Big Five Personality Traits Essay Example for Free

Big Five Personality Traits Essay The Big Five personality traits are extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability (or neuroticism), and openness to experience (Scholte, Van Lieshout, DeWit, Aken, 2005). The factors that are considered most important or least important would depend on who was making the evaluation and the priorities of the individual. For example, a person who valued learning or someone who needed an employee who could adapt to new circumstances quickly might say that openness to new experience was the most important factor. Another person who placed a greater emphasis on relationships, for example, might believe that emotional stability is more important. While everyone likes an agreeable person, people who are too agreeable can create problems if they simply go along with anything and do not at least occasionally think for themselves and challenge something. Trying to select the most important of these traits is like trying to choose the most important among equals. It is also interesting that Scholte, Van Lieshout, DeWit, and Aken (2005) found that the Big Five traits and their effects on adolescents are consistent across cultures. The trait that is the most applicable to me is openness to new experience. I enjoy trying new things and meeting new people. I do not enjoy doing the same thing all the time. I believe that the openness trait is closely related to the trait of extraversion. Extraverted people tend to be focused on external things, while introverts have a more internal focus. Since new things are almost always found in other people and places, then it seems that the extravert would be more likely to pursue and be open to new experiences, while the introverted person would be less likely to seek out new things in the outside world but more likely to look for new revelations within or about himself or herself. I consider myself an extraverted person who is open to new experiences. I am usually agreeable, relatively conscientiousness, and fairly stable emotionally. References Scholte, R. , Van Lieshout, C. DeWit, C. and Aken, M. (2005). Adolescent personality types and subtypes and their psychosocial adjustment. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 51 (3), p. .258-286. Retrieved April 4, 2008, from www. Questia. com database. http://www. questia. com/read/5011758638