The "Big Five" Personality Dimensions
Goldberg (1981, 1993)
Extroversion : activity and energy level traits, sociability and emotional expressiveness.
Agreeableness: altruism, trust, modesty, prosocial attitudes.
Conscientiousness : Impulse control, goal directed behavior.
Neuroticism : emotional stability, anxiety, sadness, and irritability
Openness: Breadth, Complexity, and depth of an individuals life.
These five dimensions have been used to account for variance in:
Academic Achievement Work Performance
Well Being Juvenile Delinquency
Modern Personality Assessment based on "Big Five" Personality Dimensions (Goldberg, Costa)
For each of the Descriptive adjective Pairings, circle the point on the scale below the pairings which you feel best represents your personality.
Example:
Honest Dishonest
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
If you feel you are a very Honest person, you might circle 1 or 2 and if you felt that you were a very Dishonest person, then you might circle 6 or 7. If you feel that your honesty depends on the situation, you might circle 3, 4, or 5 depending on your own personal belief.
(A)Sociable Retiring
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(B)Calm Worrying
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(C)Original Conventional
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(D)Conscientious Negligent
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(E)Irritable Good Natured 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(F)Sober Fun Loving
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(G)Nervous At Ease
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(H)Down to Earth Imaginative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(I)Careless Careful
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(J)Soft Hearted Ruthless
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(K)Affectionate Reserved
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(L)Relaxed High Strung
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(M)Creative Uncreative
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(N)Reliable Undependable
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(O)Rude Courteous
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(P)Aloof Friendly
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(Q)Secure Insecure
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(R)Narrow Interests Broad Interests
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(S)Disorganized Well Organized
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(T)Forgiving Vengeful
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(U)Spontaneous Inhibited
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(V)Self-pitying Self-Satisfied
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(W)Complex Simple
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(X)Self disciplined Weak Willed
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
(Y)Callous Sympathetic
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Scoring Key For Big Five Personality Measure
Extroversion-Introversion :
Items A, F, K, P, U: Items A, K, and U are reverse scored (1 = 7, 2 = 6, 3 = 5, 4 = 4)
Higher Score indicates greater Extroversion
Neuroticism (or Emotional Stability)
Items B, G, L, Q, V:
Items G and V are reverse scored (1 = 7, 2 = 6, 3 = 5, 4 = 4) Higher Score indicates greater Neuroticism (Less Emotional Stability)
Openness to Experience (or Intellect)
Items C, H, M, R, W:
Items C, M, and W are reverse scored (1 = 7, 2 = 6, 3 = 5, 4 = 4)
Higher score indicates greater Openness to Experience
Conscientiousness - Undirectedness
Items D, I, N, S, X:
Items D, N and X are reverse scored (1 = 7, 2 = 6, 3 = 5, 4 = 4)
Higher scores indicate greater conscientiousness
Agreeableness - Antagonism
Items E, J, O, T, Y:
Items J and T are reverse scored (1 = 7, 2 = 6, 3 = 5, 4 = 4)
Higher Score indicates higher Agreeableness
Research On the Big five Personality Dimensions
4 to 12 year old children and school performance
Conscientiousness & Openness to Experience was
positively correlated with GPA
Extroversion was also correlated with GPA, but to a lesser degree.
College Students and Academic Achievement
Conscientiousness positively correlated with achievement.
Employees
Conscientiousness positively correlated with both
Job Proficiency and Training Proficiency
Openness to Experience positively correlated with Training Proficiency only.
Employees and the Big Five Personality Dimensions
High Scores on Neuroticism, and Low scores on Conscientiousness and Agreeableness can be indicative of an employee who will be counterproductive.
Additionally, Sales People who score high on Conscientiousness set more goals and follow through more on the goals they set. (Compared to Sales persons rated low in Conscientiousness)
Self-esteem is negatively correlated with Neuroticism
Future Research on Big Five Personality Dimensions
Number of Dimensions : Are there 5, 6, 10, or 20 dimensions ?
Are the Big Five Culturally Specific ?
Research had been conducted in English, Dutch and German. However, these are all Western (or individualist) cultures. Will the Big Five hold up as well in Eastern (or collectivist) cultures ?
How does early development contribute to specific personality dimension attitudes ?
Research using the Big Five has even been used to help assess college tennis players and how successful they are on the first serve.
High Scores on each dimension are characteristic of the following:
High Extroversion : Someone who is outgoing, sociable, and uninhibited
High Neuroticism : Someone who has a high level of distress in their life
High Openness to Experience : Someone who is daring and imaginative, and welcomes change and challenges.
High Agreeableness: Someone who is good natured , caring, and forgiving.
High Conscientiousness: Someone who is careful, reliable, persevering, and well organized.
Next Weeks Exam
Exam #2 is on Monday, April 24th at 6 pm in Sage 3303 (regular classroom). You can begin the exam anytime between 6 and 8 pm. You will have the full class time to complete the exam. The exam is the similar in length to the previous exam and is not comprehensive.
Covers chapters 16 (Carl Rogers) and 17 (Abraham Maslow) And first ˝ of 13 (James Cattell and 16pf), and also the additional notes on the big five personality dimensions.