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About Personality
"Personality" may be defined as your
emotional dispositions, especially those which govern your interactions
with other people. Research by Dr. Goldberg and others has clarified
that there are five primary personality dispositions in many Western
cultures, the "Big Five". These are all "bi-polar" traits, with
different qualities at each end. We might call them
Extroversion-Introversion, Agreeableness-Disagreeableness,
Conscientiousness-Laziness, Emotional Stability - Instability, and
Openness-Closemindedness.
These traits appear to be about 50% determined by inheritance and 50%
shaped by life experiences. They tend to stay fairly stable after about
age 30. Thus, if you are younger than 30 and have some facet scores you
don't like on the Big 5/45 test that you can take at this Web Site, you
can work at changing them. For example, I know a 21-year-old lady who
had a somewhat low score on Friendliness, a facet of Agreeableness. She
made a point to become more friendly, and did.
We may speculate as to why these particular traits are the "Big Five"
for human beings. Why not five others? And why five and not 8 or 10? How
might these five traits have helped the human race survive? We're a very
social species, working, living and playing together.
From studies I've done, business managers tend to be high on all of the
Big Five. Their extroversion helps them befriend and maintain loyalty
from others. Their agreeableness helps them resolve conflicts. Their
conscientiousness helps them work long hours and attend to important
details. Their emotional stability helps them handle stress well. Their
openness helps them embrace new ideas and adjust to changing conditions
effectively.
We can see roles for persons at the other end of each dimension. A
soldier low on agreeableness makes a tough fighter. An historian, museum
superintendent or archeologist is more likely interested in preserving
things as they were rather than discovering or creating new things. What
important roles or occupations can you think of that capitalize on a
lazy, laid back disposition rather than conscientiousness? How about low
emotional stability, a tendency to be easily upset, anxious or worried?
Is a contented forest fire lookout tower worker more likely to be an
extrovert or introvert?
There are many other interesting questions that come to mind. Why isn't
a sense of humor one of the Big Five? What are the Big Five for animals?
Conscientiousness would not be one for sloths, but would for beavers and
bees. Would "loyalty" be one for dogs, but not cats?
What jobs or roles in human society would require high conscientiousness
and high openness? Research? Teaching?
How about high emotional stability and low agreeableness. Foot soldier?
Marine? How about low emotional stability and high agreeableness? Nurse?
Or would a nurse need high emotional stability?
How about introversion, low emotional stability and high openness? A
lawyer who works alone in a law library, reviewing court decisions and
writing reports for higher courts to review?
What is your unique personality profile? For what careers does it best
suit you? To find out, take the Big 5/45 test.
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