The Five Characteristics In The Big Five Personality Test

Every human being is unique. With different walks of life, background, race, culture and religion, it makes up different personalities in each individual. There are many kinds of personality tests that are being developed by researchers to have a better understanding of an individual’s personality. One of the most common taxonomies in personality research is The Big Five Personality Test. In general, The Big Five Personality Test has five major factors of personality traits which are the openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).

The first major factor of a personality trait in The Big Five Personality Test is the openness to experience. The factor openness to experience

Conscientiousness is associated with being orderly, organized, productive and efficient. Conscientiousness people are goal-oriented and they plan well in striving toward their missions (Costa & McCrae as cited in Dollinger, 1995). Besides, high-conscientious individuals tend to trust more that they are doing well than they truly are (Colquitt & Simmering, 1998). People high in conscientiousness are talented, proficient, and thoughtful (Costa, McCrae & Dye, 1991). Therefore, a person who is highly competent and motivated towards excellence is more inclined to lead others and shows leadership qualities (Costa et al., 1991). Costa et al. (1991) also claimed that the proneness to maintain the environment’s cleanliness and well-ordered is closely related to Order. High-conscientiousness people have the willingness to obey orders out of their duty. Low conscientious also interrelated with low self-discipline. People who have low self-control have the tendency to procrastinate their tasks and end up with vexation (Costa et al., 1991). In addition, people with high conscientiousness are foresighted, dedicated and diligent while people with low conscientiousness are impulsive, unstructured and more

Unlike extraversion which possess positive emotions, neuroticism people often encounter negative emotions. Neuroticism is also known as emotional instability. Self-esteem and sense of security are some of the main traits in neuroticism. As claimed by Costa and McCrae (1980), under neuroticism, there are negative attributes such as being moody, frustration, guilt, irrational concerns and uneasiness. Costa and McCrae (1980) found that neurotic features influence one more severely than one’s trouble, but not necessarily lessen one’s happiness. When there are some stressful events, the level of distress between high and low neuroticism people may be equal on the day it occurs but individuals high in neuroticism may experience anxiety longer than the low neuroticism individuals (Bolger & Schilling, 1991). King (2008) stated that emotional stability surge starting from the early stage of young adulthood to middle