Big Five personality theory
Why do people respond differently to the same situations? In contemporary psychology, the Big Five factors of personality are five broad domains which define human personality and account for individual differences. This article tells you more about the Big Five personality theory. After reading it, take our free personality test or career test to determine your own Big Five personality type.History of Big Five personality theory
Several independent sets of researchers discovered and defined the five broad factors based on empirical, data-driven research. Ernest Tupes and Raymond Cristal advanced the initial model, based on work done at the U.S. Air Force Personnel Laboratory in the late 1950s.1 J.M. Digman proposed his five factor model of personality in 19902, and Goldman extended it to the highest level of organizations in 1993.3 In a personality test, the Five Factor Model or FFM4 and the Global Factors of personality5 may also be used to reference the Big Five traits.Traits of the Big Five personality test
Human resources professionals often use the Big Five personality dimensions to help place employees. That is because these dimensions are considered to be the underlying traits that make up an individual’s overall personality. The Big Five traits are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism or OCEAN:- Openness - People who like to learn new things and enjoy new experiences usually score high in openness. Openness includes traits like being insightful and imaginative and having a wide variety of interests.
- Conscientiousness - People that have a high degree of conscientiousness are reliable and prompt. Traits include being organized, methodic, and thorough.
- Extraversion - Extraverts get their energy from interacting with others, while introverts get their energy from within themselves. Extraversion includes the traits of energetic, talkative, and assertive.
- Agreeableness - These individuals are friendly, cooperative, and compassionate. People with low agreeableness may be more distant. Traits include being kind, affectionate, and sympathetic.
- Neuroticism - Neuroticism is also sometimes called Emotional Stability. This dimension relates to one’s emotional stability and degree of negative emotions. People that score high on neuroticism often experience emotional instability and negative emotions. Traits include being moody and tense.
How to use results from the Big Five personality test
The Big Five personality test gives you more insight into how you react in different situations, which can help you choose an occupation. Career professionals and psychologists use this information in a personality career test for recruitment and candidate assessment.Test personality free
To determine your Big Five personality traits, take our free online personality test. It tells you more about yourself and what your strengths and weaknesses are. This personality test measures the Big Five personality factors developed over several decades by independent groups of researchers. It is the most scientifically validated and reliable psychological model to test personality. You can also take our career test to test personality.
What
Is "Personality"?
When you talk about
someone's personality, what do you
really mean? Have you
ever heard someone say, 'She's very
aggressive" or
"He's so shy -- such an introvert!" or "My mother
is really sweet"?
Or how about "He's very dependent" or "She's
got a terrific
personality -- a lot of sparkle!" You may not
have heard exactly
those words, but you can see what we're
suggesting. In
contrast to psychologists' use of the term, when
the average person
uses the term, "personality" has a variety of
meanings, each unique
to the situation in which it appears.
Many different
descriptions are possible, but when most
people use the term
"personality," they are using it for one of
two purposes. In
several of the examples we just gave you,
personality is
labeling an obvious feature. Someone is sweet,
or introverted, or
shy, or aggressive. Of the many things that
a person may be, we
often identify him or her in terms of the
single characteristic
that is most obvious. The impression we
make on people may be
used by them to label our "personality."
But there's another
way in which most of us use the term
"personality,"
and that is to indicate a more general kind of
skill in representing
ourselves to others. Someone who works as
a receptionist or as a
telephone operator or in a front office
sales job is often
thought qualified for the job because he or
she has "a lot of
personality." What's really being said here?
Maybe it's just that
such people can get along well with other
people. Some of the
traditional ads offering courses in
personality are really
offering little more than help in
improving your skills
in meeting, greeting, and working with
others. And yet it's
training identified as "improving your
personality" or "allowing you
to reach your full potential."
Theories
of Personality
Why are theories of
personality important? The reason we
stress the complexity
and vagueness of defining personality is
because its definition
depends upon which theory you are using.
Theories are of
central importance in studying personality.
Theories serve several
purposes. First of all, they
organize what is
already known or suspected about a total set of
data. As new data
develop, the theory must often be adjusted.
Trait theories of
personality are good example of theoretical
models constantly
subject to revision in light of new data or
new analyses performed
on that data.
Second, theories also
serve what is called a heuristic
function. That is,
they suggest, by organizing the important
facts, exactly what
kind of research is needed to fill in
missing facts. The
(Social-) Learning Theories illustrate this
feature of theories
well. The theories of Dollard and Miller
and Albert Bandura as
well as the operant principles developed
by B. F. Skinner to
explain personality are a source of ideas
for research studies.
Third, theories
provide a formal statement of the central
principles of its
subject matter -- here, a view of personality.
The psychoanalytic
theory of Sigmund Freud formally summarizes
his work regarding his
core assumptions. The theory also
summarizes his views
regarding the structure of personality and
the role of instincts
in psychoanalysis. Theories identify the
important aspects of a
phenomenon -- for instance as summarized
in the derivative
psychodynamic theories of Carl Jung and Alfred
Adler. Such theories
also isolate the unimportant features of
Personality:
Theories 436
PSYCHOLOGY:
Exploring Behavior
the phenomenon being
studied. So theories serve a variety of
important functions,
not only (or especially) in the study of
personality, but also
in all areas of psychology.
We spend this entire
chapter analyzing the most important
of a vast array of
personality theories that have been developed
in the century since
Freud's earliest works. These theories are
organized and
presented in the Table roughly in the order in
which they initially
appeared, with the self-growth theories of
Carl Rogers and
Abraham Maslow being the last to appear. In the
last two decades,
theories based on factor analytic statistical
techniques have
advanced challenging new views as to the primary
components of personality,
regardless of the theory being
applied. Four major
types of theories have been developed, some
much more successful
than others. Each type of theory
emphasizes different
independent and dependent variables as
major determinants in
the operation of personality. The types
of theories that are
covered are presented in Table 1. Also
seen in that table are
some of the most prominent psychologists
associated with each
type of theory. We examine a sample or two
of
each of these broad classes of theorie
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