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The Big Five Personality Traits Essay

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The term personality refers to the various qualities an individual possesses that forge their unique character (Letzring, Wells, & Funder, 2006). It is important as it distinguishes individuals from their peers through their patterns of behaviors such as individual differences in mental, social, emotional and physical aspects (Allport, 1937). An individual’s psychological characteristics such as thoughts, feelings, motivation and they perceive the world are manipulated by their personality. The Big Five personality traits is a model based on five dimensions that provide understanding into individual personalities and perceptions of the world (Barrick & Mount, 1991). The five aspects consist of openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Openness to experience refers to elements such as creativity, intelligence, curiosity towards a diversity of interests and experiences (Ko & Lin, 2016). Conscientiousness represents volition, dependability, self-discipline and achievement-orientation of an individual (Costa & McCrae, 2008). It was found to have the most impact on employment efficiency (Barrick & Mount, 1991) as it comprises traits such as perseverance, responsibility, diligence, meticulousness and organization. According to Goddard, Patton, & Creed (2004) conscientiousness is also correlated with individual efficacy and accomplishments. Extraversion is defined by characteristics such as being enthusiastic, sociable, assertive,

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