Criticism Of The Five Factor Model Of Personality

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Personality test evaluation According to the findings of the Five Factor Model of personality, I have a relatively balanced score on a number of the key traits. For example, on the continuum of extroversion versus introversion, I scored moderately high in both categories, indicating that I am comfortable being around other people and also being alone. I also scored moderate on the quality of contentiousness, indicating I am always struggling between being organized and disorganized, which is also true. I scored extremely high on agreeableness, indicating that I am basically a trusting and friendly person. In general, I believe this speaks well of my mental health. But I scored high for the trait of neuroticism, which indicates that I can be …show more content…

The first criticism is that it views personality as a universal biological construct existing throughout the ages, as something that is unaffected by culture. “In five factor-theory, the biological and psychological measures associated with the trait structures are unspecified” (Cervone & Pervin, 2013, p. 277). Personality could be a function of biology, culture or epigenetics (the ways in which genes are influenced by the environment). This means there is an open question of how much personality can change or how much it is affected by the environment based upon the way that personality is presented in the Five Factor test. For example, I might seem very introverted if I am in a social situation where I am not comfortable with the majority of the people around me while if I am in a scenario talking …show more content…

I liked the fact that ‘shades of grey’ were accepted in our responses and that I could allow for the fact that I agreed moderately or disagreed moderately with some of the responses. On the other hand, this arguably means that the test could seem accurate for just about everyone, given the ability to give ‘middle of the road’ answers to so many questions. Probably many people with relatively different personalities than myself might state that they considered themselves to be both moderately introverted and extroverted at the same time and that they were sometimes organized; sometimes disorganized. While it is true that I do not consider myself rigid or intolerant, based upon the test responses, it could also be that I see myself in a very positive light as well and lack self-awareness about my negative characteristics. The test can be very biased, in other words, regarding the subject’s perceptions of himself or herself as a social, agreeable, and open-minded

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