THE BIG FIVE FACTOR

What is Personality?
Sum of total ways in which an individual
reacts and interacts with its
surroundings and others.
Stable set of striking characteristics,
responsible for persons identity.

Heredity

PERSONALITY
DETERMINANT
S

Environme
ntal factors

Situations
Conditions

 These were the few famous people whom may

know by name but will remember them by their
personalities.

In order to study the

personality traits, describing
an individuals behavior,
categorization, a model was
developed called , Big Five
Personality Model.

What are traits?

Traits are consistent patterns of thoughts,
feelings, or actions that distinguish people
from one another.
Traits are basic tendencies that remain
stable across the life span, but
characteristic behaviour can change
considerably through adaptive processes.
A trait is an internal characteristic that
corresponds to an extreme position on a
behavioural dimension.

 Allport, Norman and Cattell were influential in formulating

this taxonomy which was later refined.
Allport compiled a list of 4500 traits. Cattell reduced this
list to 35 traits.
Others continued to analyze these factors.
Although many researchers have studied these five factors,
the two leading proponents today are Paul Costa Jr. and
Robert McCrae.
Big Five model of personality asserts that there are five
basic factors of personality.
The five factors originally were developed from factor
analysis of the words people use in everyday language to
describe personality, the lexical approach to personality.

The Big Five

The big five model isbased on common
language descriptors of personality (lexical
approach)
Many similar habits taken together forms a
trait. Again many similar traits when taken
together forms a Factor or a type.
The big five factor model describes
personality in terms of five factors.
These factors lead to an individual to act in
a certain way in a given situation.

conscientioune
ss

Openness

Extroversio

to
experiences

OCEA
N
Neuroticism

Agreeablenes
s

Psychologists have conducted numerous tests to give

scores and classify people under different personalities .
Such one test is given at the end of this presentation.

Extraversion
The first factor,
Extraversion, has
also been called
dominancesubmissiveness, and
surgency.
Energy, surgency, and
the tendency to seek
stimulation and the
company of others

LOW
INTRAVERSION
Reserved
Timid
Quite

Extroversion

High

FACETS OF EXTRAVERSION

Gregarious
Assertive
Warmth
Active
Excitement-seeking
Positive emotions

Extraversion has an interpersonal component and is strongly

related to positive affect such as being enthusiastic, energetic,
interested and friendly.
Extraverts show less anxiety over negative feedback.
It has long been noted that Extraversion is associated with

Extraversion
Ask an extravert what he or she values in life, and
the answer will often be cheerfulness and an
exciting life.
They interacted with more people than did those
low in extraversion; they also reported having more
control and intimacy in those interactions.
Their peers consider extraverted people to be
friendly, fun-loving, affectionate, and talkative.
So extraverts are highly motivated to seek social
situations and to be dominant in those situations.
Extraverts are motivated by change, variety in their
lives, challenge, and are easily bored.

Agreeableness

A tendency to be
compassionate and
cooperative rather
than suspicious
and antagonistic
towards others

LOW (Antagonism)

HIGH
Agreeableness

Cold
Disagreeable
Antagonistic

FACETS OF AGREEABLENESS
Trust
Straightforwardness
Altruism
Compliance
Modesty
Tender-mindedness

Agreeableness, which is sometimes instead called Social Adaptability or Likability,

indicates a friendly, compliant personality, one who avoids hostility and tends to go along
with others.
The agreeableness scale is linked to altruism, nurturance, caring and emotional support
versus competitiveness, hostility, indifference, self-centeredness, spitefulness and jealousy.
Agreeable people can be described as altruistic, gentle, kind, sympathetic, soft-hearted
and warm.

Agreeableness
They value being helpful, forgiving, and loving.
They report little conflict in their interpersonal
relationships, when conflict occurs, it reduces their
self-esteem.
Agreeable individuals tend toward conformity in
groups, toward modesty, toward not being
demanding, and toward being sympathetic.
These individuals might be motivated toward helping
others and toward pro-social behaviour in general.

Conscientiousness

A tendency to
show selfdiscipline, act
dutifully, and aim
for achievement

LOW
(Lack of Direction/

Conscientiousness

Undirectedness)

HIGH

Easily Distracted
Disorganized
Unreliable

FACETS OF conscientiousness
Competence
Order
Dutifulness
Achievement striving
Conscientiousness, also called Dependability, Impulse Control, and Will to
Self-discipline
Achieve
Deliberation
Conscientiousness is a measure of goal-directed
behaviour and amount of control
over impulses.
Conscientious people value cleanliness and ambitiousness

Conscientiousness

It has been linked to educational achievement and particularly to the will to

achieve.
The focused person concentrates on a limited number of goals but strives
hard to reach them, while the flexible person is more impulsive and easier
to persuade from one task to another.
Described by their peers as well organized, punctual, and ambitious
The student who has a neat notebook and list of assignments and who
keeps up with reading and completes work on time would score high on
Conscientiousness. Conscientious students are generally motivated to
achieve; they achieve high grade point averages.
School and many other settings reward conscientious individuals,
contributing to their generally high self-esteem
Conscientiousness also relates to family relationships and health behavior.
Young married people who score high on Conscientiousness are less
susceptible to sexual infidelity than those who score low
The more conscientious a person is, the more competent, dutiful, orderly,
responsible and thorough and also more satisfied with their lives.

Neuroticism

A tendency to be
compassionate and
cooperative rather
than suspicious and
antagonistic
towards others

LOW
(EMOTINAL STABILITY)

Self-Confident
Calm
Secure

Neuroticism
HIGH

FACETS OF NEUROTICISM
Anxiety
Angry hostility
Neuroticism describes people who frequently are troubled by
Depression
negative emotions such as worry and
insecurity.
Emotionally, they are labile (readily aroused) instead of stable, like their
Self-consciousness
low-scoring peers; thus, the factor, turning attention to its opposite pole
low Neuroticismhas also been called
Emotional Stability, Emotional
Impulsiveness
Control, and Ego Strength
Vulnerability
Lower scores on neuroticism also areassociated
with fewer health
complaints, are happier and more satisfied with life than those who
score high, and they are more satisfied with their marriage.

 In marriage, high Neurotics are unhappy and

dissatisfied with life. Besides difficulties in
relationships and commitment, they often suffer low
self-esteem.
It is associated with negative emotionality, such as
feeling anxious, nervous, sad, and tense.
Neuroticism tends to be viewed negatively and is
associated with negative affect, being tense and
nervous. Keep in mind that neuroticism is only one
trait that an individual has. A person could be neurotic
and conscientious which may have negative health
effects but may motivate an individual toward success
in school and work situations.

A neurotic person under high stress

levels

LOW

Openness to experience

Un-Imaginative
Inflexible
Literal-minded
Dull

HIGH

FACETS OF openness to
experience
Ideas

Experts have given this factor various names:Fantasy

Culture, Intellect, Intellectual
Interests, Intelligence and Imagination Aesthetics
Lay people recognize it by the terms artistic,
curious, imaginative, insightful,
Actions
original, and wide interests.
Feelings
Liberal values often go along with this factor
Values

They value imaginativeness, broadmindedness, and a world of beauty.

People low in Openness, in contrast, value cleanliness, obedience, and national
security

 The factor Openness to experience is perhaps the most difficult

to describe, since it doesnt correspond to everyday language as
well as the other factors
It is a measure of depth, breadth and variability in a person's
imagination and urge for experiences.
The factor relates to intellect, openness to new ideas, cultural
interests, educational aptitude and creativity as well as an interest
in varied sensory and cognitive experiences.
People with a high openness to experience have broad interests,
are liberal and like novelty. The preservers with low openness to
experience are conventional, conservative and prefer familiarity.

Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler is one of
the notable person
that have a very
unique
personality.Adolf
Hitler is apolitician
and the leader of the
Nazi
Party,
also
chancellor
of
Germany.
People
always comment that
he is a person who
cruel,
inhuman,

OPENNE
SS TO
EXPERIE
NCE

CONSCIENTI
OUSNESS

EXTRAVER
SION

He was
obsesse
d with
anger
and
anti-Jew
thought
s and
was
never
able to
see the
other
side of
paradig
m

Hitler
was
highly
motivat
ed by
his
beliefs
and was
ready to
go to
the
extremit
ies to
achieve
what he
desired

Hitler
was
extrovert
ed in the
sense of
expressi
ng is
hatred
towards
Jews, his
leadershi
p
abilities
and
social
and
communi

AGREEABL
WasE

cruel
leader
who
never
showed
sympat
hy
towards
ailing
Jews
and
even
towards
the Nazi
soldiers
who
were

NEUROTICI
SM

Hitler
was the
person
who
often
experie
nced
emotion
al
instabilit
y, and
much of
them
are
negativ
e
emotion

Bill gates

Bill
Gates
is
an
American
business
magnate,
philanthropist, investor,
computer programmer,
and inventor. Gates is
the
former
chief
executive and chairman
of Microsoft. In the later
stages of his career,
Gates has pursued a
number of philanthropic
endeavours,
donating
large
amounts
of
money to charitable
organizations
and
scientific
research

OPENNE
SS TO
EXPERIE
NCE
He was
willing to
try new
ideas and
a new
more
innovated
way of
looking at
the PC
world,
which
attributed
to his
success

CONSCIENTI
OUSNESS
With
leadershi
p of Bill
Gates,
Microsoft
was able
to
surpass
IBM
which
proves
his
achievem
ent over
the time
in
growing
the
business

EXTRAVER
SION

AGREEABL
E

Bill gates
is quiet
and
bookish
but
apparentl
y unfazed
by others
opinion of
him

He
understoo
d the
value of
partnersh
ips and
working
together
with
outside
entities to
obtain his
goal

NEUROTICI
SM
Gates is
notorious
for not
being
reachable
by phone
and for
not
returning
phone
calls. He
also
interrupts
presentati
ons of
employee
s and
made
harsh

Why should we study BIG FIVE

MODEL
As a recruiter, it helps to find the
candidates with personalities, best
matching the roles the company is
offering.
As an applicant, one can use to insight
from this model to better understand
him/herself and the type of role he/she is
most likely to enjoy and grow with.
When a person's personality doesn't fit the
job, everyone loses.

TEST

INTRODUCTION
This is a personality test, it will help you understand
why you act the way that you do and how your
personality is structured. Please follow the
instructions below. Scoring and results are on the
coming slides.
Instructions
In the table on next slide, for each
statement 1-50 mark how much you agree
with on the scale 1-5, where
1=disagree,
2=slightly disagree,
3=neutral,
4=slightly agree and
5=agree.

SCORING

Below is a graph of how other people

scored when test was offered(normal dist.)