Big Five Personality - Essay Example

Big five personalty Introduction If one takes a close look at the human civilization, one can not help noticing that it possesses several features that can not be found anywhere beyond the boundaries of the society which is formed by the human beings. Indeed, the latter are exceptional since they are self aware and have an increased interest towards exploring the inner world. This interest can be traced back to the very dawn of the society as people have always tried to understand the peculiarities of their souls. Gradually, it resulted in the emergence of various humanitarian sciences that tried to shed light on the greatest mystery of all: what is our soul like? Thus, many researchers directed their interest towards human personality. Surprisingly, many were able to come up with a conclusion that there are five traits that are able to provide an objective description of one’s personality and predict rather accurately one’s behavior. This paper will examine the so called Big Five personality traits, focusing on the history of their research as well as their meanings. History of Big Five personality traits research One should point out that the idea that personality might be described in a limited set of traits has always been present. However, it was not until Ernest Tupes and Raymond Christal in 1961 decided to process Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire as worked out five traits that could be sufficient to evaluate a personality of a person (Gilbert, 1991). However, the research did not receive the appropriate attention until Goldberg conducted an independent study and came up with the similar results in 1990. It must be noted that there has been a series of researches which were conducted by different scholars, for example Costa and McCrae or Norman, that provided the validity of the hypothesis that the original inquire into the matter had. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that the existence of fire personality traits has been verified by independent investigation at different times. Openness to experience While there is no particular list of the traits, they are usually reviewed in an order that would allow them to form acronym OCEAN. So, the first personality trait that will be analyzed is Openness to experience. As one can easily see for the very name of it, this trait is responsible for outlook of a person: those who score high on this one tend to be creative as well as enthusiastic about art (Daft, 2005). There people want to try new things and gain new experience since that makes them joyful. In addition to that, people who are characterized by openness of experience are likely to develop appreciation of unusual practices as well as hold liberal positions on controversial topic. Because of the free flow of their mind, they are likely to think in symbols rather than in concrete ideas. Conscientiousness This trait deals with a different aspect of personality: the desire of a person to keep everything in order (Schermerhorn, 2009). This inclination may be manifested in different ways, starting for actual liking of keeping things in order to appreciation of self discipline. For those who score high on this scale the idea of duty is crucial as it guides their actions and becomes a significant imperative. These people are known to be able to regulate their impulses and take control over various situations that otherwise seem to be chaotic. It is quite understandable that young adults are the one who show the highest score on this scale, while senior adults often score low. This can be explained by the fact that the former try to gain control over different situations, while the latter accepted the fact that they are not able to influence certain elements of their lives. Extraversion Extraversion is a rather popular concept and many people are familiar with it. In the broadest sense, it is a predisposition of a person for contact with other people. Thus, those who score high on this scale tend to be willing to communicate with people or interact with them in other ways. This is considered be a pleasurable activity for them. Moreover, they are often perceived as full of energy by the others. That is why extraverts are oriented at action and never refrain form any interesting activity. Speaking of their representation in a group, they are often perceived as the center of attention. While some people might thing that openness to new experience and extraversion are practically the same thing, they are wrong. While they are really closely connected, they are different in several aspects. For example, the former is more oriented on the subjective perception of the action, while the latter puts emphasis on willingness to perform an action. Agreeableness Agreeableness is a trait the meaning of which can be easily derived from its meaning: it stands for the ability and readiness of a person to agree with other people. The direct result of this agreement is social harmony and avoidance of conflicts. Indeed, for people who score high on this scare, getting along with other is an extremely important. In order to achieve this, they become generous, kind and helpful. In addition to that, whenever there is a conflict that can be solved with a compromise, there people are likely to choose to reach a compromise rather then contribute to development of a conflict by standing firm on their position. This particular trait is able to define the style of leadership that a person is likely to present. Thus, one would make no mistake that a person with high agreeableness will surely become a transformational leader, rather than a transactional one. Neuroticism Some of the traits which were analyzed before may be considered to be social ones as they primarily deal with interaction with other people. However, neuroticism puts emphasis on a completely different concept: the tendency of a person to experience emotions that are negative. In other words, while people who score high on openness, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness are perceived as positive individuals, those with high neuroticism score are often unhappy and depressed. These people think that the experience that they are likely to gain will probably be negative and, therefore, they might refrain from it. Furthermore, they perceive a small failure as a big obstacle and their mood changes to bad in a split second. That is the primary reason why they feel anxiety all the time. One should also point out that because of vulnerability to negative emotions these people tend to develop small resilience to stress. Finally, it is important to differentiate neuroticism from being neurotic. The latter term is used in psychology in a slightly different meaning. In order to avoid any misunderstanding, one might use phrase “emotional stability” instead. Conclusion Having examined all the evidence which was brought up in the paragraphs above, one might come to the following conclusion: Big Five personality traits compose a set of variables that might be used to describe personality of a person with a rather objective point of view. One should note in particular that this is not some kind of a theory that was developed by a single person and is enhanced by his or her reputation, but it reflects findings of researcher which were carried out independently and at different times. That is why there is no doubt that the idea behind it is the correct one. It is suggest that personality of a person may be evaluated according to the following five aspects: openness to new experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. References Daft, R., & Lane, P. (2005). The leadership experience (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: Thomson/South-Western. Gilbert, D. (1991). Personality, social skills, and psychopathology: An individual differences approach. New York, NY: Plenum Press. Schermerhorn, J. (2009). Exploring management. 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Read More