People often talk about personality in conversation, either calling people ‘kind’ or ‘annoying’. We often talk about having good or bad personalities, and everyone having a different personality. But what does this term actually mean?
There are many different meanings for personality used in psychology, and it varies from person to person. The definition of personality given by the APA is that ‘Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving’. Personalities are the differences between individual people. To measure these differences, psychologists like to look at different traits people have. Each person will have different traits, often on a scale. There are also many theories on how personalities should be measured and defined. This article will cover one of them, called trait theory
Trait theory
One of the main theories used when trying to measure personality is trait theory. The trait theory tries to measure personality by focusing on what is visible, as in the conscious behavior of people. What this means is that psychologists use this theory to find consistent behaviors that a person exhibits, and categorize it with a word already known to people. For example, if you see a person who often tells the truth, regardless of the situation, you could describe them as honest. However, trait theory only accounts for what is visible. It does not try to explain why that person may be telling the truth, or if this person only tells the truth to specific people. Trait theory focusing specifically on what is visible, and how a person behaves. Regardless of this person’s thought process, they would be described as honest.
Trait theory only describes traits which are already known by people. Inside of trait theory, there is the lexical theory, which states that if there is not a word to describe a behavior, then it is not substantial enough to demand attention. This way, psychologists can focus only on the more substantial parts of people’s personality rather than many of the other small aspects of behavior
Trait theory focuses on 5 specific traits that people can be defined by, all on a scale. Every person can be put on these five scales, and these are used as a way to measure a person’s personality. These 5 scales are known as conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion. All of these scales operate separately from each other, although there may be a correlation between different ones. Being one on side or another of the scales is not good or bad per se, as it depends on the situation and person to which they are presented. Many cultures have different approaches to how people should act, so it is important to recognize how one trait is not particularly worse than another.
Conscientiousness
The conscientiousness scale goes from the extreme of being careless, disorganized, or impulsive, to the extreme area of prudent, organized, and disciplined. These traits are put on a scale, and people are measured and put somewhere in the middle. People who are higher up on this scale may be the type to thoroughly organize their work stuff at home or to carefully plan any holiday they might have. Those on the bottom of the scale may be the type to take their days one at a time, and act more in the spur of the moment, rather than based on careful planning. Wherever you are on the scale, could greatly impact how similar or dissimilar you act to another person.
Agreeableness
The agreeableness scale outlines the extent to which people are willing to trust and cooperate with others. Those on the higher end of the scale would be more trusting, cooperative, or soft-hearted. Those on the bottom end of this scale would be more ruthless, suspicious, or uncooperative. When asked for help, someone at the higher end of the scale may be more likely to offer help when someone asks for it, while someone lower down in the scale may be more wary that they are being used if the person is no someone they typically know
Neuroticism
Neuroticism refers to how ’emotionally stable’ someone is. The higher on this scale someone is, the more anxious, nervous or insecure they are. People lower down on the scale are typically much more self-assured and calm. People higher on this scale will typically react very sporadically when things don’t go to plan or may be subject to very quick mood switches. People with higher neuroticism tend to be much more likely to have mental illnesses. People on the lower end of the spectrum tend to be much more calm, and much more easygoing with rapid changes, or unexpected events.
Openness
Openness refers to how accepting a person typically is of new ideas opinion, or general changes in routine. People higher up on this scale tend to be more imaginative and very open to new opinions, ideas and changes. People lower down on this scale much prefer routines and consistency. They may tend to be more conforming to what general society believes rather than personal reflection on events. In an argument, a person typically higher on the scale will more easily accept differing views than someone lower on the scale.
Extraversion
Probably the scale most of us know about, as it is talked about quite a lot. The extraversion scale outlines how sociable or energetic people are when interacting with others. People higher up on the scale tend to be much more sociable or outgoing, whereas those closer to the bottom of the scale tend to be more reserved and shy. One of the more common examples for this scale is how long someone would stay at a party. Someone higher up on the scale may stay till midnight, still having energy to socialize. Someone lower on the scale (me), might be tired by 10:00pm.
Use of the 5 scales
Using these 5 scales, psychologists try to define people’s personalities, and measure them in comparison to others. These 5 scales because it was found while sorting through the many words describing personality that many of them fit into different categories. Psychologists kept on categorizing until they ended up with 5 categories in which pretty much all personality traits could be counted.
Where do you think you stand on these 5 scales?