Your personality type is a huge determining factor when it comes to how you interact with other people and the world around you. We have developed an excellent understanding of what characterises human beings, and the five-factor model is a great example of the knowledge we have of human traits.
The theory uses five broad dimensions to describe the human personality and psyche, which have been defined as openness to experience, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness and extraversion.
Understanding your personality helps you become incredibly more self-aware as an individual, preparing you well to structure your life in a way that helps you overcome your weaknesses and make the most of your strengths. It may also give you some more understanding into the motives of your behaviours.
How does the big five model characterise our personalities and explain our distinct differences?
Openness to experience
How open to new experiences are you? One of the traits is openness to experience, which defines how you react to new circumstances.
Those who are open to experience, it is said you’re curious rather than cautious. It’s sometimes said those who are more open to experience can be perceived as unpredictable or to be lacking focus, though it’s not all bad. There is also evidence to suggest those who are high in openness will be more interested in self-actualization by seeking out more intense experiences. This trait has been highly linked to intelligence (those high in openness appreciate the intellect much more and tend to seek more creative paths such as becoming a writer, artist or musician.
If you are less open to experience, you may be more conservative and consistent in your approach. Those who are more open to experience may be more spontaneous in their ideas and express themselves more creatively, they are interested in the discussion of ideas and intellectual discussion.
Learning how open to experience you are will allow you to consider how you make decisions. If you’re too spontaneous, you may want to put more thought into your decisions, whereas if you aren’t very open to experience you may want to consider how rigid you are in your thoughts and behaviour.
Conscientiousness
Have you often been described as easy-going or careless? Or perhaps people have called you controlling?
If you aren’t very high in conscientiousness, you are more flexible and spontaneous, which is seen as unreliability. If you’re a conscientious individual, you will be very orderly, self-disciplined and ensure there is a plan in your approach, which come across as stubborn or obsessive.
Conscientiousness is split into “industriousness” and “orderliness.” When looking at this trait, you may want to look at how serious you take your obligations, particularly those you have with other people. Are you too engaged, or do you often let people down too much?
Agreeableness
Do you go along with the crowd, or do you tend to defend your own position more?
People who are agreeable are seen to be kind and warm, they are empathetic by nature. The opposite could be said for those who are disagreeable.
There are lower-limit traits such as trust, compliance, modesty and straightforwardness, which make up how agreeable you are. Do you tend to hold you own ground, or do you go with the crowd?
Highly agreeable people can get themselves involved in the wrong situations quite easily, whereas highly disagreeable people may repel people due to their perceived aggressive nature. Think about how agreeable you are, and how that influences your social interactions.
Extraversion
This trait refers to the energy and how much you feel positive emotion. It’s very much defined by your assertiveness, sociability and how you are stimulated by the company of others.
Those who are extraverts are likely to be perceived as attention seekers or too dominating, and those who are low in extraversion (often referred to as introverts) are likely to be more reserved and reflective, which can be perceived as self-absorbed or aloof.
How much do you enjoy the company of other people? This will help you understand how extraverted you are. Understanding this will allow you to deepen your relationships with others tremendously, being more flexible in your approach to how extraverted you can become (or holding yourself back a little as an extravert).
Neuroticism
How sensitive are you to negative emotions? Neurotic people tend to be more prone to psychological stress, as they experience unpleasant emotions much stronger.
Anger, anxiety, depression and vulnerability are feelings we all come across in our lives. Your neuroticism defines how strongly you feel those emotions.
Those who are high in neuroticism tend to be more prone to being offended, which can make you a dynamic individual who is highly concerned for the needs of yourself and those around you but can be perceived as insecure. Those who are less neurotic tend to be seen in a positive light with their emotional stability, though can also be perceived as being particularly unconcerned.
It must also be noted that those with higher neuroticism tend to have less stable mental health.
Think about how harshly you respond to negative emotion. Are you easily upset, or are you seen as emotionally numb? These are either of the extremes, analyse where you sit in the spectrum.
There are many other models that try to explain personality, and it’s a forever evolving field of research. We don’t fully understand how dynamic we truly are as human beings, and the limits of our abilities are untold.
How does understanding your personality type help you? There are some distinct ways that I feel you can become a better functioning and more stable person by further understanding your personality type:
- The choices you make within your career
- Increase your self-awareness and emotional stability
- Improve your relationships with other people
- Make a change to the way you react to negative (or positive) emotion
- Understand the reasons behind your behaviour
- Take more responsibility for your own thought patterns and behaviours
Admit to yourself who are. Become comfortable in your own skin, and act with confidence knowing that you are unique in every way. Do you want to further your understanding of yourself and become more confident? Are you finding it hard to come to terms with your personality and how that influences how you react to the world around you? Get in touch for a free confidential phone call on 07825599340.
