The Five Factors Of The Theory Of Humanity And The Study Of Personality

It is important to note how intriguing personality is and how central a role it plays in one’s everyday life. The study of personality is by no means a recent phenomenon, but rather quite the opposite: it is one of the oldest studied branches of psychology, dating all the way back to Hippocrates. The field of personality psychology has grown tremendously since then and continues to grow with substantial literature on how it interacts with other variables and such. What makes this universally relevant is that every individual has their own particular set of psychological characteristics, or traits, which defines them. Forefront in the study of personality is the five factors (also known as the Big Five) from which the personality is drawn from or condensed to: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Openness to experience can be described as how creative, intellectually curious, adventurous, and appreciative of the arts one is. Conscientiousness refers to how organized, routine, and achievement-oriented one is. Extraversion can be thought of as how energetic, outgoing, and social one is, with the opposing end of the spectrum being introversion, referring to one who prefers solidarity and is typically reserved and does not seek stimulation from being around others. The fourth factor, agreeableness, is fairly straightforward, for it can be described as the extent to which an individual is cooperative, friendly, trusting, and helpful. The final factor, neuroticism, or emotional stability, refers to the tendency one experiences negative emotions and how well one can control their impulses. For this particular interpretation of personality, I will rate my personality according to a reliab...

... middle of paper ...

...ess. Essentially, the relationship between these particular personality traits suggests that I do not tend to partake in risky behaviors. Specifically, I consider myself safe from the role high neuroticism plays in manifesting itself in extremely poor coping strategies, including alcohol and substance abuse. Concurrent with research, having high emotional stability allows for the ability to not experience stress to an extent that it is detrimental to my health, in turn lessening the risk of cardiovascular disease and the like. Although the combination of these three particular traits suggests very good health behaviors, there is still worry that arises when looking at the interplay of high agreeableness and openness to experience. Being high in both traits could possibly lend itself a hand in succumbing to peer pressure or being willing to try something “just once”.