The Big Five Theory: The Five Characteristics Of Personality

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The Big Five Theory is a theory that we have 5 traits that make up our personality, them being Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism and Openness to Experience. The Big Five Theory is an interesting and intelligent take on personality, but raises some questions. What research findings led to the decision of the 5 traits of personality that make up the Big Five? Five traits is a minimal amount to explain personality, but there is reasoning behind why only five make up this theory. Five traits were hand selected for the Big Five. But is there really in fact five traits that make up this theory? Another question that raises some thought is Can the Big Five Theory accurately predict one’s personality? There are many theories …show more content…

The five traits that make up the Big Five Theory are Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience. Extraversion is linked to the habit of experiencing positive emotions. The category of extraversion includes assertiveness, talkativeness and sociability. Neuroticism is linked to the habit of experiencing negative emotions. Extraversion includes feelings of anxiety, self-consciousness, and irritability. Having low self-esteem would give you a high score in Extraversion in a personality test. Agreeableness is one’s care towards another, their concern for their needs, wishes, and rights. If a person is high in Agreeableness they would be polite and compassionate, if they are low in Agreeableness they would be unsympathetic and possibly aggressive. If a person is Agreeable, they cherish a good understanding of others emotions and what people seek out to do in their lives. Conscientiousness is the ability to conform to rules and self-efficiency. Conscientious people are self-disciplined, keep things in order, and don’t get distracted and keep themselves on track with their goals. Openness includes traits such as imagination, intellectual engagement, and aesthetic interest (Deyoung, 2010). Open people are appreciative of adventure, emotion, curiosity, unusual ideas, art and …show more content…

Very little of the research has been published in a proper form, it has solely been published in research journals. There are several other weaknesses to the Big Five. The five factors are unbiased. Negative connections appear between Neuroticism and Extraversion, for example, suggesting that those who are more likely to experience negative emotions are often less talkative and outgoing. The big five simply does not explain all of personality. Some psychologists feel that their are traits that are missing, such as Religiosity, Manipulativeness, Honesty, Conservativeness, Masculinity, Femininity, and Sense of humour. The five factor solution is not consistent, because different choices of traits are made by different analysts. What makes a good personality test is reliability and validity. The MBTI test, which is a personality test that tests the Big Five, failed to be both reliable and valid. A study found that after a five-week gap between tests, half of the people got a new type the second time (Borelli, 2017). If a person is looking to find out what personality type they are, they aren’t going to find it by taking the MBTI test. In general, a person isn’t going to discover the real them by taking an online personality

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