Five-Factor Model of Personality - Research Paper Sample

Introduction

Having a personality test in this dynamic world is crucial as it helps one choose the right career, have a purpose, and learn to love themselves. The five models of personality are science proved assertion, which will not only help people understand themselves better but also tolerate diversity, different opinions and feeling from other people. The five-factor model was founded in the 1980s and is mostly rooted in the lexical hypothesis (Costa, & McCRAE, 1999). The lexical hypothesis maintains that the fundamental traits of individual personality with time becomes encoded in the language. The model of personality is divided into five traits.

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In this case, personality traits can be described as the pattern of feelings, behavior, and thoughts of individuals across their lifespan. The five models of principle comprise five traits, including openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, and neurotic. Through analysis and taking a test, the five personality models will help me figure out the types of traits I possess.

Five Traits

The five traits are the composition of an individual personality. For instance, extraversion, also known as surgency, is described by energetic, gregarious, and assertive behaviors. On the other hand, neurotic has to do with emotional instability characterized by irritable and mood behaviors. Openness is another trait found in the five personality models depicted by thoughtfulness and inquisitiveness (Costa, & McCRAE, 1999). Openness to experience allows an individual to take an extremely challenging assignment, whether at school or work. Additionally, agreeableness is indicated in sympathetic, kind, and empathetic behaviors. Conscientiousness is a trait described by ability to show a sense of responsibility and duty.

Traits have been fascinating to personality psychologists since they tend to explain what defines a person. The universal characteristics, including the capacity for language and the need for oxygen, says a lot about the species but little is known concerning the individual. Contrarily, transient moods, certain behaviors, and the biological details talk about an individual in detail; however, they might not allow generalizable insights. Based on the trait theory perspective, the two-level appear to produce trivia and truism alone (Costa, & McCRAE, 1999). At the same time, traits are less consistent and tend to show recurrent patterns of reacting and collectively characterize people and distinguish them from others. In the process, they permit the exploration by empirical generation about other individuals with a similar trait- how they are likely to act and react.

Trait Perspective

Like any other psychological theories, trait perspective stems from the set of assumptions concerning how people are like and what the idea of personality holds. One such speculation is that the explanation relating to behaviors should be sought in the scenarios or circumstances of life and most from explicit or karma- the previous experience. The model acknowledges the four assumptions of human nature, including Knowability, Variability, proactivity, and rationality. The four aspects tend to appear in every enterprise of research traits.

Knowability assumes that a personality is an object of the scientific study. Conversely, other humanistic and existential theories acknowledge and celebrate human freedom and the uniqueness of people. However, the five-factor model of personality maintains that there is still a lot to be learned or gained from the scientific study of personality in the groups or individuals. While scientific research does not rely on experimentation, we cannot agree that the persuasive paradigm of psychological personality must entail the unification of correlation and experimental methods.

As Costa $ McCRAE (1999) puts it, science can proceed by different methods and performs well through the procedures dictated through the nature of the problem, unlike academic fashion or prestige. Moreover, the correlation approach can be founded on natural science, especially in cross-cultural, longitudinal, and twin studies.

Rationality Assumption

The five-factor model theory is also based on the rationality assumption. Regardless of the errors or biases, the human being is capable of understanding themselves and other people. Psychology, in this case, is an unusual science (Schultz, & Schultz, 2017). While the care provider cannot ask the patient about the estimate of their red blood cell, trait personality asks people how social, irritable, or competitive they are. The physician does not expect the patient to possess such information, unlike the psychologists (Kajonius, & Johnson, 2018). Often, psychologists are in a position comfortably ask because, due to personality traits, laypersons are sophisticated judges who come up with trait language evolved to determine the social judgment. The Five-factor model hugely relies on a phenotypic level, where it tries to account for the genotypic levels and operations. While people understand that someone is arrogant, they may not know the heritability of modesty or evolutionary significance.

In McCRAE $ Costa’s (1999), Variability and proactivity is another assumption the model stems from. Variability claims that individual differs from one another in terms of psychological significance. On the other hand, proactivity holds that locus of causation of the individual action is sought in the person. People are not masters of their destinies, given the variability assumption. Individual differs in the manner they control their lives. At the same time, personality is actively involved in shaping people's lives.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the personality test is crucial because we tend to improve in issues concerning self-awareness. Career, relationship, and jobs' success are all influenced by individual personal. The five-factor model is crucial because it critically highlights people's personalities. The theory is also scientifically proven besides not being experimental. Through analysis and taking a test, the five personality models have helped me figure out the types of traits I possess. My personality is above average; as such, I can become a very successful transformational leader.

References

Costa, P. T., & McCRAE, R. R. (1999). A five-factor theory of personality. Handbook of personality, 2nd edn. Guilford Press, New York, 139-153.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284978581_A_five-factor_theory_of_personality

Kajonius, P. J., & Johnson, J. (2018). Sex differences in 30 facets of the five-factor personality model in the broad public (N= 320,128). Personality and Individual Differences, 129, 126-130. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886918301521

Schultz, D., & Schultz, S. (2017). Theories of the personality 11th edition. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Sutin, A. R., Aschwanden, D., Stephan, Y., & Terracciano, A. (2020). Five-Factor Model personality traits and subjective cognitive failures. Personality and Individual Differences, 155, 109741.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886919306816

Sutin, A. R., Stephan, Y., Luchetti, M., & Terracciano, A. (2019). Five-factor model personality traits and cognitive function in five domains in older adulthood. BMC geriatrics, 19(1), 343.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12877-019-1362-1.