Introduction
The purpose of this project is to assess the big five personality factors. In addition to my traits, four other individuals have been assessed to gain a clear understanding of personality traits. Psychologists have used the big five personality traits as general dimensions of assessing individuals’ personalities. The big five include openness, extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and agreeableness (Matthews, Deary, & Whiteman, 2002). A component of the big five personality factors has several other more specific personality factors. Psychologists use the big five to explore various traits in individuals.
A Summary of the Individuals’ Big Five Personality Results
Openness reflected the ability to enjoy having innovative experiences, new adventures and seeing things in new ways (Friedman & Schustack, 2011). Individuals exhibited intellectual curiosity, appreciation of arts, and willingness to explore new ideas. Not all scores were the same and, therefore, other individuals reflected simple, familiar aspects of life and often not willing to change.
Conscientiousness showed high-levels of self-discipline, professionalism, attention to detail, organization, and dependability. Individuals reflected tendencies to be dutiful and strived for excellence. Individuals’ efforts reflected this personality feature. Most scores reflected more planned behaviors instead of spontaneous ones.
Extraversion reflected relatively social behaviors and abilities to engage with others. Most individuals were enthusiastic about their social relations and displayed assertive tendencies. The extraverts also showed high-levels of engagement in their social interactions while introverts were not enthusiastic about social events, but rather reserved in social environments.
Agreeableness was demonstrated by all individuals, but with diverse outcomes. For instance, my results reflected that I am an altruistic and trustworthy person, I have high self-esteem and I consider and respect the feelings of other people. Besides, other people showed that they were generous, considerate, and helpful. They were also willing to consider others and sacrifice for the overall good while remaining optimistic.
Neuroticism or Emotional Stability results showed that I am an equable person, and I have a tendency to remain calm, even in stressful situations. Conversely, some participants showed they could experience emotional instability, anger, and anxiety in stressful situations.
Solutions for working together and the underlying principles of trait theories
Psychologists have established that work performance, attitudes, and behaviors to some extent depend on trait theories (Furnham, 2008). A working environment should meet the needs of workers who wish to explore new ways and open to experiences to avoid cases of absenteeism. Workers who are open to new experiences may choose to be absent to explore excitement outside work environments. On the other hand, agreeable workers will follow organizational rules and meet their social obligations at work. Thus, working with people of various traits should account for diverse personality traits.
Conflict resolution models can help employees to curb negative emotions, anxiety, and anger to attain their goals. A working environment must have mechanisms to control emotional labor, including their various forms – deep (strive to change real emotional experiences) and surface (display a different emotion from the actual one). Neuroticism, for instance, may display elements of surface emotional labor.
This tendency could result in burnout and exhaustion at work because the suppression of actual feelings is difficult to sustain. Conversely, agreeable and open employees tend to act deep and, therefore, such employees are most likely to strive to reflect organizational expected behaviors (Flynn, 2005). Besides, they are most likely to display actual compassion for colleagues and customers because they express their actual emotions toward others (Kiffin-Petersen, Jordan, & Soutar, 2010).
A synopsis of the reliability and validity of personality measurements and accuracy of the results
The reliability and validity of personality measures have been established globally. Across various regions, researchers have often identified the big five factors, and these outcomes have been used for several decades now.
However, the big five measures have serious drawbacks because of self-reports and subjective responses. The nature of the tests and short lengths normally affect the reliability and validity of results. Thus, participants are most likely to falsify responses. Respondents preferred to choose more desirable personality traits to reflect their behaviors. Moreover, the contents of the personality tests are limited in scope and inadequate in length and, therefore, are not effective for assessing personality traits effectively.
Some respondents, for instance, noted that some of the limited choices provided did not account for other unique primary factors under the model. Traits such as sexiness, risk-taking, honesty, and religiosity among others were not included in the model and, therefore, it is difficult for the model to account for diverse human personality attributes. Further, the measures failed to explore other deeply rooted traits, which cannot be easily observed.
Overall, the respondents noted that the tests could not adequately cover all the unique diverse attributes they possess. Specific descriptors and clustering of results were could not meet individuals’ personality traits.
Conclusion
The purpose of this project was to assess the big five personality factors. It showed that the big five personality traits were common across individuals. Also, they tend to provide similar outcomes clustered together. These personality attributes were important, especially in workplaces where people with diverse traits are found. Hence, employers can leverage personality trait results to create better workplaces that account for individual differences.
References
Flynn, F. (2005). Having an open mind: The impact of Openness to Experience on interracial attitudes and impression formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(5), 816-826.
Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2011). Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Furnham, A. (2008). Personality and Intelligence at Work. London: Routledge.
Kiffin-Petersen, S. A., Jordan, C. L., & Soutar, G. N. (2010). The big five, emotional exhaustion and citizenship behaviors in service settings: The mediating role of emotional labor. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(1), 43-48.
Matthews, G., Deary, I. J., & Whiteman, M. C. (2002). Personality Traits (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.