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Big five trait theory of personality essay
The strengths and weaknesses of trait theory
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Relating The “Big Five Traits” To The Personality of Person x A person’s personality has been the subject of psychological scrutiny for many years. Psychologists have drawn up several theories in an attempt to accurately predict and determine one’s personality. Foremost amongst these, is the “Big Five Trait Theory” which stemmed from Raymond B. Cattell’s theory. Raymond B. Cattell (1906-1998) studied the personality traits of large groups of people, calling the visible features of their personalities “surface traits.” During his studies, Cattell observed that certain “surface traits” would appear simultaneously in individuals. When Cattell noticed this trend occurring frequently he renamed the group of “surface traits” “source traits”. At the conclusion of his research Cattell identified sixteen “source traits.” Later research attempted to reduce Cattell’s sixteen “source traits” to five universal personality dimensions resulting in what is now known as “The Big Five Personality Factors.” (Costa & McCrae, 2006; Noftle & Fleeson, 2010) “The Big Five Trait Theory” is based on the five broad dimensions of one’s personality which according to Jason Rentfrow (PH. D) was “uncovered” after “decades of research on personality.” The Big Five Theory is a useful tool to create a personality profile for a particular individual. By analysing a person using The Big Five Traits of extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism one can determine an individual’s basic personality profile. In terms of The Big Five Trait Theory, an individual with a high level of extraversion is thought to display dominant behaviour as well as good leadership skills. The individual focusses their psychic energy on things that are external... ... middle of paper ... ...fth Edition ed.). Cengage Learning. Dennis Coon, J. O. (2012, 2009). Introduction to Psychology: Active Learning Through Modules (12th Edition ed.). Wadsworth: Cengage Learning. Hamilton, D. D. (2010, December 8). What is Your Favorite Celebrity’s Personality Type? See How Your Personality Compares to Theirs. Retrieved February 26, 2014, from Dr. Diane Hamilton: http://drdianehamilton.wordpress.com/tag/the-big-five/ 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/ Measuring the Big Five Personality Domains. (n.d.). Retrieved March 6, 2014, from uoregon.edu: http://pages.uoregon.edu/sanjay/bigfive.html Paris Hilton Bibliography. (2008). Retrieved March 3, 2014, from IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0385296/bio
Over several decades, independent streams of systematic research into personality traits have converged on the same general conclusion: the domain of personality attributes can be described by five superordinate constructs (Digman, 1990). These five general, robust factors of personality are now called the “Big Five” and subsume as well as abstract, more specific personal attributes, dispositions, habits and behaviours as a framework (cf. Digman, 1990; MCRae and Costa, 1989; Wiggins and Pincus, 1992). The five global traits in this frame work are: (1) Extraversion, described by a need for stimulation, activity, assertiveness, and quantity and intensity of interpersonal interaction; (2) Agreeableness, represented
Our book was divided into different chapters on various theorists and explained the major theories of personality that were proposed by the different psychologists. One of the theories that we learned about was the trait theories. Gordan Allport introduced the trait theory and his theory suggested that individual personalities are primarily composed of broad dispositions’. Eysenck’s three dimensions of Personality was also a part of the trait theory. Eysenck developed that model of personality upon three universal trails. And at last, the trait theory had the Big five dimensions which proposed that there are give basic dimensions of personality. One of the four conclusions in our textbook suggested that “until more unambiguous empirical research is available, the best one can do is to evaluate the various theories personally, and to accept concepts that make sense and reject those that do not”(531).
After Allport, came along two psychologists, Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck, who each formulated their own theories regarding traits. Their theories have been the subjects of considerable research in the world of psychology. Cattell seemed to focus on far too many traits, while Eysenck seemed to focus on too few. As a result, psychologists have combined the two theories to make one satisfactory theory (Cherry), called “The Big Five Factors” (Myers). They are: conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion. These five factors merge to create the human personality (Cherry). Where people fall into these factors s...
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The reason that I choose the “Big Five” personality traits, as the concept that I would research is because my educational background is in psychology. When I was an undergraduate student, I took courses in personality as well as courses in psychological testing and assessments, and the personality tests were my favourite out of all the tests that we were taught to administer. I found the results to be especially interesting and I thought it would be interesting to see how psychological concepts can be applied to organizations and the workplace.
Gosling, S. D., Rentfrow, P. J., & Swann, W. B., (2003) A very brief measure of the Big-Five personality domains. Journal of Research in Personality, 37, 504-528. Doi: 10.1016/S0092-6566(03)00046-1
Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2009). Personality traits. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Mccrae, R. R. and Costa Jr, P. T. 1997. Personality trait structure as a human universal. American psychologist, 52 (5), p. 509.
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.
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
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
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.
In order to distinguish and explain what makes a person’s personality, theorists have provided ten different perspectives. Some theorists believe that a person’s personality is substantially based on qualities originating from ancient times, calling this theory the “trait perspective”. There have also been hypotheses on