The Big Five Personality Traits

How schools contribute to personality development.

Anna Tunikova for peats.de and wikipedia

A conventional tool psychologists and economists use to look at basic personality traits common to all people is The Big Five Personality Traits. The Big Five describe, in shorthand, what people are like. It is a convenient way to look at human behavior, and is often used to discover, for example, what kind of employment individuals are suited for according to their personality. The personality traits that make a successful research scientist are not the same that make for a successful set designer, and anyone who has labored in 'the wrong job' understands this.

The idea is that, with all the various personalities in the world, all people, whether a cellphone sales rep in Gambia as well as a farmer in Chile, a rich old woman or a poor young man, all have personal characteristics that can be measured on these five dimensions. These five personality traits, considered to be the big ones, are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (a handy way to remember this: The first letters spell out OCEAN).

Individuals express these traits on a continuum, meaning every person can be categorized as relatively more or less open, more or less conscientious, extraverted, agreeable, and neurotic, each trait, relatively more or less.

Explained briefly, openness refers to how open an individual is to new ideas and experiences, how curious they are (I have seen some explanations relate this to basic intelligence). Conscientiousness refers to one's focus on and commitment to a task; extraversion is a way of describing how forceful one is in social situations, how comfortable one is being the center of attention; agreeableness relates to how well one gets along with others, refers to generosity of spirit, compassion; and neuroticism actually refers to emotional stability.

There is no contest in scoring high or low on these traits. One tends to extraversion or introversion; scoring high on conscientiousness makes you reliable (but maybe a little stubborn) and scoring lower means you are perhaps less reliable (but more spontaneous). Some people are more open to experience and ready for a new adventure, whereas others are less open, preferring to stay put and comfortable with routine. Some people score high on neuroticism, meaning they are susceptible to outside influences, easily flummoxed or angered, whereas others are steady rocks. The world needs all types, and the Big Five is a tool, simply a way to put a handle on concepts, give them a name, and help us categorize personal traits.

Thousands of studies done to see what sort of personality traits leaders possess reveal that leaders are generally more open, conscientious, extraverted, agreeable, and emotionally stable (i.e., less 'neurotic'). Of the five, the two traits that correlate most highly with those in leadership positions are conscientiousness and agreeableness. (Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, leaders in the military score lower on agreeableness than leaders in other arenas.) There is more than common sense in believing that successful people are generally courageous, stable, compassionate, and conscientious.

One wonders: Are personality traits fixed, something one is born with, or are they developed through education and experience? Ah, the old nature vs. nurture question, a debate which defies conclusion despite centuries of study. No one really knows how much of personality is a natural attribute, and how much is a result of environment.

Nonetheless, longitudinal studies of individuals have shown that there is some slight change in three of the five traits over time, implying that life experience (nurture) does have more influence on some of the traits than others. In the matter of personality development, two of the Big Five, openness and extraversion, are the most stable, unchanging over time, whereas three, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism, do show a modest change. (see link below)

If openness and extraversion are more a matter of nature, more stable than the others, then we should be aware that conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism might be more influenced by nurture. That means that we, as parents, educators, role models, better take them seriously. What we do makes a difference.

We think of schools as a place where kids learn math, history, language skills, the stuff of the textbooks, but we should remember that they are so much more. Of course school has an influence on personality development, and we should keep the three traits that change over time, the ones that seem to be most affected by nurture, in mind: that is  conscientiousness, agreeableness, and emotional stability.

Let's be aware of this: The best schools, and the best parents, set up opportunities that help kids learn how to stick to a task, and do their best to get the job done. They learn that showing up counts, and living their word matters. That is building conscientiousness.

The best schools and parents help children learn manners, how to get along with others, to work as a team, and feel compassion. That is developing agreeableness.

The best practice of parents and teachers helps kids be resilient when faced with challenges, to have the grit to get back up and keep running the race when they have fallen and skinned their knee, because life, after all, does go on. That builds robust emotional stability.

Schools and parents have the responsibility and the opportunity to develop successful habits and attitudes. Keeping the Big Five in mind might just help keep us on track as we design curriculum, initiate projects, and set up the parameters of activities.

© Sarah Knightwriter

*If you are curious about your own personality traits, just search 'Big Five personality test' online, and you will find plenty of ways to take an online test.

• Srivastava S, John OP, Gosling SD, Potter J (May 2003). "Development of personality in early and middle adulthood: set like plaster or persistent change?". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 84 (5): 1041–53. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.499.4124. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.1041. PMID 12757147. S2CID 14790757.