… no, not the big 5 animals (lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and buffalo) you can spot on a safari in Africa 😉.
I promised to publish a post on the big five traits of personality, and here it finally is. So, no animal footprints 🐾 but rather your own personality footprints 👣.
So many things distinguish us. Our looks, of course. Our values. Our intelligence, our belief systems, and our behaviors. These factors then can be even further distinguished: looks become height, hair structure, eye color. Emotional intelligence as well as intellect. Beliefs about human rights, economic systems, religious beliefs. Individual differences in behavior are even more complex in the sense that they have multiple determinants, like genetic factors and environmental influences. But these causes of behaviors also include personality factors: some of us are naturally more prone to be loud or quiet, emotional or restrained, some don’t like to yell, some do, some people we get along with easily, some we need time to warm up to.
Personality also is a huge research area. I personally am a fan, I love to take personality tests, do a strength finder, read horoscopes, love memes I can relate to and even find the dark, destructive aspects in some of us humans (narcissism, psychopathy) thrilling. Equally, there are many ways in which the thousands of little differences between people can be grouped in categories.
In academic literature, the framework that is used most commonly, and is accepted most widely is that of the Big Five Personality Traits. Evidence suggests that virtually all personality measures can be subsumed under the umbrella of these 5 factors. The Big Five have been found to apply in almost all cultures (which is generally rare for any constructs!), and it remains relatively stable over time (which is not the case for some other popular personality measures such as the Myer Briggs 16 personalities).
The Big Five have actually been shown to depend on genetics, and not to a small degree. Isn’t that fascinating? Our parents are responsible for our personality pre-settings! You can tell them that next time they blame you for being lazy, or out with your friends too much, or disagreeing with you lots. ;-)
Okay, enough introduction. Let’s get to it. Here are the 5 dimensions of the Big Five Model of personality:
Neuroticism 😰
Neuroticism is prominent in nearly every measure of personality, and is thus maybe the most influential and distinguishing one. Neuroticism generally refers to a lack of positive psychological adjustment and emotional stability - or an abundance of negative mechanisms. When something bad happens, people high in neuroticism are not so quick to dismiss their pain, they spend more time blaming themselves, imagining negative outcomes and thinking of all the other bad things that happen to them. It includes tendencies for anxiety, hostility, depression, vulnerability and impulsiveness.
Individuals who score high on this construct are more likely to experience a variety of problems like negative moods (fear, irritability, anxiety) and even physical symptoms. These moods additionally stay with them longer. They are also more self-conscious. We are all subject to difficult situations and life events that hurt us emotionally, but some of us (those who rank lower on the neuroticism spectrum) are able to handle them better, and they have a generally more positive and resilient approach to whatever happens.
Extraversion 🤠
Extraversion is another prominent factor of our personality. It's probably the one you already defined yourself on - while many of us consider themselves introverts, the others may identify as extroverts: they like to go out, have fun, talk to people, be around people and have great social skills.
Well, it’s what I thought extraversion meant before I started to work a bit more science-based and in the psychology field. Yes, extraversion does contain behaviors and preferences of sociability. But there’s more: People high in extroversion can be more impulsive, more physically active, less introspective and less preoccupied with themselves. They can also display more warmth and positive emotions. Extroverts tend to be more dominant, assertive and ambitious, they are also connected to a higher tendency of leadership roles and they tend to have more close friends.
Good for you, guys.
Openness to Experience 🤗
It is characterized by philosophical, intellectual and spiritual openness to other opinions, ideas, beliefs.
Do you enjoy playing with new ideas, and experiencing new things? That’s a sign of it. It also has to do with a drive for or at least an acceptance of unconventionality, they may be more imaginative, autonomous in their actions and non-conformative in their thinking. Individuals very open to experience tend to have increased imagination, creativity, curiosity and artistic sensibility, but it also means that they can be more open to their own and others’ feelings and emotions.
Agreeableness 😇
People who are high in Agreeableness experience a great deal of empathy and tend to get positive experiences out of serving and taking care of others, even before they think of their own needs.
Agreeable people are described as cooperative, likable, caring, forgiving, soft-hearted, tolerant, good-natured, cheerful and gentle, they trust others and because of their good nature can also be trusted. The negative side of the medal is the need to please people, sometimes by sacrificing some of their values.
Some more positive aspects include modesty, altruism and compliance. It may not always be good for yourself, but it is definitely good for those around you. And sometimes, it does feel good to be liked, right? ;-)
Conscientiousness 🤓
This last personality factor manifests itself in three related facets: conscientious individuals are achievement oriented (hardworking and persistent), dependable (responsible and careful) and orderly (planful and organized).
It's the factor that is most strongly connected to work performance - makes sense, right! Conscientiousness is basically about the self-control one has, and his or her need for achievement, order and persistence. If you score high, you are better able to deal with temptations that would gratify you only in the short-term, and you are better able to focus on your long-term goals and what you need to do to get them.
The implications of these personality categories and how high or low you score on each of them determine many things in your life. There is so much research, for example how they affect personal relationships, job performance, stress coping, love styles and more. Just imagine, an extraverted individual may find it easier to make new friends. If (s)he is also very conscientious, they might decrease the time they have for their friends, though, because they dutifully spend more time at work than they have to. If they are not very agreeable, they might argue more with their friends about not having enough time for them, and become unhappy about this. If they are also high in neuroticism, this might make them experience strong negative emotions, they blame themselves and think about it a lot.
Why did these different personalities develop in people? We find normal distributions around the 5 factors (meaning most of us score in the middle, with less and less people being either really high or really low in one trait). These few extreme cases may have had evolutionary advantages: very neurotic people, even though they might themselves not have such a fun and happy life, maybe helped a group of stone age humans by keeping them alert to threats. Introverts seem to be less likely to take risks. Inventions and progress may have come through people especially open to experience people.
As I mentioned, these Big Five traits have been shown to be valid for most cultures that exist today. At the same time, different culture can prefer a certain type of personality, e.g. Americans tend to value extraversion more than many Asian countries. Depending on your own background and where you live, some of the traits may provide you with benefits, some pose disadvantages to succeeding in a specific society.
But, please be aware: Personality traits are maybe what you would most often or usually resort to, but they also don’t determine every single action by themselves. It doesn’t mean that if you score high on agreeableness, you can’t get upset. Or if you are generally low in conscientiousness, you cannot work your butt off from time to time. Or is you are low on extraversion, you are not a great friend and get along with people, especially if you try really hard to.
A quick exercise:
Sign your name. ✍
Now sign it with non-dominant hand. ✋
Feels weird, but is manageable, right?
This task, as well as personality traits, are about prebuilt preferences, habits - we can act in different ways, but it is more depleting. The more you practice behaviors and thoughts that may go against your initial urges, the better you get at them and the easier they get. We’re not victims of our personality, and only in a vacuum (or a lab) they can have their full impact.
You can pretend to be. But most of us are close to the middle of the traits, where it is easier to switch from one tendency to the opposite. But some people are actually on the end of the scales, and this is where it could become difficult to alter some behaviors related to the traits.
So, here’s the fun part you are now all excited to do. 😎
Of course, official tests used for scholarship have more questions, but this may be a good quick survey to give you an initial idea of where you score on each trait.
Enjoy and share your results!
Valli
xx
Sources:
Judge, T. A., Higgins, C. A., Thoresen, C. J., & Barrick, M. R. (1999). The big five personality traits, general mental ability, and career success across the life span. Personnel psychology, 52(3), 621-652.