yourself and those around you is crucial for effective communication and teamwork. And if you want a better understanding of yourself or your friends or family members, knowing about each trait can be valuable. So here they are, in no particular order: 1. OpennessOpenness (also known as Openness to Experience) is one of the five dimensions of personality. It means, perhaps unsurprisingly, the tendency to be open to new things and new ideas. Openness to experience means a person’s dispositional tendency to use his or her senses to derive pleasure from engaging in novel, complex, or out-of-the-ordinary activities. People who score high in openness tend to be more creative and curious. They tend to prefer variety and novelty over routine, and are more likely to embrace new ideas and experiences. People high in openness to experience tend to have more intellectual interests, like classical music, abstract art, and complex books. Being open-minded allows them to carry on a number of discussions simultaneously, even about highly controversial topics. Such people are good at innovating and seeing novel ideas, or adapting an idea from one area to another when more creativity is required. When an idea is unexpected, a person high in openness to experience is more likely to try it out and provide constructive feedback. People high in openness also seem to have a lot of energy to explore the world around them. They excel at making creative connections and evaluating new ideas. Being open requires a willingness to examine the premises of a problem, and propose a hypothesis about what may be needed to solve it. Examples of being open to experience:
2. ConscientiousnessConscientiousness is the tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement. Conscientiousness is also an overall tendency to be persistent, organized, and responsible for one’s work performance. With good reason, people who score high on this dimension tend to demonstrate the highest levels of achievement in their jobs. Conscientiousness is also the ability to pay attention to details and follow directions. Conscientious people tend to be dependable and responsible. They are thorough in their work, organized, and tend to plan ahead. Examples of being conscientious:
3. ExtroversionExtroversion (sometimes spelled “extraversion”) means the quality of wanting to meet lots of people and networking as much as possible. Extroversion is an outgoing, gregarious, and chatty personality style characterized by a preference for activities that bring the individual pleasure or thrill. People generally fall into two camps when it comes to how they interact with the outside world. There are extroverts, who gain energy from being around people and reflect inwardly from spending time alone. Then there are introverts, who gain energy from time alone and reflect inwardly by interacting with people. Introversion and extroversion is a spectrum, not a dichotomy — most people fall somewhere in the middle of the two ends. There’s also an assumption that introverts are shy, socially awkward, and don’t like people. However, introversion is not the same as social awkwardness or shyness. Extroversion goes hand in hand with its opposite, introversion. Extroverts and introverts don’t like the same things. As an extrovert, you like people and fun, engaging things. As an introvert, you like quiet and reflective time. Examples of being an extrovert:
4. AgreeablenessThe Big Five personality trait of agreeableness means a person’s tendency to be compassionate and cooperative, rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others. Agreeable people tend to be good-natured, cooperative, and trusting. They are also usually considerate, generous, and willing to compromise their own interests for those of others. Agreeable people tend to have more empathy for others, and will display generosity towards others. More generally, agreeableness is an interpersonal style characterized by a desire to work toward harmony and social cooperation. Examples of being agreeable:
4. NeuroticismNeuroticism is the tendency to experience negative emotions and stress in response to things that others might not experience as stressful. It goes hand in hand with its opposite, known as “emotional stability”; in fact, the term “emotional stability” is gradually replacing neuroticism as the preferred way to describe this Big Five dimension. Examples of being neurotic:
Conclusion: learning more about the Big FiveIf you want a better understanding of someone you know, or even yourself, the Big Five personality traits can make it easier to understand why people behave the way they do. Knowing about these traits can also be very useful when creating marketing strategies and making decisions in your business and life. Moreover, understanding others can lead to stronger relationships and more fulfilling interactions with one another, while understanding yourself can help you feel better about who you are as a person and achieve your potential! Examples of the Big Five in recent personality research:
Photo: by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels Douglas Heingartner, the editor of PsychNewsDaily, is a journalist based in Amsterdam. He has written about science, technology, and more for publications including The New York Times, The Economist, Wired, the BBC, The Washington Post, New Scientist, The Associated Press, IEEE Spectrum, Quartz, The Village Voice, The Los Angeles Times, Frieze, and others. His Google Scholar profile is here, his LinkedIn profile is here, and his Muck Rack profile is here. |