The Big Five Personality Test
It seems that nowadays everyone is filling out online tests or magazine quizzes to figure out what type of occupation would suit them, how they should dress, how to tell if they are in a healthy relationship and so on. Knowing either someone else’s personality or one’s own is also a popular concept that is found in social media.
One of the few things that you pay attention to when meeting a stranger is the type of personality they are. If you take Professor Koestner’s Intro to Personality course the first several lectures focus on the Big 5 traits. These traits are known as the five fundamental dimensions of personality. The Big 5 Traits are Extroversion, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness.
An extrovert is someone who is social, outgoing and confident, the opposite of this is introversion. Neuroticism is someone who frequently has negative feelings and emotions, and nervous. If you are not neurotic, you are therefore, calm and relaxed. Openness to experience is someone who is open to new ideas and experiences; its contrast is close-minded. Someone who is considerate of others, who are warm and trustworthy, is considered agreeable, if not, they are disagreeable. Finally, conscientiousness is someone who is organized and goal oriented; its reverse is disorganization.
I ended up doing The Big Five Personality Test which consisted of 46 statements with answers that ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree along with other personal questions. The statements regarding the traits were specific and it is easy to figure out which statement focused on which trait. I was not surprised in the results that I received, but what was interesting was that it was presented with a percentile that showed how close I was to each trait.
I think it is a strong test in measuring the Big Five traits, however, I believe that these traits are only accurate when meeting someone new. It is easy to use, but it is not precise and accurate enough when it comes to figuring out a very close friends’ personality. It is too broad and it does not reflect anyone’s behaviour from one situation to the next. However, when it comes to personality the Big Five traits is a great way to start.
Here is the link to the test if anyone is interesting in figuring out where you fall in the five traits.
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