Is The Big 5 Theory The Best Way To Think About Personality? Essay

Guilford (1959) defines personality traits as being ‘any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another’. Subsequently, trait theory can be identified as an approach to the study of human personality. The aim of psychologists, specifically trait theorists, is to explain similarities and differences between individuals based on traits. Although numerous psychologists differ on the amount of traits that are significant, each theorist categorizes personality traits along several broad type spectrums. This assignment will focus on comparing and contrasting Eysenck’s Hierarchical Theory of Personality and Costa and McRae’s Five Factor Model (FFM), two different trait theories of personality.

Burger (2008), says that there are many theories of personality and psychologists try to explain it with their own approaches. Discussed here will be the psychoanalytic approach, the trait approach, the biological approach the humanistic approach, the behavioural/social learning approach and the cognitive approach. They were devised to search for specific patterns in behaviour and ways of thinking about these

Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from

One main goal of psychology has been established a model to describe and understand human personality. The five-factor model of personality is the most widely used model in describing personality types. The components of the Big Five are extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism.

In psychology, there are four major theories of personality: psychodynamic, trait or five-factor model, humanistic, and social-cognitive. The psychodynamic theory primarily focuses on the role of the unconscious mind. The social cognitive theory focuses on the effect of the environment on behavior and is based on theories of learning. Whereas, the humanistic theory emphasizes conscious life experiences and choices. The trait or five-factor model focuses on characteristics themselves and not the roots of personality.

I found the test results of the Big Five personality assessment to be an interesting and very accurate description of myself. After completing this assessment, I was able to analyze my personality in depth. I found this information to be helpful knowledge and provide insight about myself, as well as being crucial in examining my personality traits. The big five is also referred to the OCEAN model of personality, and stands for the main traits used to describe personalities. This acronym stands for openness to experience/intellect, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. After taking the test I was then given percentile scores that allowed me to compare myself with other people who have taken the test online as well, therefore making it a more meaningful comparison.

The Big Five Test is a compilation of 70 questioned geared towards “measuring how accurate or inaccurate the statements pertain to you.”(Wentz) This test is considered to be an objective test measuring certain traits of the individual taking it rather than states. Traits differ from states in the sense that traits are life-long characteristics; meanwhile states are temporary characteristics of an individual. This test was designed to measure the Big Five personality traits, including: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness. When you are listed as being in the higher percentiles for each of these categories, then you

Of the Big Five personality traits, I scored highest on neuroticism. I compared myself to my friend. My friend scored highest on extraversion. I scored lowest on extraversion, whereas my friend scored lowest on agreeableness. I was somewhat surprised at my results that my friend received. However, I was not surprised by my results. I am a typically anxious person, so I knew I would probably score high on neuroticism. However, I thought my friend would score higher on agreeableness. I don’t agree with some of these because I believe that my friend falls a little higher on the agreeableness, while I believe we both fall a little higher on the openness scale. I also believe there is more to a person’s personality than that.

The Big Five is a personality test based off the FFM (five factor model) which looks at the five core traits people have. The test looks at openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism and their opposites. It scales the individual to see what trait they are more likely to have based of how they act on a regular basis.

One of the ways to determine an individual’s personality is by using The Big Five Model, which began with the research of D.W Fiske (1949) followed by a numerous amount of other researchers: Norman (1967), Smith

After taking the Big 5 Personality inventory exam I have discover quite a lot about myself. From greatest to least my scores fell as followed; Agreeableness (34), Conscientiousness (32), Extroversion (30), Openness to Experience (29), and Neuroticism (25). Viewing my scores and reflecting on them I have made many discoveries and revelations about my personality that I had never considered before. Each one of the scores told me something different about myself.

The Big Five personality test was created in the 1970 's by two independent research teams. One team with Paul Costa and Robert McCrae, and the other with Warren and Lewis Goldberg. The two teams had different methods that they tested but in the end they both ended up with the same results. The results were that no matter what culture, race, or language people have their personality fits into five dimensions of personality. The five dimensions were created after reviewing lots of surveys and data analysis called factor analysis. Now, just forty years later the Big Five is one of the most commonly accepted personality models.

This paper is a comparison of three different viewpoints on the subject of personality. Carl Jung, B.F. Skinner, and Carl Rogers all had very different outlooks on what defined someone’s personality. As an added feature I have included myself as a theorist because my views are also different from the previous mentioned theorists. This paper will also look briefly into the background of each theorist because their views on life began in their childhood. Amazingly you will notice the all had similar backgrounds, but came up with completely different ways of looking at life.

The Five Factor Model or Big Five model developed by McCrae and Costa factor together personality traits into 5 major categories. Those factors were Neuroticism (worried insecure, nervous, highly strung), Extraversion (Sociable, talkative, fun-loving, affectionate), Openness (Original, independent, creative, daring), Agreeableness (Good-natured, softhearted, trusting, courteous), and Conscientiousness (Careful, reliable, hardworking, organized). (Schultz & Schultz, 2013). They are able to include most of other lower order traits accounting for specific dimensions of individual differences in personality. (Schultz & Schultz, 2013)

To understand personality there are three main aspects that must be looked at: LArsen and Buss Definition of personality, The Six Domains of knowledge of personality, and Costa and McCrae's Five Factor Theory. In this essay I will first break down larsen and Buss definition and connect it to the domains, then connect the domains to the five factor thoery (FFT).