Issue #23: The Personality Big Five
Learn about different personality traits and how they influence your character
Dear mental health advocate,
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And now, back to the content. In this edition I will dive deeper in our personality traits. One model that is often used discusses the ‘Big Five’, which are five distinct measures that indicate a characteristic. These are neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to experience, conscientiousness and extraversion.
The Personality Big Five
Recently, the world population reached 8 billion. A crazy big number if you ask me. But what is even more interesting, is the fact that all of these people are different. Sure, doppelgängers exist. Or think about identical twins who are genetically similar. However, they are still very much unique. Because one part that is not the same for everybody is their personality. There are various personality traits, and most of these are a spectrum that everyone scores differently on. Think about an example, a trait like ‘being outgoing’. It could be that someone is a hundred percent outgoing, or zero percent. But more likely, is that a person falls somewhere between these two percentages.
Combine these scores with many other traits and we get to an infinite number of possibilities. Of course, it is very difficult to measure this. What exactly does it mean to be a hundred percent outgoing, or for example seventy-five? Psychologists have had a lot of discussions about this and still there is not complete consensus how to quantify or examine personality properly. At the same time, they do agree that personality is a very useful and important topic, because it strongly impacts our life. Many people feel that their traits and characteristics define them for at least a big part. Our personality influences our behavior and how we interact with people. So, it should definitely be researched. But how?
The Big Five Model
There are many different theories in psychology that try to examine the number of personality traits or how they should be measured. Some say there are 4000 different traits, while other say there are only a few. In today’s article I want to discuss the Five-factor model, sometimes better known as the ‘Big Five’. This theory claims that we all have five core personality traits, where we all score differently on. Know that the emphasis should be on ‘core’. Psychologists think we have more traits than just these five, but these are very defining for your overall personality. The first psychologist who mentioned this was D.W. Fiske in 1949, but since then many others have refined this.
So what is this model exactly? Most of the literature on this concept talk about five distinct personality traits which are essential in how our personality is formed. Each of these traits represent some sort of continuum, with two ‘extremes’ on the outer ends. Then, each person would fall somewhere on this range. It is not likely that people are on the extremes, because it is being normed based on other people’s scores. While there is some discussion left on how to label all of these traits exactly for these ranges, most studies do find significant results to corroborate the five-factor model.
What are the five personality traits?
The five ones that are part of this personality model are: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The acronym researchers use to help you remember are OCEAN or CANOE. Remember that each score is not a judgment or one is better than the other. We are all unique and have different wants and needs in life. Here is what each of these traits mean exactly:
Openness to experience
This trait explains well how open a person is to experience new things and likes change. The outer ends mean that some are more closed and others more open. If you are more on the closed end it signifies you prefer routine and you want to know what to expect. You prefer being practical and love doing things that are familiar to you. Change you find difficult. If you score high on openness, then you like things to be different than you are used to, want to have new experiences and prefer change. Many creative and artistic people score high on openness to experience.
A high score: creative, very curious, imaginative, willingness to try new things, not conventional
A low score: loves predictability, routine is good, not imaginative, traditional, does not like change
Conscientiousness
This trait focuses on how important structure and being organized is to you. One end means you score high on conscientiousness, while the other end means you do not prefer direction and instead like a more chaotic environment or life. As a result, being very conscientious means that you really bode well in surroundings where things are very detailed and thought through. Impulse control is easy and you like focusing on achieving goals meticulously. On the other hand, not being very conscientious means you are more chaotic and impulsive, not liking organization and prefer to ‘wing it’.
A high score: being dutiful, structured, organized, careful and disciplined
A low score: chaotic, unstructured, being in the moment, impulsive
Extroversion
This one might be familiar to you, the trait that describes how much a person enjoys to socially interact with their environment. One end means being extroverted, explaining how much you get energy from this interaction. On the other end there is introverted, which means you get more energy from being alone. If you are extroverted then you prefer social situations, being assertive/outgoing and having a lot of people around you. Being introverted means you are more reserved and it gives you energy to be alone.
A high score: very social, outgoing, looking for excitement, being the center of attention
A low score: reserved, more quiet, enjoys being alone, lots of social interaction drains you
Agreeableness
This trait tries to define how much a person likes to be in harmony with other people. The outer ends thus describe on one hand being agreeable, while the other is more antagonistic. If you are agreeable then you prefer working together with people, you like being altruistic and helping others with their needs. Cooperation and balance are essential here. If you are antagonistic then you like having a different opinion and more stubborn. You can describe it as ‘going against the stream’.
A high score: harmonious, sensitive, empathetic, compliant
A low score: sceptical, stubborn, demanding, not afraid of conflict
Neuroticism
The last trait in this model is best defined by how emotional a person is and how much stability they feel in their daily life. It relates to fear and how they see the world around them and feel about it. One end talks about being more neurotic, while the other describes a person as more emotionally stable. If you are neurotic, then you experience negative and positive emotions a bit stronger. Also, they are more vulnerable. Emotionally stable people feel more calm and less guided by their emotions.
A high score: emotional, vulnerable, big shifts in moods, sensitive
A low score: calm, stable, does not worry a lot, more flat in emotions
Want to know how well you score on these traits? There are numerous tests online you can do. One that I recommend is the following one called the ‘Big Five test’. You can do it here. Always be cautious with such results, it does not fully reflect your whole personality who you are.
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My name is Alf Lokkertsen and I am a psychologist and writer, creating mental health content for you. My passion is to raise awareness about topics related to psychology, as it has helped me greatly in my personal life. I strongly believe that many problems could be avoided or dealt with better if everyone had some in-depth psychology knowledge.
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