Five Factor Model of Personality - Essay Example

Five Factor Model of Personality Psychologists have been concerned with the development of scientific means of determining the traits that individuals are bound to express across multiple situations over the years. Currently, a majority of psychologists prefer use of five-factor model also called Big Five dimensions of personality in study of personality traits in various psychological contexts. The five factors were developed based factor analysis research conducted through sampling of self and peer reports about various adjectives on personality. Therefore, the five-factor model of personality refers to five core areas derived from this report to represent human traits and includes openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism developed to guide the theoretical postulation and clinical practices. To determine traits exhibited by individuals effectively, the five-factor model comprises of strategies for assessment, diagnosis, and personal development and can be used to gauge a range of personality profiles, career aptitude assessments and relationship issues (Saulsman and Page, 2004). The significance of the five factor model in determining personality trait is in rating self and peer based on the fact that people are able to rate themselves and others considering the common understanding of the five dimensions. The ratings provided by the model portrays more than consistency in the implicative meanings of the terms used for the traits. The ratings achieve a high accuracy level considering that individuals taking these tests are best placed to determine their personality to provide researchers with useful information. Information provided by peers also have high percentage of accuracy based on the fact that people have adequate information that can be used to provide score that are close to the actual predictor of behavior about spouses, friends and close acquaintances. Therefore, the five-factor model of personality trait is an important framework for psychologists to determine the personality of an individual from the standpoint of the observer. This is important in providing specific vocabularies that can be used in determining the structure of vocabulary observers use to describe others. Additionally, the five-factor model is important in providing an outline for organization of the social reputation of people (McCrae and Costa, 2003). Among the strengths of the five factors model of personality is the range of applicability for individuals and peers. Over the years, this model has been put to use in various circumstances with high success rates being reported by multiple researchers who could independently verify the model’s predictive accuracy. Empirical evidence from a number of researches support the model based on the results, which are predictive of human behavior in array of contexts. For instance, Saulsman and Page (2004), investigated existing relationship between the five factors identified in the model and ten groups of personality disorders in the DSM-IV. The result of this study indicated a close relationship between the two where each disorder could be related to a specific five-factor profile in the fifteen independent samples used for the study (Trull, 2005). Additionally, the model has been used in the context of job performance where it was found to be predictive of various employee predispositions with conscientiousness, extraversion and openness to experience finding greater significance in this content. On academic front, factors such as conscientiousness, openness and agreeableness to have a correlation with the academic performance of students at various levels of study (Poropat, 2002). In this study, conscientiousness was particularly predictive factor as it was an accurate predictor as IQ of the individuals sampled. A number of studies have supported the accuracy of the five factors in determining traits of individuals based on their relation to stress. These studies include those that have investigated health behaviors and substance abuse. There have also been a number of recent findings, which have indicated a close relationship between the model and other prominent theories such as Hofstede's cultural dimensions. The factors that include individualism, power distance, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance in Hofstede's theory have important correlation with the average scores derived in the five factor model for a given country where for instance. This correlation can be perceived in the extent to which a country values individualism, which is then compared with the average extroversion in the five-factor model (Hofstede and McCrae, 2004). These findings among others work to support the accuracy of the model in determining the personality of individuals. However, there are still a number of reservations that people have concerning the ability of the model to function as an accurate theory of determining personality. Among the criticism directed towards the five factors model of personality is that the traits were derived from arbitrary and theoretical predisposition (Zachar, 2000). While the model has been informative in determining the personality of individuals, it encourages subjective and arbitrariness in determining the choice of items under consideration, the decision on factor procedures and rotations of the factor-analytic tool and labeling of derived factors. The five-factor model of personality is as a result of a process that did not consider explicit psychological theory leading to reservations about their effectiveness. Many psychologists have wondered about the procedure undertake to limit the model to five factors. However, proponents of the model have supported the five factors based on the assumption that the structure of traits is in the structure of language used in everyday communication, which is because language can predictably be used to reflect social and psychological reality. Researchers such as Paunonen and Jackson (2000) argue that there are a number of personality traits that cannot be covered by the scope of the five-factor personality model. Factors such as such as impulsive sensation-seeking personality trait can be verified using psychological theoretical reasoning yet they are inadequately captured by terms in the natural language. Consequently criticism of the five factor model of determining personality indicates that the five factors might to a large extend only be derived based on the choice of the analyst since more factors can motivate the five factors while a dataset composed of these variables can be included to develop simpler models. Further criticism of the five-factor model is based on the argument that it provides a static account of personality portrayed by an individual over the course of a lifetime. This is contrary to research that has indicated personality traits as developing and transforming throughout the childhood of an individual while they remain stable for healthy individuals over the age of thirty. Among the studies that have proven the inconsistencies in five-factor model of personality is one that found significant test-retest correlations for dimensions such as Extraversion, Neuroticism and Openness but could not determine noteworthy correlations traits such as Conscientiousness and Agreeableness for test samples from individuals across the 45-year period. Based on the evidence of the test-retest correlations that indicates small proportion in variance suggesting the dimensions are subject to considerable transformations across the adult years. Most of the great psychologists including Cattell, Allport and Murray have accepted the assumption that personality dispositions change, leading to the conclusion that that five-factor model be important only as reflective of present generation (Roberts, Walton and Viechtbauer, 2006). This is supported by ongoing empirical studies that have indicated progressive changes to personality structure take place throughout the lifespan of an individual (Cattell, Boyle and Chant, 2002). Therefore, is important for the five factor model to reflect the changes in personality occurring over the lifespan of an individual as opposed to taking a structured personality learning approach to the theory. From the foregoing, the five-factor model of determining personality trait has provided an important framework for determining the character of an individual. The model has a number of strengths that have made it an important theory. Firstly, the theory has increased the available models used in personality determination. The theory has introduced important basis over which researchers can use for individuals to determine their own or behaviour of peers. Multiple researchers have confirmed the importance of the theory in psychology especially in areas such as personality disorders, job performance, and academic performance of students. These findings provide important data that support the five-factor model as an accurate framework for determining traits of individuals. However, there have been several criticisms of the model with opponents noting the traits were derived from arbitrary and theoretical predisposition. Additionally, it has been argued that the model provides a static account of personality portrayed by an individual over the course of a lifetime, which is contrary to research that has indicated personality traits as developing and transforming throughout the childhood. References Cattell, R. B., Boyle, G. J., & Chant, D., 2002. Enriched behavioural prediction equation and its impact on structured learning and the dynamic calculus. Psychological Review, 109, 202-205. Hofstede, G., & McCrae, R. R., 2004. Personality and culture revisited: Linking traits and dimensions of culture. Cross-cultural research, 38(1), 52-88. McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., 2003. Personality in adulthood: A five-factor theory perspective. New York: Guilford Press. Paunonen, S. V., & Jackson, D. N., 2000. What is beyond the Big Five? Plenty! Journal of Personality, 68, 821-835. Poropat, A., 2002. The relationship between atrributional style, gender and the Five-Factor Model of personality. Personality and Individual Differences, 33, 1185-1201. Roberts, B. W., Walton, K. E., & Viechtbauer, W., 2006. Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 1-25. Saulsman, L. M., & Page, A. C., 2004. The five-factor model and personality disorder empirical literature: A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 1055- 1085. Trull, T. J., 2005. Dimensional models of personality disorder: Coverage and cutoffs. Journal of Personality Disorders, 19(3), 262-282. Zachar, P., 2000. Psychiatric disorders are not natural kinds. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology, 7(3), 167-182. Read More