Personality is defined as, “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual's distinctive character.” There are many different theories for what makes up a person’s personality. These theories are classified under 5 general categories. These categories are: biological, behavioural, psychodynamic, humanist, and trait theories. If we look at the trait theories category, two particular theories come to mind. These two theories are, “Big 5 theory” and Eysenck's “Three Traits Theory.” In this essay, I will approach the question, which personality trait perspective is the best way to think about personality? To solve this question I will compare the Big 5 theory to the Three Trait theory. The Big 5 theory is based around the five factor model. The five factors of the model and the theory are: Openness (or intellect), Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (or emotional stability). Openness is a person’s “level of creativity and curiosity.” Conscientiousness is a person’s “level of organization and work ethic.” Extraversion is the “level of sociability and enthusiasm.” Agreeableness is a person’s “level of friendliness and kindness.” And finally Neuroticism is a person’s “level of calmness and tranquility.” These 5 factors are tested by the Neo-Pi system and used to describe a personality. The Big 5 personality test is used all over the world and offered in many different languages. This is one of the most important and distinguishing factors of the theory. Because these factors can be applied all over the world it shows that personality is effected by the surrounding environment and heredity influences. The theory shows as a person ages these factors are effected. Agreeableness and Co... ... middle of paper ... ... - "DEVELOPMENT OF PERSONALITY Eysenck Personality Type Theory." Getting-in.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. . - "Eysenck's Three Traits." Open Educational Resources. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. . - Popkins, Nathan C. "The Five-Factor Model: Emergence of a Taxonomic Model for PersonalityPsychology." The Five-Factor Model. Northwestern University, Aug. 1998. Web. 10 Mar. 2014. . - Rentfrow, Jason. "The Big 5 Model of Personality | World of Psychology." Psych Central.com. N.p., 2009. Web. 07 Mar. 2014. .
The Big Five is the most widely accepted and used model of personality. The model consists of broad dimensions of personality traits. These dimensions are: Openness to Experience/Intellect, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Upon completion of the Big Five Personality test, my results were somewhat surprising to me. Overall, I scored on the low end for Openness to Experience/Intellect, Extraversion and Neuroticism dimensions and on the high end for Conscientiousness and Agreeableness dimensions.
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Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). Theories of personality (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.
Feist, J., & Feist, G. J. (2009). Theories of Personality (7th ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Personality is massive part of an individual’s identity. Our personalities dictate our patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting. An individual’s personality exposes them to predispositions and habits that influence their actions and lives. Early on, personality assessments consisted of physical features ranging from head shape and facial characteristics to body type. In today’s world, personality assessments are mainly based around traits. Traits are simply descriptions of one’s habitual patterns of behavior, thought and emotion. The most popular personality assessment is the Five-Factor Model, also known as The Big Five. This model allows us to describe people based on the five main traits/dimensions. These traits are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Each of these five traits measures a different aspect of one’s personality. Extraversion is based on one’s level of engagement with the world,
JASON RENTFROW, P. (2009). World of Psychology: The Big Five Model of Personality. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from PsychCentral: http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/11/10/the-big-5-model-of-personality/
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). Theories of personality (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage/Wadsworth.
The five-factor model includes five broad domains or dimensions of personality that are used to describe human personality. The five factors are openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. While these five traits should be sufficient on their own to describe all facets of a personality, there also should be no correlation between the main factors. The Five Factor Model is now perhaps the most widely use trait theory of personality and has achieved the closest thing to a consensus in personality research. The advantage of this theory is that there have been multiple research studies conducted on this theory. Results suggest that this theory is effective in describing and determining personality. However, this theory is very categorical and does not allow for much flexibility. It also looks at the person personality at that time and now how it developed.
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The Five-Factor Model of Personality gives an insight to psychologists when dealing with patients and test subjects. Due to this theory, research psychologist are able to research personality more accurately and uphold a better understanding when discussing the reasoning behind certain pre-disposed tendencies. Also, counselors which practice different types of therapy are enabled to learn details concerning their patient that can assist in the treatment of that specific patient. There have been multiple disputes in regards to the validity of the Five-Factor Model of Personality theory. Many skeptics believe that there are too many variations that come into play when dealing with personality in order to accurately depict and diagnose a 100% accurate declaration of ones’ characteristics (McCrae, 1991). The issue with relying on the model in order to declare one’s characteristics is that there is often overlap between the degrees of high and low (Popkins, 1998). Although this is a valid statement, the model is a significant role in sorting through the variations to achieve a probable consensus. Therefore, the model cannot achieve a result without any probable cause for doubt but generally will provide a clear depiction of ones’ traits and
Feist, J., Feist, G. J., & Roberts, T. A. (2009). Theories of personality. New York:
Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (2013). 2,5. Theories of personality (10th ed., pp. 41-84,139-158). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
The second major theory is called the trait or five-factor model. Often referred to as the "Big 5". The five personality traits described by the theory are extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness and neuroticism. Beneath each proposed global factor, a number of correlated and more specific primary factors are claimed. One strength of the trait perspectives is their ability to categorize observable behaviors. In other words, observing the behaviors of an individual over time and in varying circumstances provides evidence for the personality traits categorized in trait theories. Another strength is that trait theories use