Biological and Humanistic Theories - Essay Example

Biological and Humanistic Theories: The Big Five Personality Factors Biological and Humanistic Theories: The Big Five Personality Factors I. Introduction The Big Five personality factors are the five domains of an individual’s dimension that is helpful in determining the personality of a person. The Big Five personality factors or dimensions consist of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience. Extraversion is the extent of a person’s sociability on how he or she relates to others. Agreeableness on the other hand is about an individual’s altruism and kindness. Conscientiousness is about how focused an individual is to achieve a set of objective. The fourth dimension of emotional stability or neurotism pertains to the individual’s stability in handling stress and lastly, openness is about the individual’s capacity for imagination, creativity and willingness to try and learn new things (McCarthy and Garavan, 1999) Knowing the kind of personality that a person has in a group enables the group to optimize its output by averting possible clashes of personality and working on the strengths of each team members (Mcrae and Costa, 1995). II. Summary of team member’s results Member A Openness to experience intellect – you are somewhat conventional with a percentile rank of 20 Conscientiousness - You are neither organized or disorganized – Your percentile 52 Extraversion – you are relatively social and enjoy the company of others – your percentile is 79 Agreeableness - you tend to be consider the feelings of others – your percentile is 74 Neuroticism – you probably remain calm, even in tense situation. Your percentile is 14 This means that Member A is somewhat traditional in orientation but could be liberal to ideas sometimes. Team member however is sociable and likes working with people. Team member A however does not entirely agree to this because according to him, he is open to ideas even if he values tradition. He however acknowledges that the assessment was right with him being outgoing. http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?oR=0.575&cR=0.611&eR=0.75&aR=0.778&nR=0.312&y=1990&g=m Member B Openness to experience/intellect – you prefer traditional and familiar experiences, your percentile is 1. Conscientiousness – you are neither organized or disorganized, your percentile is 41 Extraversion – you tend to shy away from social situations, your percentile is 22 Agreeableness – you find it easy to criticize other, your percentile is 1 Neuroticism – you are generally anxious person and tend to worry about things In sum, the result of member B’s assessment is also traditional in orientation and is moderately organized. He however is an introvert because he prefers to be on his own rather than socializing with people and tends to worry about things. Member B however does not agree with the neuroticism aspect because he does not worry a lot. Result: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/results/?oR=0.3&cR=0.556&eR=0.406&aR=0.278&nR=0.781&y=1990&g=m Member C Openness to experience/intellect – you prefer traditional and familiar experiences, your percentile is 5. Conscientiousness – you can very well organized, and be relied upon. Your percentile is 83. Extraversion – you are neither particularly social or reserved, your percentile is 48. Agreeableness – you find it easy to criticize others. Your profile is 3. Neuroticism – you aren’t particularly nervous, nor calm. Your percentile is 43. Result of assessment says that member C is extremely traditional and organized. He is however moderately sociable and is critical of others. Member C disagree with this because he is open to new things even if he value traditions. He however admitted that he is very organized. III. Solutions for working together The assessment revealed that there are clashing personalities in the group that could be a source of conflict. One of these potential flashpoints is the presence of two members in the team who find it very easy to easily criticize others. This tendency needs to be guarded because it could be a potential source of conflict that could adversely affect not only the harmony and friendship of the team but also its productivity. If team members are in conflict or quarreling, they would likely not agree to work with each other if they would still work with each other, there would be a lot of friction and its output will be far from ideal. Another potential flashpoint is the clashing personality of Team Member A and Team Member B where member A is extrovert and the other is an introvert (member B). This could be potential flashpoint because of their clashing personalities where member B might be irritated with member A who is very talkative and sociable. These two group members are diametrically opposed in terms of socialization because member A is a social butterfly while member B would like to be left alone. In terms of getting things done, the team must also take note of the personalities of its team members. By default, majority of team members (member A and B) are disorganized and this could adversely affect the efficiency of the group and getting things done. So team member C must check the organization of the group to make sure that the group is doing what it is supposed to do to be able to finish any work assigned to the group. To make the group effective and efficient, the group must capitalize on the strengths of each team member and avoid utilizing its weaknesses. This would optimize the capability of the group that would tremendously improve its productivity and output. Work can then be divided depending on the strengths of each group member. For example, for works that involve interacting with people such as interviewing, getting information from the library, doing surveys, the extrovert member of the group can be relied to do this because it is suited well on their personality. Dealing with people will be effortless with them. Organizing the materials, data, keeping them and keeping track of progress and assigned task can be delegated to team member C who is very organized. For drafting the paper, the introvert member (member B) can be assigned to do this because it is very likely that such member is very good with the cerebral work. Other members can then participate to improve the work. IV. Conclusion This exercise reveals that differences in the personality of group members can in fact be managed to produce desired result. These differences in personality has its own strengths and weakness where the strengths can be capitalized to optimize output while weakness can be avoided to avoid conflicts. It is therefore imperative for a manager or leader, of a group or an organization to acknowledge these differences in personalities and adjust the tasks that will be delegated to them to be able to capitalize the strength of such personality. References McCarthy, Alma M; Garavan, Thomas (1999). Developing self-awareness in the managerial career development process: the value of 360-degree feedback and the MBTI. Journal of European Industrial Training, 23/9 437 to 435 McCrae, R.R., & Costa, P.T. (1995). Validation of the five-factor model of personality across instruments and observers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 81-90. Read More