Explain the Five Personality Traits?

Introduction: -

The personalities that we possess are complex systems of thoughts, feelings, and
behaviours that tells how we treat others and the world around us. Psychologists and
personality researchers have worked for more than one hundred years to try and make
things easier regarding personality’s complication by proposing that most people can
fit into a certain category that generally captures their preferences.

The differences between personality traits have been identified and the systems to
scientifically evaluate them have also been devised (John & Srivastava, 1999). One of
the more popular and recognized systems is called The Big Five (or the “Big 5”) that
covers these five “core” personality traits:

 Extraversion
 Agreeableness
 Conscientiousness
 Neuroticism
 Openness

Now we will briefly discuss each of the above.

Extraversion: -

Extraverts obtain their energy from interacting with others, while introverts obtain their
energy from within themselves. Extraversion includes the traits of energetic, talkative,
assertive and emotional expressiveness.

High
 Enjoy being the centre of attention.
 Likes to start conversation.
 Enjoys meeting the new people
 Has a wide social circle of friends
and contacts
 Finds it easy to make new friends
Low
 Prefers loneliness
 Feels exhausted when socialize a lot
 Finds it difficult to start
conversations
 Dislikes making small talk
 Carefully thinks before speaking

Submitted to
Sir Zia Ul Haq
  Feels energized by other people  Dislikes being the centre of attention
presence
 Say things before thinking about
them

Agreeableness: -
These are individuals, who tend to be friendly, cooperative, and compassionate. People
with low agreeableness are likely to be distant. Traits include being kind, trust worthy,
altruistic, affectionate, and sympathetic.

High
 Takes interest in other people
 Cares about others
 Feels empathy and concern for other
people
 Enjoys helping and contributing to
the happiness of other people
 Assist others who are in need of help
Low
 Takes little or no interest in others
 Doesn't care about how other people
feel
 Has little interest in other people's
problems
 Insults and dishonours others
 Influences others to get what he
wants

Conscientiousness: -
People having high degree of conscientiousness are reliable and prompt. Traits include
being organized and detail oriented.

High Low
 Spends time in preparation.  Dislike details of structure and
 Finishes important tasks in time. schedules
 Pays attention to detail  Make blunders and doesn't take care
 Enjoys having a set schedule. of thing
 Failure in returning things.
  Delays important tasks
 Failure in completion of necessary or
assigned tasks

Neuroticism: -
Neuroticism is also sometimes known as Emotional Stability. This dimension is
associated with one’s emotional stability and degree of negative emotions. People who
score high in neuroticism often experience emotional instability and negative emotions.
Traits include being moody, anxious, irritated and tense.

High Low
 Experiences a lot of pressure  Emotionally stable
 Worries about many different things  Deals well with stress
 Gets upset easily  Rarely feels sad or depressed
 Experiences dramatic swings in  Doesn't worry much
mood  Stays very calm and relaxed
 Feels anxious
 Struggles to bounce back after
stressful events

Openness: -
Those people, who are eager to learn new things and enjoy new experiences usually
score high in openness. Openness features traits like being insightful, imaginative,
adventurous and having a wide variety of interests. Those people, who are low in this
trait are more often traditional and struggle with abstract thinking.

High Low
 Very creative  Dislike changes
 Open to trying new things  Does not enjoy new things
 Focuses on resolving new challenges  Resist new ideas
 Not very imaginative and creative
  Happy to think about abstract  Dislike abstract or theoretical
concepts concepts

Conclusion: -
Individuals are usually identified in terms of having high, average, or low levels of the
five personality factors. Each factor has no relation to other factors, so someone might
be high in Extraversion and low in Neuroticism. The Big Five model can be used for
gaining a full picture of an individual by measuring up on each of the five dimensions.