The Big 5 Personality Traits
by Jordan Clement
The Big 5 refers to five traits of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (or the acronym OCEAN). These traits should be thought of as a continuum, each person will fall at a different point on the continuum. This is not a “you have it or you don't” kind of evaluation. An individual will either be higher or lower when discussing personality traits. When taking the assessment, an individual will answer a variety of standardized questions where they rate themselves on an array of statements or adjectives to then be scored. Scores generally remain stable for the majority of an individual's life with slight changes when entering adulthood.
Influencers of Personality
Personality develops from both biological and environmental influences. To some extent, an individual's personality is “engrained” unto them, they are born this way. Genetics play a role in personality, traits can be passed down from parent to child. Select genes are associated with traits such as neuroticism. Possessing certain genes can significantly impact sociability, predisposition to anxiety and depression, self-control, and negativity. The biological influences can be thought of as the building blocks for an individual's personality. The environmental component will build off the biological building blocks. Environmental factors include culture, geographic location, life experiences, how an individual is raised, who one surrounds themselves with, and what they are taught will affect their traits. A child who grows up in a packed household with a lot of voices may learn to keep quiet, they never had a chance to speak at home, and may score quite low on extraversion.
Openness to Experience
Openness To Experience measures how willing, open minded, insightful, and creative one is. An individual who is high in openness may see things from others perspective, will think out of the box, curious, imaginative, unconventional, enjoys variety, be independent, feel as though nothing is off limits, the world is their oyster, and enjoys adventure. An individual who is low in openness may dislike change, does not find joy in new things, is resistant to new ideas, unimaginative, dislikes abstract or theoretical concepts, skeptical of new ideas, traditional, predictable, routine oriented, and are practical.
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness measures level of organization, attention to detail, reliability, control, inhibition, and persistence of behavior to reach a goal. Individuals who are high in conscientiousness are often self-disciplined, persistent, enjoy setting plans, maintain schedules well, will keep their spaces clean, organized, meet deadlines, likes to finish tasks in advance, attentive, and detail oriented. An individual low in conscientiousness is likely to be spontaneous, procrastinate, may struggle to finish tasks, dislikes routines, is unorganized, lacks internal motivation, prefers external rewards and motivators, and is impulsive.
Extraversion
Extraversion measures the tendency and intensity that one likes to interact with their environment including components of emotional expressiveness, sociability, talkativeness, and assertiveness. An individuals who are high in extraversion are often sociable, outgoing, known as the life of the party, feel energized by social interaction, happy to be the center of attention, thrive in social settings, are not afraid to voice their opinions, enjoy meeting new people, make friends easily, are the conversation starters, and may say things before thinking. Individuals who are low in extraversion may be content in solitude, social interactions feel draining, reflective, reserved, prefer to listen, carefully think before they speak, do not enjoy small talk, are okay with sitting in silence, and may need longer periods of alone time.
Agreeableness
Agreeableness measures how individuals respond in their relationships including how they treat others, their orientation and interactions. Individuals who are high in agreeableness are kind, have a big heart, trustworthy, liked by many, helpful, cooperative, sensitive to the needs of others, altruistic, compliant, modest, sympathetic, may give in to others and disregard their own needs. Individuals who are low in agreeableness are often perceived as suspicious, manipulative, or uncooperative, may be antagonistic when interacting with others, less likely to be well-liked or trusted, little interest in others, stubborn, belittling, demanding, their way or the highway, skeptical, enjoys showing off, and unsympathetic.
Neuroticism
Neuroticism measures emotional stability, the lens that they see the world through, moodiness and how a person is to interpret a hard, difficult, or threatening event. An individual who is high in neuroticism may be more anxious, hostile, irritable, self conscious, have dramatic mood swings, be described as stressed, find it difficult to control their emotions, may experience minor inconveniences as overwhelming, little things can turn their day around for the worst, self pitying, and struggle to bounce back. Individuals who are low in neuroticism may be seen as laid back, confident, resilient, emotionally stable, handle stressful situations and chaos well, require little reassurance, self-sustained, more optimistic, experience less negative emotions such as anxiety and depression, and are self satisfied.
Why Know Your Personality?
Knowing your personality traits can promote self awareness and reflection which are necessary for personal growth. Understanding yourself including your traits, strengths, and weaknesses will help you learn what tools you already have to get you closer to your goals. An individual can learn to play to their strengths and they have also identified their weaknesses, maybe the traits they are less fond of, which can serve as the markers to know if you are progressing towards your goals. In terms of relationships, similarities with your partner are best as differences can be a major source of conflict. You do not need to have the exact same personality traits or scores however having overlap is beneficial. Knowing your personality traits can also help when selecting a job. An individual who scores quite low in agreeableness may not be a good fit for a position that involves a lot of collaboration.
As you can see, knowing how much or how little of one of the Big 5 Personality Traits can be very helpful in understanding yourself and knowing how to make the best decisions to suit your wiring.
References
Ackerman, C. E., & Nash, J. (2017, June 23). Big Five Personality Traits: The OCEAN Model Explained. PositivePsychology.com. Retrieved January 22, 2025, from https://positivepsychology.com/big-five-personality-theory/
Lim, A. G. (2023, December 20). Big 5 Personality Traits: The 5-Factor Model of Personality. Simply Psychology. Retrieved January 22, 2025, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/big-five-personality.html
Murie J. (2010). Knowing me, knowing you: personality and peer appraisal. The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 60(574), 382–384. https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp10X502001
